You first have to be reminded of one thing from the start. IE 8 is seeing it's first "beta" release at the moment. Beta means just that. For a look! and testing not for practical application at this time.
When the beta for IE 7 was first out I soon dumped it fast since it won't quite remember things like how to view pages, active x controls, and other things. The finished version as well as FireFox 3 will then conform to a new web standard unlike all previous browsers.