Today I was truly 100% blown away, a move I would never expect flashed up in my face when I read the news;
IE8 is going to render webpages with standard mode on by default!
This is just so cool I don't even know where to start celebrating this fact. For those of you who don't know what the question is, let me briefe you up on the subject.
IE8 is according to Microsoft a pretty decent browser in regards to complying against standards. IE8 will according to rumors from Microsoft render the Acid tests 100% perfectly which is something previous browsers from Redmond never have been even close to. The Acid tests are two very detailed tests which verifies whether or not a browser is standard compliant, and to render them perfectly is a proof of having a standard compliant web browser. The above image was part of a press release Microsoft gave out a couple of months ago as proof of taking HTML standards seriously.
Though as all good news, at the same time Microsoft said that the "standard mode" in IE8 would NOT be on by default. In fact they wanted web-developers to add up special non-standard meta tags in the head section of the webpages they wanted IE8 to render in "standard mode". And their reason was that they didn't want to "break the web".
Breaking the web is a very good excuse for not rendering in standard mode by default since very many websites in the world today are created around IE6 and IE7 bugs. And since those browsers are so bad that they cannot even render anything even remotely close to the HTML standards the web is today basically "broken". IE has also had the largest market share historically, which have made most websites created so that they openly break the standards in order to render good according to IE instead of rendering good according to the standards. But sometimes the way forward starts with a couple of steps backwards...
So Microsoft's fear was that by turning on standard mode by default, a lot of websites in the world would "break". This is a very valid argument and it is very difficult to argue against. Though I and many others have been strong believers in that it is the right thing to so!
Today Microsoft announced that the standard mode for IE8 will be on by default.
This is the right thing to so! This is so cool of Microsoft to do, this is a day of glory and happiness for the entire world in fact. This is a proof of that Microsoft are able to do "the right thing" even though it definitely will have the capacity to affect their short term revenue.
I'd like to take the opportunity to congratulate the entire Microsoft IE8 team on this move. I have earlier written several
critical blogs about Microsoft in regards to their strategies of de-commoditising protocols etc. And I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Microsoft into the standard world and the world of commoditisation of protocols, the web and IT in general which is of outmost importance to make IT accessible to also the third world countries in this world which by far could really need an information lift and help to gain access to the information we take for granted in the "developed world".
My only concern though is that it might be a "temporary moment of insanity" from Redmond instead of signifying a real change in course for Microsoft. But today is a day of celebration! Microsoft truly DID do the right thing here. Not only for themselves, but also for the world at large!
A small step for Microsoft, a big step for the world!Great move Microsoft and congratulation from the entire Gaia Ajax Widgets team :)Good work, please give me more stuff I can openly brag about in regards to your decisions. Hint; ODF versus OOXML would also get its own Halleluja blog from me here ;)