Hey, Don't I Know You?

Sometimes worlds collide - and I very nearly always find it an odd experience when it happens, even when it's partly expected. Catching up on an industry blog or two today, I was reminded rather abruptly that Dean Hachamovitch, whom I mostly know as Dean & Joan, is also Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of Internet Explorer. Oh, yeah, that Dean. Weird.

As to the whole IE 8 issue - Joel is right, there's no good answer, let alone an easy one. I will say one thing however - that is, from my experience and a complete Microsoft outsider who uses Firefox more often than IE right now, Dean is one of those scary smart guys you find every now and then. And I don't say that lightly; I'm not someone who is that easily intimidated in the smarts department.

So - forget popularity. Someone's bound to be ticked off by the time this thing is set loose - a whole bunch of someones, actually. Fortunately, I anticipate Dean can handle it. When he signs off on a decision that he thinks is best, though, I'm sure that at least there will be some logic behind it. Would that logic could be enough in this situation.

What is it that you already know?