Fake leaked IE8 desktops.So some people think Microsoft came to this conclusion themselves.

I think that IE making IE8 operate in standards mode without any additional coding - unlike their initial announcement that IE8 would run like IE7 without the tags.

They very clearly state:

Our initial thinking for IE8 involved showing pages requesting “Standards” mode in an IE7’s “Standards” mode, and requiring developers to ask for IE8’s actual “Standards” mode separately. We made this decision, informed by discussions with some leading web experts, with compatibility at the top of mind.

I applaud the MS team for listening to the web community and, firstly, stating their initial plans, and following up and listening to the dubdubdub’s response and even more so - fixing the problem before it’s even in a public beta!