IE8 is actually reasonably standards-compliant ... at least for a Microsoft browser.
I'm pretty sure Compatibility Mode is there so that when your browser's User Agent string is sent to the webpage, it doesn't give you the older IE-optimized version, which won't look right on a standards-compliant browser from anyone.
IE7 XP2: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)
IE8 Vista: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0)
IE8 Vista -Compatibility Mode- : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0)
So, it tells the site that you are using IE7 when in fact you're using IE8, so that sites coded specifically for Microsoft browsers but are not updated to recognize there is such a thing as IE8 still render properly.
Users of other browsers won't normally get the IE-optimized site at all, so they don't have that issue; they're already assumed to be sort-of standards compliant.
For comparison:
Safari 5 on Windows: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; sv-SE) AppleWebKit/533.19.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.3 Safari/533.19.4
Safari 5 on MacOS 10.6: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_7; en-us) AppleWebKit/534.16+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.3 Safari/533.19.4
Opera 10 on Windows: Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.0; U; en) Presto/2.2.15 Version/10.10
Opera 10 on MacOS: Opera/9.80 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X; U; en) Presto/2.2.15 Version/10.10
Firefox 4 on Windows: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; ru; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/4.0 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Firefox 4 on MacOS: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:2.0b11pre) Gecko/20110126 Firefox/4.0b11pre
The exact user agent string your browser sends is usually dependent on the specific versions or build number of the browser and your OS.
I'm pretty sure Compatibility Mode is there so that when your browser's User Agent string is sent to the webpage, it doesn't give you the older IE-optimized version, which won't look right on a standards-compliant browser from anyone.
IE7 XP2: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)
IE8 Vista: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0)
IE8 Vista -Compatibility Mode- : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0)
So, it tells the site that you are using IE7 when in fact you're using IE8, so that sites coded specifically for Microsoft browsers but are not updated to recognize there is such a thing as IE8 still render properly.
Users of other browsers won't normally get the IE-optimized site at all, so they don't have that issue; they're already assumed to be sort-of standards compliant.
For comparison:
Safari 5 on Windows: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; sv-SE) AppleWebKit/533.19.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.3 Safari/533.19.4
Safari 5 on MacOS 10.6: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_7; en-us) AppleWebKit/534.16+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.3 Safari/533.19.4
Opera 10 on Windows: Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.0; U; en) Presto/2.2.15 Version/10.10
Opera 10 on MacOS: Opera/9.80 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X; U; en) Presto/2.2.15 Version/10.10
Firefox 4 on Windows: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; ru; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/4.0 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Firefox 4 on MacOS: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:2.0b11pre) Gecko/20110126 Firefox/4.0b11pre
The exact user agent string your browser sends is usually dependent on the specific versions or build number of the browser and your OS.
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