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Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

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11–20 of 36 posts

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#11

I don't really care much about their desktop browser, but dear God I hope they do something about the mobile one. It's truly awful. I actually like WinMo 6 for the most part, but find myself using third-party browsers, which is not nearly as seamless an experience as it is on the desktop.

Well you're in luck, they're bringing the IE6 engine to Windows Mobile:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10039152-56.html

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#12
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They would have a faster and more compliant engine than they seem to be able to build themselves. I don't believe it's a lack of ability - Microsoft could easily produce a standard complaint browser. Adopting WebKit doesn't necessarily they would keep it compliant. Given how important IE is to the Operating System in general, I doubt Microsoft could do this technically - not without breaking a raft of things... Giv…

"Microsoft could easily produce a standard complaint browser" So why don't they? Is it to hold back the web so that they milk their desktop applications like Office a little bit more?

Not sure - suspect it's because up until recently there wasn't much to compel them to.... Probably that combined with a lot of legacy to support.

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#13

I don't really care much about their desktop browser, but dear God I hope they do something about the mobile one. It's truly awful. I actually like WinMo 6 for the most part, but find myself using third-party browsers, which is not nearly as seamless an experience as it is on the desktop.

Well you're in luck, they're bringing the IE6 engine to Windows Mobile: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10039152-56.html

That is the worst idea ever, IE6 is such a piece of junk.

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#14
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Microsoft could easily produce a standard complaint browser" So why don't they? Is it to hold back the web so that they milk their desktop applications like Office a little bit more?

Not sure - suspect it's because up until recently there wasn't much to compel them to.... Probably that combined with a lot of legacy to support.

That's a really sad state of affairs though. Just because you have the most market share, it should not mean you stop innovating - It does seem like this is exactly what happened with IE6 though, and why IE is the total mess that it is.

If Microsoft had actually embraced the internet as a new exciting medium, instead of just releasing IE to kill off mozilla, perhaps they would have been one of the ones leading new development, instead of trailing hopelessly behind all the time.

I don't know what the answer is for IE, I can't see them giving up any control, they'll most likely muddle along with their own quirks and bugs while there's a slow but steady shift in users onto the new crop of browsers.

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They would have a faster and more compliant engine than they seem to be able to build themselves. I don't believe it's a lack of ability - Microsoft could easily produce a standard complaint browser. Adopting WebKit doesn't necessarily they would keep it compliant. Given how important IE is to the Operating System in general, I doubt Microsoft could do this technically - not without breaking a raft of things... Giv…

"Microsoft could easily produce a standard complaint browser" So why don't they? Is it to hold back the web so that they milk their desktop applications like Office a little bit more?

Download IE8 beta 2.

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#16
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Microsoft could easily produce a standard complaint browser" So why don't they? Is it to hold back the web so that they milk their desktop applications like Office a little bit more?

Download IE8 beta 2.

It has event bugs all the way back from IE6. It's not even close to compliant, except for the most complained-about things.

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#17
It makes sense.

Apple did not chose it because they are commie hippies.

They are a cut throat for profit company and they chose it because it is a free and good code base.

And that makes development cheaper and faster - good for any for profit company,

There is also no giving up of control to speak of. You can fork any time you like, and you can do what ever you like. You lose no control.

So why wouldn't Microsoft do it?

Pride, not invented here syndrome, internal politics, what ever, I just don't think we'll see it happen any time soon. But I hope to be proven wrong.

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#18
I'm sad to say it but this doesn't make sense. Strategically, the easier it is to develop web applications, the less people are dependent on Windows. It is to Microsoft's advantage to make web development as hard as possible. Therefore they will try to break compatibility whenever possible.

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#19
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Download IE8 beta 2.

It has event bugs all the way back from IE6. It's not even close to compliant, except for the most complained-about things.

DOM 2 event support and other javascript issues are easy to work around. If you use any kind of framework like jQuery then you usually don't even have to worry about them.

Re: Microsoft considers adopting WebKit for Internet Explorer

#20
post #18

I'm sad to say it but this doesn't make sense. Strategically, the easier it is to develop web applications, the less people are dependent on Windows. It is to Microsoft's advantage to make web development as hard as possible. Therefore they will try to break compatibility whenever possible.

Correct!

But lots of web development tools/frameworks are smoothing out the browser differences.

Dojo and JQuery are commoditizing the browsers!

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