Wandering by mistake

Indeed, behind the corporate facade, there are actual people. It's not like Microsoft is made up out of robots. There are some brilliant minds in that company.

But in the end it's the management which decides the direction of the company, and even the most brilliant of minds can't easily override their bosses, or their bosses' bosses

I don't really see your point haavard. The same can be said about Opera (and any other commercial company). And the direction is good - they work on IE and they improve Web standards support with every new version. Acid2 is a spectacular achievement, no matter how much you will try to diminish it.

AFAIK they didn't add anything non-standard since IE6 realease, which was over 6 years ago. I'm not even sure if the same can be said about Opera. No, actually I do know it can't. Canvas for example was far from being standardized and W3C generally wasn't happy about WHATWG when Opera implemented it. But widgets couldn't wait any longer, rrright? Seems like a marketing decicsion to me... I can only imagine all the uproar if IE would add something like canvas without W3C approvement.

Yes, the same can be said about all companies (or organizations). The management decides on the direction of the company. So even if, for example, I was really eager to make Opera open-source, and publicly argued that this should happen, it wouldn't make much of a difference because it's not up to me. (Note that I currently don't think Opera would benefit from going open-source, but that's a different discussion.)

Canvas is implemented because Web specifications require an actual implementation before they can become final recommendations. The current state of Canvas should be open to anyone, so you should be able to create your own implementation if so desired. If Microsoft added something like Canvas as an implementation towards a final open specification, I can't see any reasons for an uproar. Why would anyone be upset if Microsoft actually woked actively on implementing and promoting open standards? It would be a dream come true!

The point I was making was that individuals within an organization can have their own personal views, and they can try to work towards their personal goals, but it is ultimately the management which makes decisions on the actual direction of the organization. Microsoft may do bad things, but that doesn't mean that you are a bad person just because you work there. I am sure there are a lot of people trying to change the company from within as well.

Canvas is implemented because Web specifications require an actual implementation before they can become final recommendations.

I'm afraid only the second part of the phrase is true, HTML5 is a Working Draft, and there in no requirement for any implementations at this stage. It's not even recommended, because the spec changes all the time. So it's not like Opera implemented canvas because the spec required some implementations to move forward. Besides when Opera implemented canvas it was a part of some early draft made outside of W3C, not even a Working Draft in W3C. It was as standard as Microsoft "inventions" from the past.

If an implementation is required only at a later stage, that doesn't really prevent it from being implemented earlier. Remember, it is an open specification so that anyone who wishes can create an implementation. Both Apple and Mozilla support Canvas as well.

I am not aware of any Microsoft "inventions", as you call them, being implemented according to an open specification, and thus free for anyone to implement correctly (according to said open specification).

But now I think we are moving a bit too far away from the original topic, which was reminding ourselves that Microsoft, like all companies and organizations, is made up of individual human beings...

Thanks IE8 team. While Acid2 doesn't cover all of the CSS2 (or CSS3) spec, it's nice to know that Microsoft can still focus on standards. I wonder if IE8 will follow the CSS standard, or if we'll have to wait until IE9 to see that.

In the mean time, thanks so much Opera for caring about standards since day 1. It makes coding WAY easier. The feature I appreciate most in Opera is SVG support--only Opera's can be called a full implentation, and it truly is spactacular. If I could add one thing to Opera's list of supported technologies, it'd be better support for XML technologies (at least natively show an xml tree for xml documents).