Inside Microsoft's radical, new Web browser
Summary
Topics
Naturally, the view that Windows is on a path to irrelevance is not one generally espoused by Microsoft. That said, at least some inside Redmond's walls argue that the Web browser needs to start acting more like an operating system.
"Some of today's browser policies are not very safe," says Microsoft researcher Helen Wang.
See also: Microsoft's Gazelle browser: A layperson's explanation
Wang, who has been at Microsoft since getting her doctorate from University of California at Berkeley in 2001, argues that the Web browser should act as more than just a file clerk that rubber-stamps each request that comes its way. Rather, it should act more like a traffic cop, keeping things moving smoothly and ensuring that the computer's resources are fairly allocated.
In short, Wang says, the browser needs to act more like Windows does--making sure that different Web applications are protected from one another--even those running within the same site. So Wang and her team came up with a prototype, called Gazelle, that does just that.
Microsoft first outlined Gazelle earlier this year, but has only recently started to detail its thinking. Wang plans to present a paper on Gazelle at the Usenix security conference next month, and last week Microsoft posted an article on its Web site explaining more about Gazelle.
Wang isn't trying to suggest Windows is going away. Indeed, she says, Gazelle depends on Windows, acting merely as the middleman for Web pages seeking to access a computer's resources.
"We're really trying to leverage the decades of operating system experience and apply that in the Web and browser setting," Wang said.
Microsoft is also trying to be clear that Gazelle is not the immediate replacement for Internet Explorer, which has been losing share to rivals, including Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari. The company has yet to commit to commercializing Gazelle in any way, meaning it remains just one of scores of projects incubating inside the company's research labs.
Many outside Redmond, though, see the browser finally starting to take on the preeminence that many had assumed it might back in the early days of Netscape. Google's decision to offer Chrome, some think, was more about having an engine for running its Web applications and it was offering an alternative means for serving up traditional Web pages.
Modern browsers, Wang said, have taken a step in the right direction by isolating different browser tabs so that if one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn't get taken with it. Wang said that Chrome and Microsoft's IE 8 take steps toward increasing the reliability of Web browsing, but she argues far more drastic steps are needed.
"I think Gazelle marks a significant departure from all previous browsers, including Chrome and IE 8," Wang said.
For now, Gazelle is very much a prototype. It borrows much of its actual rendering technology from Internet Explorer itself. And although it can display 19 of Alexa's top 20 Web sites, there are still plenty of things it can't do. It also runs more slowly than Internet Explorer, particularly when opening new Web sites.
But Wang said it offers Microsoft--and the industry--a road map for how the Browser should evolve.
"I think this is the right way to go and I think this can be practical," Wang said. "It will also take a lot of work."
This article was originally posted on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 19 Talkback(s)
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NoScript with ABE?
So this is like NoScript with ABE?
CobraA17th Jul 2009 -
Not really
Those pretty much just block everything and you can selectively allow things through. What the article, as far as I understood it, is talking about is a fundemental control of how various scripts can interact with the underlaying OS and resources - sounds actually like sandboxing each separate script and whatnot. Explains why they say its so slow, but a good idea if it can be slimmed and optimized. It doesn't currently sound as if too much resources has gone towards this project. Maybe that'll change now that MS has focused on security and stability for a change.
"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."
gnesterenko7th Jul 2009 -
How can the operating system go away?
Are these Operating System haters going to write an OS for every application, including their precious web browsers? Do these so-called "futurists" want to regress back to 1950's computing?
The point of the operating system is that it provides services for all applications, which prevents every application developer from reinventing the wheel for each application.
The only thing these new browser techniques are doing is catching up to the same techniques that client/server (i.e. non-web browser based) applications have been doing for the past 20+ years. Stop writing lousy applications that cannot recover from unexpected errors or ones crash the entire system.
Unix Pimp7th Jul 2009 -
You don't get it do you?
Websites are going to become indistinguishable from desktop apps. The lines have already been blurred by apps like Flex/Flash, JavaFX, Silverlight and more even more so with Adobe AIR and Goggle Gears. In the near future, instead of downloading and installing software you will simply visit a website and the browser will be running the app you previously had to download and install.
In this respect MS is right on the money.
Duke E. Love7th Jul 2009 -
Getting ahead of yourself, aren't you?
Even IF the web ever was to replaced the desktop?something I do not
see happening?it would only happen once the web was prevalent
enough that you couldn't go anywhere without a connection.
That's a few decades off from being the case.
This, of course, assumes that internet speeds increase to a level
where it makes more sense to stream things than run them locally.
Considering you can easily get 500GB of space on a laptop and
terabytes on a desktop I think that moment is a very, very long way
away.
Browsers will need to work better, IE more than any of them, but I
don't see them taking over from the operating system in my lifetime,
and I'm only 23. Progress isn't marked by people like us, it's marked
by the people who drag their feet. And each generation is slower to
change than the previous.
People LIKE having stuff locally. Don't believe me? Take a look at how
many people access their web-based email via a desktop client. That's
the most common example.
Doug S.9th Jul 2009 -
You don't get it either
I am not talking about web apps replacing local apps on pc's but rather web apps being on par with installed apps.
Think about what has happened on the web in the last 10 years, according to Moore's law things will be 32 to 40 times faster and more powerful. Or by the innovation in the last 10 years (AJAX, RIA, Flash, Flex, web 2.0) and have THAT be 32 to 40 times better and more powerful and you will get an idea of what will happen in the next ten years.
Tech growth is not linear it is exponential.Duke E. Love17th Jul 2009 -
RE: Inside Microsoft's radical, new Web browser
agreed. software with services is a much better approach rather then some kind of html dumb terminal.
mydasx7th Jul 2009 -
Why is Microsoft still wasting money on developing a web browser?
They should just adopt Firefox or Opera as Windows' default browser and spend the many millions that they would save on developing a better OS.
K B7th Jul 2009 -
Hell they already make the best browser....
Why would MS want to stop developing it? Or even explore the next step? Its called innovation.
CrashPad7th Jul 2009 -
best browser?
What planet are you living on?
IE is horrible. IE 6 is a nightmare from a developers stand point... it is the WORST browser I have dealt with in 11 years (Even worse than IE 3 and NS 4). And IE 7 is not much better and IE8 opened yet another shyte storm of browser compatibility issues.
They need to scrap the the whole code base and start from scratch like Netscape did. Shyte can the whole mess.Duke E. Love7th Jul 2009 -
Obviously not your planet
IE is the global browser, FF is just another reinvented wheel. All this for essentially a picture frame.
tonymcs@...7th Jul 2009 -
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
None.
Either that or you are a troll.Duke E. Love7th Jul 2009 -
Even if they did make the best browser (which they don't) it doesn't matter
IE is still a money pit. They get nothing from it except lawsuits.K B8th Jul 2009 -
I hate the new "motto" of Microsoft.
"Modern browsers, Wang said, have taken a step in the right direction by isolating different browser tabs so that if one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn't get taken .."
Of course IT IS NOT THE ANSWER.
In the last months i saw many times the "marvelous" feature where Vista recover from a problem with the video driver BUT i remember just a couple of times saying a problem with the video driver of my old XP machine. I prefer to have one bluescreen x year instead to have a annoying error message of faulty driver almost once a week.
magallanes7th Jul 2009 -
Update drivers much?
What video card are you using that keeps crashing on you?
Cylon Centurion7th Jul 2009
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