14 DAY TRIAL // This is it! The Internet Explorer 8 Genie is out of the bottle. Microsoft has officially confirmed the fact that it is dogfooding early development milestones of the browser. But at the same time, The Redmond company has done much more. It has actually managed to let the users halve a sneak peak into the efforts poured in IE8. At this point in time, Microsoft is only ready to applaud the high level of interoperability that is coming to Internet Explorer 8. In this context, Dean Hachamovitch, IE General Manager revealed the fact that the IE8 build released internally on December 12th rendered the "Acid2 Face" correctly, passing the test represented by Acid2. Hachamovitch also announced that the first beta of IE8 would be dropped by mid 2008.
"For IE8, we want to communicate facts, not aspirations. We're [offering] this information now because we have real working code checked in and we're confident about delivering it in the final product. We're listening to the feedback about IE, and at the same time, we are committed to responsible disclosure and setting expectations properly. Now that we've run the test on multiple machines and seen it work, we're excited to be able to share definitive information. (...) We will have a lot more information available at sessions at MIX08 and will release a beta of IE8 in the first half of calendar 2008", Hachamovitch stated.
The forthcoming availability of Internet Explorer 8 was conformed by Nick White, Microsoft Product Manager. "Today Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch [talked] about an important milestone in the development of the next version of Internet Explorer, IE8. As of last week - 12 December, to be exact - the latest build correctly renders the Acid2 browser test in IE8 standards mode. As Dean points out, this is just one of many milestones ahead for Internet Explorer 8 and we can expect to hear more as further progress is made. IE8 will be at MIX08, with a beta release due sometime in the first half of 2008", White stated.
What does this mean? Well, first of all, in the first half of 2008, you will have yet another release to look forward to in addition to Windows Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP SP3. In addition, MIX08, just as MIX06, has the real chance to be focused on Internet Explorer. MIX06 was centered on IE7, but it was not the debut of a tradition over at Microsoft, as MIX07 obsessively dealt with Silverlight. MIX08 will be held at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas between March 5th and March 7th, 2008. And IE8 is bound to be the indisputable star.