According to foreign media reports, Microsoft announced on Monday that it would change the development plan of the new version of Internet Explorer to prove its commitment to software interoperability, make it more friendly to network standards.
Microsoft said that the standard compatibility mode will become the default rendering engine of IE8. Microsoft said earlier that IE8 has passed the Acid2 rendering test. Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's department manager, said in his blog: "We think consistency is important. IE8 uses the standard compatibility mode as the default rendering engine, which is sufficient to indicate that we are fulfilling our interoperability commitment ."
According to Microsoft's plan, IE8 will contain three rendering modes: the new standard compatibility mode, the IE7 rendering mode, and a mode for displaying older versions of websites. Because Microsoft has changed the default rendering engine of IE8, websites that require IE8 to use the IE7 rendering engine need to add a label to the code.
Microsoft admitted that this change was also made out of legal considerations. "Although there is no law to determine which mode to use as the default rendering engine for browsers, however, this action will undoubtedly help us avoid potential legal and regulatory troubles." At the end of last year, browser developer Opera filed a lawsuit against the European Union, accusing Microsoft of not supporting general network standards. Last week, Microsoft suffered a huge fine because it did not fully implement the EU's 2004 anti-monopoly ruling.
So far, Microsoft has not disclosed when the official version of IE8 will be launched, but the Beta version will be released in the first half of this year.