Posted on Thursday, March 12 2009 @ 3:17 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Is Microsoft going to throw in the towel on its web browser? InfoWorld
heard rumors that Internet Explorer 8 may be the last browser from Microsoft that uses the Internet Explorer engine. The reporter says Microsoft may go with WebKit, the engine used by Safari and Chrome, although it's also possible the software giant will adopt a brand-new engine developed by the Microsoft Research division.
And just what will be its replacement? I’m getting conflicting stories on that one. Some are still claiming that Microsoft will go with WebKit, which, thanks to the popularity of Apple's Safari browser and also Google's Chrome, is rapidly becoming a de facto standard for all non-IE and non-Firefox implementations.
Others insist that that the whole WebKit story is merely a feint and that Microsoft will in fact be adopting a brand-new engine coming out of its Microsoft Research division. Dubbed "Gazelle," this new engine will supposedly be more secure than Firefox or even Chrome, making copious use of sandboxing to keep its myriad plug-ins isolated and the overall browser process model protected.
Whatever Microsoft decides, it won't be an easy transition. The reporter stresses Microsoft will be forced to implement legacy ActiveX support, because many enterprises have heavily invested in applications that use this technology.
