Internet Explorer Outrageous
Summary:
InternetExplorerFeedback for IE rewrites that are probably too disruptive to ever actually happen
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Make it a Network Platform (i.e., design IE to run on all operating systems)
This post is to outline where I believe IE must go. There are two organizations that are well positioned to implement the suggestions I am about to make, Microsoft (the shortest path) or the Open Source Community. If the former doesn't take leadership the later will.
Microsoft you are spending too much time tying to protect the Windows Operating Systems much like IBM spent too much time protecting it Mainframe business. The reason is simple. The money is good. However, like the mainframe business, it won't be king forever.
Everyone must realize that the network needs an Operating System, an application platform if you will. Unfortunately we are all focused on the application platform that runs on boxes or devices (desktops, laptops, handhelds or cell phones). Much like Windows which runs on boxes, the Network Platform needs to run on Operating Systems. Operation Systems hide the processor. The Network Platform will hide the Operating System.
IE is Microsoft’s entry as the Network Platform. Microsoft is the “company” best positioned to pull this off. If it doesn't, the open source community will ... only it will take too long, but not forever.
Microsoft's other asset is .NET. Given its virtual platform architecture it is the perfect piece to support development and execution of the next generation network applications that run via IE.
As a developer and user I want IE to support a rich client experience with all the benefits of the thin client architecture. I want my software to run on the Network Platform (i.e., on anything I attach to the network, dynamically). Enhance IE so it enables a rich client development and user experience. Along with .NET, make it run everywhere. Embrace all the standards and then extended them where they are weak. Always protect developer productivity; an important key to cost savings and market dominance.
This is no small task. But then again, Microsoft is no small company. Microsoft, are you ready to stop being an Operating System company and to start becoming a Network Platform company?
cwolff (camwolff@camwolff.com)
P.S. So Longhorn will be released sometime next year (right Microsoft?). It will have all sorts of nifty new technologies. But it still will not be a Network Platform. It will still be just an Operating System. Microsoft is spending billions of dollars defending its OS turf against threats like LINUX; unfortunately it is missing a much bigger opportunity. I understand the next OS after Longhorn may run on managed code. That is a step in the right direction and one that can be leveraged by a Network Platform.
Image developing a Network Platform that runs on the most popular
OSes. It would run on Windows of course and LINUX and other flavors of UNIX including Mac OS X. That is what is happening with Browsers. Now image that a modern architecture drives us to the following layers. A Network Platform (place were applications run) and an Operating System (place that manages the box's resources and serves them to the Network Platform). Certainly Microsoft you could exploit your advantage of being the creator of the Network Platform by building Operating Systems that best run the Network Platform. However, Microsoft you would also work very hard to ensure that the Network Platform supports applications well on the various flavors of the UNIX
OSes because that opens a much bigger door.
Image the kind of benefits a Network Platform would provide. I will not say write once run everywhere (how many times has that been said before?). I will say write once and run in more places than every before. Also image the kinds of applications you could write. With a common abstracted application layer it would be possible to not just run in more places but to run in more places at the same time. (yes, parallel processing and load balancing etc. needs to be addressed by the Network Platform). Ok, so you say security would be a nightmare. I say, it certainly would be a challenge but managed code would be a good start (kill the buffer overflow).
Microsoft stop spending money competing with LINUX. You are solving the wrong problem. Do what you do best. Co-opt the competition's technology and leverage their market position and momentum to your advantage. Meanwhile provide us developers with the tools to build applications for the new Network Platform and we will follow you anywhere. Get busy IE team, you got a lot of work to do.
PSS Windows is what Microsoft calls the OS, who can think of a good name for the Network Platform. Oh, how about IE.
PSSS Ok so this idea is outrageous; see what slashdot has to say about Google...
Google's Patents Reveal Strategy To Beat Microsoft
Posted by Zonk on Saturday October 01, @08:41AM
from the stretch-the-para-digm dept.
Google
linumax writes "According to 'The Google Legacy,' history is about to repeat itself. From the article: 'Microsoft today is where IBM was years ago. And Google is in a position to do to Bill Gates what he did to IBM. The result could be a new industry kingpin. Arnold, author of The Google Legacy, said in an interview this week that it appears that Microsoft doesn't understand Google in much the same way that IBM didn't understand Microsoft 20 years ago. "It will be the Googleplex from 2004 to 2020 - a network paradigm," said Arnold. "It will be enabled by Google's approach to innovation."'"
Baby Apparel & Accessories PSSSS - 4.29.2006
Read about the ajaxOS - http://www.michaelrobertson.com/ajaxos/ or http://www.ajaxlaunch.com/.
The Network based OS is here. You better get moving Microsoft. Is making IE a Network Platform so outrageous now?
PSSSSS - 9-3-08
We are a step closer to the network OS. Google has just released its new browser called Chrome. See www.google.com/chrome.
Chrome emphasizes the use of the browser as a means to develop and execute the important stuff (i.e., applications). Chrome is a tabbed browser that executes each tab in its own process space. Thus, while one tab may fail it will not take down any of the other tabs (sounds like application being protected from other applications on an OS doesn't it?) Furthermore, the browser's goal is to improve performance of application execution (via JavaScript).
Google has the muscle to obtain market share and provide an OS independent application development platform across various Operation Systems used to access the internet. This is a place that Microsoft was well positioned to provide. However, much like IBM protected the mainframe, Microsoft is more interested in protecting its OS on micro processors. Unfortunately it is missing the bigger prize which is an application development platform that runs across all OSes. Google now has the momentum. Will Microsoft catch on soon enough to respond?
2.26.2009
In SlashDot the following was posted:
Technology: The Future of Google Chrome on Thursday February 26, @08:41AM
TRNick writes "Lars Bak, who heads up development of Google Chrome's cornerstone javascript engine, talks about why Google is so focused on in-browser javascript performance, the role Chrome has played in driving up javascript performance in other browsers, and why it's taking so long to introduce support for third-party extensions. 'The web is becoming an integral part of the computer and the basic distinction between the OS and the browser doesn't matter very much any more,' he says."
Google gets it. Like IBM who was focused on Big Iron and Lost the PC-OS to Microsoft, Microsoft is focused on their OS and is liley to lose the internet to broswers that work across OS's. Come on Microsoft, wake up, time to build the ultimate browser across all platforms. It is either that or watch others do it for you.
Rewrite in managed code
Enough of this COM nonsense. Rewrite the whole browser, from MSHTML up, in 100% managed .NET code. Benefits include no more buffer overflows; easy, safe, secure extensibility thanks to CAS; inherent support for GDI+ throughout, making integrating SVG and full PNG support easier; and proof of .NET's capabilities with a large, well-known application. --
timf As an advantage I would add "dog fooding" .NET. After you finish implimenting a managed IE that can compete speedwise with the current IE, I am sure you will have a better CLR. --
diegov
Start from a different browser
Start from
FireFoxBrowser or at least
GeckoBrowser. You could almost do this with
KonquerorBrowser as well, which is a
really nice browser, but the
JavaScript's still not quite up to scratch. Too radical? Maybe, but it instantly fixes a lot of MIME-handling and security issues, and bolting the ActiveX frobnules and other IE cruft onto Gecko to make it look IE again would buy you a chance to get it right - or at least righter - this time around.
But wait! There's more! Instant tabs that work, instant popup killer, instant lots of other little features that your clients have been begging for over a span of many years. And serious portability. IE for MS-Windows can look and/or act like IE for Mac or IE for Linux. Oh, yes. IE for Linux... retain a toehold on the system that's quietly(?) white-anting MS-Windows. Try it! What've you got to lose? (-: --
leonbrooks air jordan 11
Separate IE from Windows
This might seem fairly obvious, but a good portion of Windows security problems come from the fact that Internet Explorer, Windows, and Outlook are all the same thing, so that an Email in outlook can exploit problems in Windows, or a vulnerability in Internet Explorer can exploit Outlook Express.
Actually make Internet Explorer a browser, separate from the file manager, and separate from outlook express, making the security of all three much greater. --
Maxsilver Trusted Web Browser
*Used for trusted Web Applications with ActiveX, Java etc.
*customizeable list of sites, which can be visited
*should use the common HTML-rendering Engine of IE below to view HTML (But nothing more)
Internet Explorer
*Should be runned in a sandbox, with NO possibility for local access
*Links to sites with active elements, should start the trusted browser
*Should have complete support of ALL W3C Standards (CSS1,2), PNG/MNG
Stop Internet Exploder 6
Help stop internet explorer 6 by removing it from availability when Windows 2000 is no longer supported. There are far too many security holes and lack of standards compliance that you should just admit that you can no longer support IE6 and recommend that everyone upgrade to Internet Explorer 7. There's no point keeping software that has so many security holes, which are likely to leak into any application based on it. So, get rid of IE6 completely when Windows 2000 support ends, and start giving the others a chance.
Once you've rebuilt IE and it is both standards compliant and secure, then you are welcome to release the next version of the product. You could even give it a brand new name that isn't associated with being evil, and the worst browser ever as IE is. But when it comes to saying things like "Get more from the web with Internet Explorer 6" (on the IE product home page), then that really bugs me! Unless, of course you insert the word "Viruses", so it becomes "Get more Viruses from the web...", then you shouldn't be marketing a dead browser to the unsuspecting, general public -- Lachlan Hunt
IRL, Marketing will never allow this to happen (that said, it may happen by default anyway if more and painful MSIE vulnerabilities escape into the wild). Do you have a less drastic solution, Lachlan? --
leonbrooks
Tag-parsers should be separate engines or plugins
For example, you could go to options and turn off the "IE Extensions" parser, the XHTML parser, etc. It would be very usefull to block nasty content and also for web developers to test how their site looks with different standards-compliance levels. Plus, you could have a "backwards compatibility" mode that administrators/users could re-enable for the "IE4-6" CSS mode - since full CSS compliance in 7 would introduce some breaking changes (which we want!) --
ShadowChaser
