IE9 to include alternative ‘CSS.2012′ standard

The Internet Explorer team announced on their blog today that they are unhappy with the slow progress and differing implementations of the various CSS3 modules, and will not be including any CSS3 functionality in IE8; instead they will be producing their own, alternative standard, which they are codenaming CSS.2012 (after the planned year of launch of the subsequent browser).

Few details have yet been released as to what the new standard will contain, although one new feature which was hinted at was the :silverlight selector, which will be used to replace text in selected elements with high-definition streaming video.

It is unlikely that CSS.2012 will be compatible with existing CSS standards, and MS intend to use their dominant market share to automatically push the new version onto desktops; with training being provided only by Microsoft-certificated teachers, this could end up being very expensive for web developers forced to re-train.

IE Platform Architect, Chris Wilson, said:

Other browsers and standards break the web, so CSS.2012 is our best effort at fixing it. It will be tightly integrated into .NET and Silverlight, and initially will only work in IE9. Other browsers will be able to license the technology after a few years, when we judge it is stable. Then they can’t break the web.

More information on the announcement here.

Update: It’s just after noon here in the UK, so time for me to confess: yes, this is an April Fool’s Day hoax; of course, Microsoft would never pull a stunt like this. Hope you all enjoyed the prank, and I’m happy I caught a few of you out!

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April 1st, 2008 by Peter Gasston in Browsers. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

43 Comments to “IE9 to include alternative ‘CSS.2012′ standard”

  1. Scott Says:

    March 31st over here still so you almost had me

  2. cruster Says:

    haha :)
    I love these April jokes

  3. Anika Says:

    Oh man, you had me! Talk about nightmare!

  4. Andrew Says:

    Yip, had me to. I was just about ready to give up my career as a web developer :)

  5. VerSuS Says:

    Well, this kind of jokes may cause a heart attack!!

  6. Navarr Barnier Says:

    Haha. April Fools day everybody. Microsoft does some crazy stunts, but this one would definently take the cake (which is a lie)

  7. philip Says:

    maaaaaan… you totally got me. i could feel my blood pressure rising…

  8. James Cassell Says:

    You had me for the first paragraph! I was genuinely scared.

  9. Siriusfox Says:

    You jumped the gun. It’s 8PM hear on the West coast of the US. You had me for a second their.

  10. Lim Chee Aun Says:

    Ugh, I even clicked to the IE blog link! :)

  11. asdf Asdf Says:

    I don’t get the joke.

    If Bush says on April 1 that he’s sending us to war, is that funny just because of the date?

  12. James Justin Harrell Says:

    @asdf
    Yeah, that’s how it works.

    I hate April fools day.

  13. Steve Says:

    Damn! you got me too! I was hammering the IE blog ready to give them a piece of my mind…

    phew!

  14. UsurPia Says:

    You’ve almost had me :-) Took me a while to realise…

  15. Kalle Persson Says:

    Oh no! Haha, you got me as well. Hard.

  16. James Hopkins Says:

    That was v funny - like everyone else, I believed it until clicking on the link at the bottom!
    I hope Chris doesn’t look at this post - it might give them ideas!

  17. christian Says:

    Dang, while I read it anger was growing until I finished the article. Then I luckily realized it’s just a bit too ridiculous and then finally I thought of what day is.
    Nice trick with the tiny url. I knew it before clicking but I like how you wanted to ensure not to spoil it too soon.

  18. Stifu Says:

    I knew it was a joke from the first paragraph alone. :p
    But even before opening this article… I have the IEBlog RSS in my toolbar right next to the one of CSS3.info. So when I saw the title of latest CSS3.info article, I refreshed the IEBlog RSS, and saw there was nothing new there.

  19. Daniel Skinner Says:

    You fooled me! I was about to give up all hope on web standards!

  20. 1 april grappen | aardling Says:

    [...] IE9 to include alternative ‘CSS.2012′ standard. [...]

  21. Paul D. Says:

    Hoax or not, who here thinks Microsoft will actually include CSS3 support in an upcoming browser version? Anyone?

    I didn’t think so.

  22. Mike Cherim Says:

    I changed mine in the eleventh hour and I’m glad I did as I almost did something almost identical to yours. I was going to say they decided to create their own MSS standard ;)

    Nice job.
    Mike

  23. jive Says:

    You had me until I saw a comment, as I was reading this from Google Reader. It’s still early morning in the US. You should of held off on the April Fools update and collapsed the comments or made them not post until later in the day. At least I won’t be fooled the rest of the day.

  24. Iron_Storm Says:

    2012 :DDDD

  25. xirclebox Says:

    LOL!!! you suck!!! I was about to flame the IE team until I got to the end of post.

    punk!

  26. Raphaël Says:

    Very funny, really. Ah ah ah.

  27. Rumyra Says:

    The problem with this is, its sooo easy to believe.

    I actually thought the IE developers were ‘that’ stupid and couldn’t implement CSS3 support…

  28. Eddie Says:

    Yeah, it’s believable… which is what makes it so great. :)

  29. Emil Ivanov Says:

    Hahaha! Very good joke, this reminds me for one other with Sans Serif island with lowercase bay and Arial and Helvetic towns :D

  30. Foolish Links | K-Squared Ramblings Says:

    [...] IE9 to include alternative CSS.2012 standard instead of following anything remotely like the rest of the world. [...]

  31. Suzy Says:

    very funny :)

  32. Geek 2.0 — Jonathan Rass » Blog Archive » Best April Fool’s Jokes 2008 Says:

    [...] IE9 to include alternative ‘CSS.2012′ standard [...]

  33. Raphaël Says:

    MS would be able to say that o_O

  34. D. van der Valk Says:

    Lol, I agree with Raphaël :P

  35. Kioso Says:

    Oh, God! This really scared me! XD

    I was so happy to hear that it was just an April Fool’s joke. XD

  36. paziek Says:

    Damn, and I was hoping to see IE downfall as webdevelopers would finally give up on it. Well, at least most of u, right? ;]

  37. grapplica Says:

    Goddamn man, you really had me…

    Just about when I was finishing to read the article I’d gathered some 5 or so, developers from the agency here.

    Luckely we still have hair, but we had quiet a laugh after-all, so I gues TNX is in place

  38. Mark Says:

    Oh man, you almost had me there! I was going to go bananas with MS creating their own CSS standards. I’ve read few paragraphs and I thought “what!? another MS bs!!”. But then I realised it was an April fools joke.

  39. Surf Raporu, 05 Nisan 2008 | Taylan Aktepe Says:

    [...] IE9 to include alternative ‘CSS.2012′ standa 1 Nisan şakası, geç farkettim. [...]

  40. Ignacio Says:

    I thought it was real! i only found out about the joke by reading the comments. DAMN!! lol

    As reading goes by, i find “other browsers break the web” and i was sooooooooo pissed off, that i thought by 2012, i would have to leave the web and get another job!!!!!

    hahaha
    :D

  41. JC John SESE Cuneta Says:

    It’s not ridiculous, it IS possible :p They did it once, they did it with *ehemm* OOXML…

    Some April Fools can become a reality, after all, a good joke is something built on reality and open possibilities ;) Anything too unrealistic is a lame joke :p especially on April Fools :p

    080808
    090909
    101010
    111111
    121212

  42. Daniel Costalis Says:

    That was not unrealistic. I just make an ass out of myself to the entire whatwg group. thanks. ;-)

  43. Catfacts Says:

    Wow, I could see this happening.

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