IE8 Compatibility

[#1]

I just read this http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/04/interent_explorer_8_list/ and must admit to be totally baffled.

Quote

Internet Explorer 8 will feature a user-generated list of "compatible" web sites, after trials found many ordinary surfers and major web sites can't work with Microsoft's next browser. The browser's planned list will be targeted at users that Microsoft considers not "web savvy". By opting to use the list with IE 8, they'll potentially be able to view their favorite sites and visit major destinations such as the BBC or Facebook without IE 8 scrambling them. <snip> IE 8, currently in beta, makes it hard to view millions of existing web pages because it's the first version of Microsoft's browser that claims to be fully standards-compliant. Most web-site and online applications are optimized to old versions of IE. Version 8.0, therefore, introduces a significant breaking change as sites won't display the same way. Microsoft's tried to negotiate this massive problem by giving IE 8 two ways of viewing sites: default mode, which uses standards such as CSS 2.1 and HTML 5.0, and "compatibility view," which lets users switch over to viewing the site using the old standards-contorted mode.

But if they work with Firefox and Opera why should IE8 be any different

[#2]

Some of the BBC's pages don't work in Opera (or IE8 unless in compatability mode) - try changing your default location on the BBC homepage for example!  (The confirmation dialog box goes off the screen in Opera but is centred in IE7)
Not had a problem with Facebook yet!
There are also plenty of sites that don't work or don't render properly in Opera.
One I need to use for example (Busybees) works fine in IE7, badly in Opera (try using the menu bar) and equally badly in IE8 unless compatability mode is used.

[#3]

As a Firefox user  - I made the (incorrect) assumption that Opera was similar    as that site works fine in Firefox