OK, so I missed the initial IE8 furore, have now caught-up with a few views and here's my tuppence:
- A proprietary <meta> tag to say "Use IE6/7/8/… rendering mode" is an olive branch to the web design community (it says "Hey, you don't have to redo the IE7-compatible layout right now but please do-so later, when you have time.")
- The IE7 default layout says "We're about to push IE7 through Windows Update to everyone and we know you've invested time/money/effort into getting those old IE6 sites working in IE7" now:
- Optimistic head?
- "We'd like to keep updating IE8 and beyond but just so's you don't have to everytime we do, get it working in IE7 and we'll guarantee that IE>7 won't break the site (unlike last time.)"
- Pessimistic head?
- "We'll pre-announce IE8 to make it look like we're committed now and in the future to improving IE's web standards support but by telling everyone that IE7 will be the future default we can happily let IE8+ languish if it looks like there's insufficient ROI to continue developing IE."
I'm happy to be optimistic and believe the IE development team guys will be allowed and willing to continue their efforts towards moving-target-standards-compliance, I just wouldn't be surprised if in the not-too-distant future IEx once again was left to moulder.
Couldn't say it better than 
