It's not even really a compliance test. It's a kick in the pants for browser developers to fill in a bunch of unused corners of the specs (in the hopes that they'll one day be usable).
Passing Acid2 doesn't mean you comply with CSS 2.1, HTML 4.01, or any other spec -- it just means you correctly implement the particular rules that Acid2 tests. It's theoretically possible for browser A to pass 90% of the spec and not pass Acid2, and browser B to pass 85% of the spec including Acid2.
So far Safari, Konqueror, and iCab have passed, and Opera is very close (Opera 9 preview 1 has something like one Acid2 bug left, and they may have fixed it in internal builds by now.) We'll probably see Firefox catching up in 2.0 or 3.0 (I can't remeber which is going to use Gecko 1.9).
There are may reasons to use Opera, but a preview release nearly passing Acid2 isn't one of them.
We'll probably see Firefox catching up in 2.0 or 3.0 (I can't remeber which is going to use Gecko 1.9).
Firefox won't be getting Gecko 1.9 until Firefox 3.0, which is set to be released in 2007. Firefox 1.5 uses Gecko 1.8.0 and Firefox 2.0 will use Gecko 1.8.1, which is not allowed to have large changes or changes to already implemented features. Thus, Firefox won't be passing Acid 2 for at least a year. At least that's the way I understand it.
Yeah, he's dropping Firefox because it doesn't natively support something unimportant that Opera also doesn't support. Oh, and don't forget the all-important eye candy and general coolness.
Looks like the average IQ of both Firefox and Opera users just went up a notch.
A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Someone switched because of ACID2???? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Someone switched because of ACID2???? (Score:5, Informative)
Passing Acid2 doesn't mean you comply with CSS 2.1, HTML 4.01, or any other spec -- it just means you correctly implement the particular rules that Acid2 tests. It's theoretically possible for browser A to pass 90% of the spec and not pass Acid2, and browser B to pass 85% of the spec including Acid2.
So far Safari, Konqueror, and iCab have passed, and Opera is very close (Opera 9 preview 1 has something like one Acid2 bug left, and they may have fixed it in internal builds by now.) We'll probably see Firefox catching up in 2.0 or 3.0 (I can't remeber which is going to use Gecko 1.9).
There are may reasons to use Opera, but a preview release nearly passing Acid2 isn't one of them.
Re:Someone switched because of ACID2???? (Score:1)
Firefox won't be getting Gecko 1.9 until Firefox 3.0, which is set to be released in 2007. Firefox 1.5 uses Gecko 1.8.0 and Firefox 2.0 will use Gecko 1.8.1, which is not allowed to have large changes or changes to already implemented features. Thus, Firefox won't be passing Acid 2 for at least a year. At least that's the way I understand it.
Re:Someone switched because of ACID2???? (Score:2, Funny)
Looks like the average IQ of both Firefox and Opera users just went up a notch.