Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8

Our initial thinking for IE8 involved showing pages requesting “Standards” mode in an IE7’s “Standards” mode, and requiring developers to ask for IE8’s actual “Standards” mode separately. We made this decision, informed by discussions with some leading web experts, with compatibility at the top of mind. In light of the Interoperability Principles, as well as feedback from the community, we’re choosing differently. Now, IE8 will show pages requesting “Standards” mode in IE8’s Standards mode. Developers who want their pages shown using IE8’s “IE7 Standards mode” will need to request that explicitly, using the http header/meta tag approach.

[Not FOSS news but important news nonetheless. Microsoft's original plan that would have locked us into a browser-specific web a la 1994 can be found here. - Sander]