14 DAY TRIAL // I had a chance to ask H?kon Wium Lie, Chief Technology Officer of Opera Software, a few questions about the recent Microsoft commitment to supporting Web standards with Internet Explorer 8, about the antitrust complaint filed with the EU Commission and what are the next steps the Redmond company needs to take with IE8. Below you will be able to find H?kon Wium Lie's answers.
1. Could you please comment on the following announcement from Microsoft regarding the standards mode in Internet Explorer 8: Microsoft Expands Support for Web Standards, available here?
We think it's good news for the web that Microsoft backs down from a proposal that caused a firestorm from the web community. IE8 will now, it seems, be able to render standards-compliant documents more correctly than we feared before the announcement. Exactly how standards-compliant IE8 will be remains to be seen. For example, will IE8 pass the Acid2 test in its default settings? We don't know; Microsoft seems not to use the word "Acid2" and "pass" in the same sentence.
2. Will this influence in any way Opera's position and antitrust complaint against Microsoft filed with the EU Commission?
The recent announcement is part of a greater landscape, namely web standards. It's good that IE will show more documents in standards mode, but this change is hardly enough to give users a genuine choice of standards-compliant browsers. At Opera, we will continue the work to ensure that the web of the future is built on open standards.
3. Brad Smith, Microsoft senior vice president and general counsel, said: "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." Do you believe that by making the standards mode the default in IE8, Microsoft is off the hook in respect to making its browser fully standards compliant, from the Commission's legal perspective? What is Opera's point of view on this?
First, it's interesting that Microsoft gives a legal reason for backing down. Certainly, I believe, Opera's filing with the European Commission has influenced Microsoft's decision to do the right thing. We have brought up several technical issues in IE in our discussions with the European Commission, and only one of them has been partly addressed. Here is our list:
- Fully comply with Acid2 and Acid3, by default. Acid2 is a well-known test and the follow-up Acid3 has just been finalized. The tests must be passed by default.
- Support the specifications underlying the Acid tests. The Acid tests are written to help browser vendors who act in good faith, and they do not guarantee compliance with the underlying specifications. Microsoft must commit to implementing the underlying specifications of the Acid2 and Acid3 tests.
- Provide documentation. Lack of documentation on how IE implements standards has been a problem for web developers. For each specification Microsoft implements, it must provide a detailed list of limitations, bugs and extensions.
- Drop version targeting. Documents that trigger standards mode in IE6 or IE7 shall continue to trigger standards mode in the future. No new magic switches can be introduced.
- Commit to interoperability. It is important to ensure that Microsoft remains committed to supporting web standards, even beyond Acid2 and Acid3. If two or more major web browsers, in official shipping versions, add standards-related functionality (a) generally considered useful to the progress of the Web, and (b) described in a publicly available specification, Microsoft must add the same functionality.
The most recent announcement is related to the fourth point. Microsoft has partly addressed our concerns by saying that documents that trigger standards mode in all browsers will continue to do so in IE8. This is good. But the other points still stand. Other browsers have played by these rules for years, and so should Microsoft.
Opera 9.50 Build 9815 Beta / 9.26 Build 8835 Final can be downloaded here.
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 [Build 8.0.6001.17184] is available here.