IE8 to be available via Automatic Updates

A recent MSDN article explains how Microsoft will make IE8 available as a Windows/Automatic Update. MS will force those with IE8 beta to upgrade to the final release, and that's to be expected. They will not, however, be forcing IE6/7 users to upgrade.

As an ardent Firefox and Chrome user, and being a big fan of standards, I'm mildly OK with IE8. As pretty much everyone knows, MS branched off into their own set of "standards" for IE <= 6 but started making their way back after years of outcry from developers regarding cross-browser compatibility. IE7 was a big step forward for MS. On most designs there are a handful of tweaks needed for IE7. Dropping down to IE6 can add quite a bit of development time, and worst of all, it's not fun!

While I'll most likely never use Windows as my main OS again, I'm at least content that MS is really trying to make life better for this developer.