Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) team took the time today to write a post to let us all know that IE 8 is coming. That’s great – of course by Bill Gates’ own standards it’s already late.

In his Mix06 keynote address Gates vowed to begin upgrading IE as often as every 9 to 12 months – admitting they were wrong to wait so long (over 5 years) to update IE6. IE7 was released in October 2006, it’s now December 2007 – 14 months later – and they’re just now talking about IE8. The post goes on to say that Bill Gates was also the first to mention IE7, which he did in February 2005. So if Microsoft sticks to that schedule, we should see IE8 completed and out the door around July of 2009!

Even if Microsoft hauls ass – which they are certainly not known to do…ever – we probably shouldn’t expect IE8 anytime before the end of next year, which would make Bill Gates’ 9 to 12 month window more like 2+ years.

I would throw that criticism aside though – because like with Firefox I do believe these products should not ship until they are ready – if Microsoft would just please deliver us a browser that is actually standards-compliant. Not Microsoft standards, open standards. IE7 was an improvement, but it is still dead last among all browsers in terms of being standards-compliant – this is a problem when it is also the most-used browser in the world.