Microsoft says that Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) now has three rendering modes, “one that reflects Microsoft’s implementation of current Web standards, a second reflecting Microsoft’s implementation of Web standards at the time of the release of IE7 in 2006, and a third based on rendering methods dating back to the early Web”.
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, (a post previously held by Bill Gates himself) said that: “Our initial plan had been to use IE7-compatible behaviour as the default setting for IE8, to minimize potential impact on the world’s existing Web sites. We have now decided to make our most current standards-based mode the default in IE8”.
Could the following comments of Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, be an indication that Microsoft is taking notice of the US and European regulatory authorities?
“While we do not believe there are currently any legal requirements that would dictate which rendering mode must be chosen as the default for a given browser, this step clearly removes this question as a potential legal and regulatory issue”.
Weight is lent to this notion when you consider that last week, European regulators fined Microsoft 1.4 billion euro for not adhering to their 2004 ruling that Microsoft was in breach of their competitive regulations and the actions Microsoft promised they would undertake to resolve the issue.
Opera recently filed an antitrust complaint to the European Commission over Microsoft's dominance. In addition to requesting that Microsoft be forced to unbundle its browser from Windows, Opera also asked that the company be forced into "fundamental and open" standards. If IE came close to rendering things the same way as Opera, Firefox, and Safari (none of which are perfect, of course), then web developers of the world wouldn't have such a headache on their hands when creating new sites.
The one shortcoming with Opera's antitrust complaint is that Firefox has made significant headway against Microsoft. Firefox has managed a huge surge in popularity where Opera has failed over the last 10 years, demonstrating that it is possible to make inroads against IE's dominant position.
Time will tell if Microsoft live up to their talk with IE8, and whether we developers will have an easier time with developing websites compatible with multiple browsers.
Tags: Firefox, IE8, Internet Explorer 8, Opera standards
