Welcome!

[Vitaly]

On the 26th of February 2009 we will have a meeting with the chief-strategist from the Internet Explorer 8 developers team, Bill Veghte. If you want to ask a question, have some remarks or want to suggest some ideas or improvements for IE 8 or future versions of Internet Explorer - please let us know, we'll deliver your message to him.

Bill Veghte is also known for his willingness to answer direct and unpleasant questions, so please feel free to submit harsh and awkward ones!

[brownbearart]

If it helps kill IE6 faster, I'll be happy.

[Vitaly]

If it helps kill IE6 faster, I'll be happy.

Well, that was already on our list

[Vitaly]

[Twitter] plztung @smashingmag I do wanna know whether IE 8 will follow W3C Web Standards and stop us from suffering their IE 6? ^^

[plztung]

I do wanna know if MS will put the web standards into their new browser and what they can do to help web developers around the world stop suffering there IE6?

[benmay]

How hard is it for them to think of NEW features / ideas.. rather than being accused of copycat'ing Firefox / Safari?

Like the Vista => Mac OS X similarities

[Narshada]

Make them stop this: http://www.isolani.co.uk/blog/standards/Ie8BlacklistForcingStandardsRenderingOptIn and fully implement the CSS 2 spec at least.

[carlovdberg]

- I am curious how people using IE6 and IE7 will be notified that they*must* install IE8. It would be nice for our front-end developers to know that within a month or 2 after the official release, every single visitor is using a latest generation browser (FF, IE8, Chrome, etc.)

[.V1]

Why doesn't IE include an auto update system that automatically updates the render engine so all bugs that are present can be fixed, and features can be added with out people noticing. This way IE8 will not become the next IE6. All major UI updates and re-factoring can just be done by normal upgrades...
--

Also as you are talking with the IE8 Strategist maybe have him explain when on earth he didn't include a compatibility view for IE6. They support IE7, and IE8 views. If they where to support IE6, it would allow system administrators to massive grade IE6 to IE8, and set IE6 render mode on the websites that still require IE6. Not only will this help kill IE6, but also give IE8 a better and higher market penetration as there will be no more reasons to not update to IE8. And you would actually please web developers instead of annoy them..

IE tester shows it can be done, so i see no reason why IE8 can't include it.

--

When do they expect to release a new JavaScript engine (planned for ie9??), I heard they where working on it, but would be nice to have some more info about it..


(btw i hope they are aware of a bug on windows xp that crashes IE8 everytime you close a tab or shut down the browser, stupid automatic tab recovery mode )

[Vitaly]

I want to know if MS feel guilty about my complex psychological problems caused by spending my life working round IE bugs
(via Twitter, by @devolute for @smashingmag)

[Vitaly]

Smack him in the face for IE6. He might not be responsible, but he's close enough working on IE8.
(via Twitter, by @way2hot for @smashingmag)

[aniloco]

I want to know if MS feel guilty about my complex psychological problems caused by spending my life working round IE bugs
(via Twitter, by @devolute for @smashingmag)

thats the awful truth....

they just need to build the IE8 exactly like Firefox or Safari, drop support for IE6, and, like suggested before, auto-update the new one 'till it works.

[Narshada]

Also, make them (by force if necessary,) support XHTML with an application/xhtml+xml MIME type like other browsers, instead of having to use text/html and so stop it going into quirks mode if you dare to put <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> at the top of your document.

[Jbcarey]

- I am curious how people using IE6 and IE7 will be notified that they*must* install IE8. It would be nice for our front-end developers to know that within a month or 2 after the official release, every single visitor is using a latest generation browser (FF, IE8, Chrome, etc.)

I absolutely second this... it's pointless releasing a browser if you don't force people to UPGRADE.... it's crazy to think that 30-ish% haven't even upgraded to IE7!! they'll completely skip the entire browser!

[koushik]

The main things are, it should
~~ be faster as Firefox or Safari
~~ Simpler UI