I wrote (complained) earlier about Microsoft’s decision to make websites render like IE7 by defualt. I thought this was huge mistake and was more than a little peeved about it. I definitely wasn’t alone in thinking Microsoft was making a mistake as there was a huge uproar in the blogosphere about it. Well the sky has fallen, pigs are flying, The IE development team has listened to the developers!

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 described here).

The press release goes on further about their decision and a few tidbits about IE8. It seems like Microsoft may finally have a browser that follows standards. Although I found a few quotes that caused me to laugh.

“Long term, we believe this is the right thing for the web.” – Dean Hachamovitch

Thanks Dean, we all knew it was the best thing for the web…a few years ago.

“Shorter term, leading up not just to IE8′s release but broader IE8 adoption, this choice creates a clear call to action to site developers to make sure their web content works well in IE.” – Dean Hachamovitch

I know for most web developers, making sure their web content works well in IE is the worse part of being a web developer.

“…we will work with content publishers to ensure they fully understand the steps we are taking and will encourage them to use this beta period to update their sites to transition to the more current Web standards supported by IE8.” – Ray Ozzie

Finally all those government web developers will get caught up on web standards!

All kidding aside this is a great step forward, nay, a giant leap forward for IE. The upside to this is the major browsers will all be standards compliant(and IE7 isn’t that bad to design for); the downside is I now see less of a reason for the average web user to switch to a more capable browser like Firefox or Safari, but thats a small concern.

So good job Microsoft, and thanks for listening to the community! Now please catch up to webkit…