I hope that Joel's prediction of the outcome is correct. While it's too bad that IE7 and previous were so far off from standards, I don't think that effectively breaking half the internet is a good way to make reparations.
Maybe the answer is for IE 8 to simply not report itself as an IE -series browser at all, but a completely new User Agent? And then add a button to the toolbar called "Compatibility Mode", and maybe add something like the Phishing Filter so people could report sites that only work in Compatibility mode?
The idea would be for users to be able to report sites that don't work to MS during the beta, and then "normal" users would be automatically swapped to IE7compat when it goes final for sites that have been reported. Advanced users that don't like the idea of the IE7compat reporting site could turn it off and click the button manually, but normal users wouldn't have to worry about it.
Sites that are reported as not working in IE 8 would be able to update their site to override later, mechanism TBD.
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The idea would be for users to be able to report sites that don't work to MS during the beta, and then "normal" users would be automatically swapped to IE7compat when it goes final for sites that have been reported. Advanced users that don't like the idea of the IE7compat reporting site could turn it off and click the button manually, but normal users wouldn't have to worry about it.
Sites that are reported as not working in IE 8 would be able to update their site to override later, mechanism TBD.
A ginormous hack, but... :P
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