I found a link to this article on another blog.

While it makes for an interesting read, I have to say that I think the author greatly understates the enormous problems Internet Explorer’s rendering engine has when it comes to web standards. Yes, each browser has its own interpretation of the W3C standards and interprets them slightly differently. However (and it is a big however), the differences between the other browsers are usually pretty mild compared to the abominable results that you will find viewing the same page in Internet Explorer. The box model problems are so severe that you do have to insert hacks into your code to make it work with IE. It is attrocious. We aren’t talking about “oh, it is a few pixels off” like you might run into with Opera and Firefox. Oh now, we are talking “doesn’t display right at all.” Not to mention having to put line break tags behind every image so IE doesn’t add extra dummy space next to or beneath the image…

A long time I ago I stopped paying much attention to IE. I make sure that a site will display usably in the browser, but I don’t waste my time and the client’s money to make it look perfect there. I usually use a “two out of three ain’t bad” approach to design: if the code displays right in two browsers out of the three I test in (IE 6, Firefox, Opera) and looks passable in the other, then it is all right. If it displays good in two but is totally screwed up in a third, that means there is either A) a problem in MY code; or B) a problem in the offending browser that doesn’t like how I coded something. A little bit of finagling is usually enough to get things working right again.

That being said, I think IE’s best option as far as compatibility is concerned is to default to an IE7-compatible engine, and then just allow a quick toggle between that and the standards-based IE8 mode. That way your run-of-the-mill user won’t be inconvenience (immediately, anyway), and people that want to use the standards-based method will be fine. Then, by the time IE9 is rolled out, the standards-based mode can be made the default and everyone can be happy. That will give web developers a good 2-3 year window to update code for the new IE engine, while making sure that the less web saavy don’t think their “Internets are not working right on their modem.”

Yes, I have to deal with these people that not only don’t know what they are doing but don’t have any intention of putting more energy into their computer than they do operating a television set. Sigh.