Let me say from your outset that I used to be not a fan of Opera Software program;s antitrust sabre-rattling a number of months back over Microsoft;s lack of requirements compliancy with its browser. But Opera;s newest complaints about World-wide-web Explorer (IE) 8 make Opera look even extra like a enterprise that;s gone off the deep end.Hakon Lie,
Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2007, the Chief Technology Officer of Opera, airs a number of his dissatisfaction with how the new beta of Microsoft;s IE eight handles the breaking of Web pages. Lie complains that Microsoft has compatibility mode turned on by default for Intranet web-sites (not Online ones,
Office Standard 2007 Key, thoughts you). with IE eight Beta 2. And he actually hates the breaking page icon that Microsoft displays next to the IE eight address bar; he proposes the Acid-test smiley experience instead.From Opera;s e-mail to me on August 29:IE 8 “breaks with Microsoft;s promise - made just six months ago - to support Web standards by default.“At issue here is the ‘Compatibility View Settings; where all Intranet pages are set to display in compatibility mode. Microsoft is apparently fighting off other browsers from making inroads into the enterprise market.”I,
Office 2010 Home And Business Key, for one, am glad that Microsoft defaults to standards mode with IE 8 for public-facign Internet pages. Microsoft does it in a way that isn;t punishing users who browse non-IE-8-compliant web-sites or developers who have not updated their websites to handle Microsoft;s next-generation browser,
Windows 7 Discount, which is expected to ship this November. If you hit a site that looks or behaves badly with IE eight Beta two, you can hit the compatibility-view icon (which looks like a broken page, clueing users in about what the icon does).If Microsoft defaulted towards the far more standards-compliant mode with IE 8 without providing a way for users to continue to use non-updated web-sites,
Office 2010, there;d be mutiny. Why should users or Internet site owners be punished for the fact that Microsoft originally broke standards compatibility with IE and is now trying to undo that damage for whatever reasons — fear of losing market share, complaints from angry users and developers, or just because it;s the right thing.Opera is portraying Microsoft;s handling of standards mode as the business being up to its old tricks. But I suspect Opera;s real reason for wanting IE eight to break pages is so that users will throw their hands up in disgust and abandon IE for some other browser.What do you say? Do you think Opera;s complaints have merit? If so, what do you think Microsoft should do to tweak IE eight before it ships?