Internet Explorer 8 is out of beta and the final version is available! It actually became available today at noon ET.
On the
IEBlog, they state that IE8 will comply more with web standards. Internet Explorer’s development team actually worked closely with the
Web Standards Project. Which is huge for web developers, because many web developers have to use CSS hacks or javascript to get around the IE browser bugs.
Microsoft could be moving in the right direction by adding a new optional mode called “super standards” that supposedly will balance backward compatibility with web standards. It will be enabled by a simple “meta” element. Which could make web developers job a bit easier.
Also, I read some of the reviews and according to Microsoft, IE8 “is one of the fastest browsers on the market today…”. But then most of the reviews contradicted Microsoft's statement by saying they haven’t seen much of a difference in speeds.
The comments from the IEBlog offer some enlightening perspectives. Here are a couple:
Sami wrote “I'd prefer having the superstandards mode on by default. Let the user switch to quirks mode, if the page is not displayed. IE7 gives an enormous warning about invalid ssl certificates, why not to do the same about invalid markup?”
Mo wrote “Congratulations, it's definitely the best solution for the time being. But what makes me afraid is the fact that you don't see it as a temporary solution for IE8, but even want other browser vendors to adopt it. Which would mean you're breaking the web, but in another way. Please let this be a solution only for IE8. As soon as 90% of all pages on the web are standards compliant, release IE9, which will only have one rendering engine: the most standards compliant one.”
Personally, I am a supporter of Firefox because of its speed and compatibility with web standards, but I am going to give the final version of IE8 a whirl and see how I like it.