A little while back the web development blogs were abuzz with Microsoft’s announcement that IE 8 will, by default, render in IE7 mode, so as not to “break the web.”
I also had a post on the implications of that meta switch.
Well, it seems that the IE team have decided to change that decision, and decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can.
The reasons cited were to match Microsoft’s recently published interoperability principles, and due to developer community feedback.
It seems that legal concerns may have also been a factor.
Rather than go through all those issues here, have a look at these for more information:
- Microsoft Spins IE 8 Rendering Changes, Microsoft Watch
- Principles and Legality, by Eric Meyer (see also the interesting comment by Matt Wilcox in the comments thread)
It certainly seems like a welcome switch. If nothing else, Matt Wilcox made an interesting observation in the link above, that if this happens, Microsoft will be able to get a good set of stats on who actually decided to opt out and go for the IE7 rendering mode, and this may help inform a better and more accurate decision for IE9.
Are there any catches, or is this a welcome decision?
Update: Looks like a whole new raft of features coming in IE8 — some of them are playing catch up with other browsers, while other things seem new. (Interesting that they are increasing parallel HTTP connections to 6 per host, not just 2. Hope other browsers do similar things…!) Are we finally seeing innovation with IE again?
