Microsoft looking at Webkit?

During a tour of Australia, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has made some news, rejecting a new bid for Yahoo, and dismissing Google's Android phone project.

Now, an apparent throwaway remark regarding WebKit, an open-source browser rendering project, has caused yet another stir. Webkit is used by Google's Chrome browser and Apple's Safari browser.

Speaking at a developer event, Ballmer was asked whether Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser was in danger of being bypassed by open-source development.

In response, Ballmer said that open source is "interesting" and that Microsoft "may need to have a rendering service." He added that Apple has embraced Webkit and Microsoft "may look into it."

While that may not seem like a ringing endorsement, it's been enough to get the blogosphere buzzing. (The "news" was the top story on Techmeme Friday morning.)

However, ZDNet's Larry Dignan explains why this is unlikely to be anything more than a tempest in a teapot.

Check out the full video of Ballmer's speech to developers in Sydney on Thursday here.

[ahickey]

"While that not may not seem like a ringing endorsement"
An extra not


"explains why this unlikely"
Maybe needs and is after this.

I expect better of CNET

[Jon Skillings]

We've cleaned up those typos.

[Earthlin]

Margaret, since you obviously you don't know much about the full history of Webkit, here is a small hint for you: WebKit was developped by Apple Inc. from the Konqueror browser?s KHTML software library for use as the engine of Mac OS X?s Safari web browser. It has since been implemented in Omniweb, Adobe AIR, Google Chrome, iPhone and other mobile phones thanks to Apple who simplyfied the process with Webkit, and then proceeded to give it back to the open-source library.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Whatever he is on...I want some.

[William Schnippert]

Not a ringing endorsement? If Ballmer says they may look at it then they already are.

[shinji257]

Webkit sucks and breaks alot of website. This includes any webmail setup based on Zimbra 4.x which is known to only work well on the Internet Explorer and Gecko engines.

[ballmerisanape]

Your right.. webkit will not work well with poorly designed websites.

My stomach doesn't like cheap mexican food... and you know what I learned from that... not to eat cheap mexican food....

[ballmerisanape]

I'm worried now.

Historically, if Ballmer says it's a good idea... it will surely fail......If he says it will fail, it will excel.

If Ballmer dismissed Webkit as a "niche player".. or "insignificant"... I would fell much better about Webkit's future.....

[Goodbye Helicopter]

webkit doesn't break anything that is standards based.
works great, renders beautifully.
passes ACID

[Macbrewer]

Exactly right there. I.E. OTOH, like Windows Media, is purposefully put up to make WIndows the only option, you lock you in.

[Macbrewer]

Funny, Microsoft has been arguing against open source for years now, calling it dangerous, etc... This is surely a sign they are sinking fast. As if we didn't already know that.

Apple is standards based, no matter how 'closed' they appear just because they want to sell you the hardware, they are much, much less draconian about their software.

"Along came the PC". Not exactly, Apple came along first, just as mac came 10 years before windows and iPod came before Zune, etc...

'Along came the internet' Not thanks to anything MSFT did, in fact, they have worked very hard to kill it so that it's NOT an open environment.

You should be ashamed if you are developing for these monopolists.

[catbutt5]

MS has thousands of programmers and billions of dollars yet in 2008 they still can't produce a web browser that follows web standards like every other browser in existence.

If you can't beat 'em, delay 'em as long as possible 'til you can figure something out eh?
If it were solely up to monopolies like MS, we'd never move out of the era of $500 word processors or $300 desktop OS licenses.
Good riddance.

[kelmon]

Well, given their position in the market, can you blame them for not wanting to adopt standards? It's a well known fact that you MUST support IE in order to get access to the largest slice of the browsing market and that you need to do extra work to get your site to work in other browsers. There's loads of IE-only sites and applications and it is clearly in Microsoft's interest to maintain this otherwise you might use something else.

[jragosta]

Does anyone in their right mind believe that Microsoft will ever use Webkit? There is absolutely no way they'll use an industry standard product.

They MIGHT make a demo product and destroy Webkit and make it look like an inferior product because they've managed to make it stink. There's no way it will be the core of IE.