Web Standards and IE8 - A "Milestone"

According to the IE Blog on December 19, 2007, IE8 renders the WaSP Acid2 test correctly! For those of you who may not know what WaSP is or the Acid2 test (sounds like a chemistry experiment), the Web Standards Project (WaSP) has created a test (Acid2) to see how modern web browsers render certain features of web standards that web designers/developers have wanted the browsers to have. If the browser passes the test, an image of a smiley face appears. If the browsers fails, the smiley face is distorted and/or appears red.
I tested all 4 of the browsers I have installed and I found that IE7 and Firefox2 both show distorted smiley images, while Safari (for Windows) and Opera 9 both pass the test. Here's the test: http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html
But going back to IE8, I think that this is great news for the world of web design/development because it means that there will be less late night hair pulling from trying to use hacks just because IE won't play nice. But when will IE8 be available...?