Does anybody know if Microsoft is planning on having IE9 pass with 100/100 on the Acid 3 test? The current version of IE9 gets a 68/100 on the test (can be viewed here, main site here).
What did IE8 pass with? What about IE7? How does it compare to other modern browsers such as Safari, Firefox, and Chrome?
Microsoft's position has been the same for a while now. They are focusing on meeting the needs of their users by attempting to fix the bugs that manifest themselves most often. Additionally, they are trying to add support for the most requested features.
They say in your first link "As we said at MIX10, we will continue to build standards support into the IE9 platform and as a byproduct our ACID3 score will increase." and I have heard them say this elsewhere as well.
They are NOT "coding to the test". They are not going to attempt to fix the particular parts of the ACID 3 that are failing. Rather, they are attempting to improve IE 9 as a whole by addressing the failures they see as most important. Only as a consequence of that will the ACID score improve. I think this is a good strategy. If it takes 1000 programmer-hours to fix an oddball rendering error in ACID 3, but that same amount of time could fix 2 or 3 really POPULAR bugs that ACID 3 does not address (it's not designed to be comprehensive), I would think their resources are better spent on those more popular bugs.
Obviously what their priorities ought to be could be endlessly debated. As can the amount of success they are having. So let's not even go there. :)
Update: I'd like to back up my statement that Acid 3 is not designed to be comprehensive with this citation: From http://www.webstandards.org/2008/10/02/dowehaveawinner/
"Acid3 was not meant to be the one and only indication of a browser’s performance. In fact many other test suites are far more important."
and
"Many subtests are high on a developer’s wish list: Full CSS 3 selectors support, media queries, SVG fonts. Admittedly a few others test edge cases and more esoteric features – but the test was supposed to be a significant challenge!"
Although I am not an IE user, it's better for us all if Microsoft sticks to improving the important stuff and skips the tests that check for "esoteric features".
See Wikipedia or this page for more information.
As far as I know, 100/100 isn't a goal of IE9, but they do plan on improving IE's compliance with web standards a lot, which will directly translate into a higher Acid3 score. The score has been improving in each platform preview, so I expect it to score a lot better by the time it gets released.
Update: Internet Explorer 9 (9.0.8112.16421) achieves 100/100 on acid 3, but the rendered page is not "pixel perfect" to the reference rendering (drop shadows missing, and some other sub-pixel junk):
According to this wiki page, IE7 scores 14/100 whilst IE8 scores 20/100 on the Acid3 test. IE9 scores 68/100, but is currently under development. I have not read anywhere that Microsoft wants IE9 to pass the Acid test, but given their track record I would say that this is not high priority for them. Let's hope I'm wrong.
As a comparison, the latest nightly build at the time of this writing of Firefox scores 97/100, the version of Chrome that I'm using (5.0.375.29 beta) scores 100/100 and Safari scores the same. No surprises there, the two browsers both use the WebKit rendering framework.
I hope this is the "useful" answer you're looking for.
As shown elsewhere, Acid3 is no test to use to determine if a browser does well with standards. In fact, IE9 may not even use the canvas element which would be highly detrimental to Microsoft's attempt at making a modern browser, for example. It's just as important to look at the overall compliance with web standards and how well IE9 implements them.
Right now, Microsoft is comparing IE9 to current browsers and trails in several areas but IE9 won't be out in almost two years, so the other browsers will be moving forward, too. Microsoft's track record is not good. Sometimes they speak of what they intend to do but those ideas become no-shows and, while they show some great graphs and performance numbers, its what they don't show that makes you wonder.
The fourth IE9 Platform Preview gets 95/100 points on the Acid3 test. The public beta will be released September 15. We'll see :)
IE9 compatibility mode only scores 13 on the ACID 3 test. ACID 3 is definitely not an indication of browser performance. It's an indication of browser compliance to standards.
IE5: Not testable
IE7: Not testable
IE8: 26/100
IE9: 100/100
Firefox, Chrome, Maxthon, Opera, Chromium: 100/100
Older versions of IE are tested by Maxthon.
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