As noted with obvious pride on the Microsoft Internet Explorer Weblog, http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/12/19/internet-explorer-8-and-acid2-a-milestone.aspx, Internet Explorer could finally be taking a significant step on the road to standards conformity. This comes hot on the heels of Opera complaining to the EU about Microsoft's lack of standards compliance.
Not only would this make life a lot easierfor web developers, but it would of course also improve the browsing experience for everyday users by rendering all sites more similarly in different browsers. Up to now developers have had to code specifically for Internet Explorer as well as the other more standards-compliant mainstream browsers (Firefox, Opera etc.) The announcement could mean a more uniform World Wide Web.
Lest we get too excite, though, we should recall that MS also once hinted that IE7 would be more standards-compliant. The Acid2 test is a very specific CSS test and does not necessarily guarantee compliance in a practical sense.
