Bigger, better - more compliant?

While so many corporates are still locked into a Windows XP / IE6 platform, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) looms on the  horizon, “now even more compliant” (don’t you just love that: “not quite, but getting there…”)

In an effort to make Windows XP finally disappear from the landscape through a ‘force migration’ to Windows 7, Microsoft has released a statement relating to the interoperability between the legacy, no longer supported (but so-much-more-stable -than-Windows-98-and-Windows-ME (meh!)) Windows 98 and the next incarnation of their now choice-based Internet Explorer (remember – in Europe, free choice of web browser now required by the EU).

“Windows XP users have a fast, safe, reliable and private browser in Internet Explorer 8. As the Web has continued to change in everything from security to the future HTML5 applications developers are starting to build today, browsers should require the modern graphics and security infrastructure that has come along since 2001.” and “Internet Explorer 9 requires the modern graphics and security underpinnings that have come since 2001, and is intended to be run on a modern operating system in order to build on the latest hardware and operating system innovations.”

While the jury is out as to the extent of HTML5 support, items such as full support for canvas, SMIL, codecs (especially native OGG support) remain to be cleared up… Also, ACID3 is only 55% successful – hm… Firefox 3.7 Preview is running 97% ACID3 compliant. (Mobile Safari, through WebKit, gets a full 100%!). IE9 CSS3 support? All selectors show up as having passed the tests (passed 578/578 successful tests). So that’s a good thing…

Preview Platform Feedback is open via the usual channels…