Microsoft's Gazelle browser takes a radical path
Many people think that the browser is starting to replace the operating system as the center of the personal computer.
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.
Helen Wang
(Credit: Microsoft)"Some of today's browser policies are not very safe," says Microsoft researcher Helen Wang.
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 than 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."
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
That's debatable.
Which version of Firefox are you using? Because I'm pretty sure mine is 3.5.
Secondly, I use Firefox myself (and IE at work). Firefox does indeed lock up my system from time to time. It is also less secure than MSIE.
As long as companies keep improving their products, there will always be new versions. And if they decide to stop improving, then society will become stagnant. Perhaps you need to evaluate your perception of existence if you don't thiink things should evolve.
My personal favorite is chrome. I used to be a Firefox fan, until there started to be updates every day. Now it takes just as long to start Firefox as it does to boot Windows. Once it is up, it runs great. I can't wait until chrome gets better extensions.
Firefox is quick to offer updates, Microsoft tends to wait a month if it doesn't fall in their patch Tuesday cycle.
But you got to love the way IE7 and 8 rip off features of Firefox... tabs, extensions and privacy anyone?
Firefox is quick to offer updates, Microsoft tends to wait a month if it doesn't fall in their patch Tuesday cycle.
But you got to love the way IE7 and 8 rip off features of Firefox... tabs, extensions and privacy anyone?
That Active X exploit doesn't affect IE 8
IE has been using an extension system for years.
Privacy IE had this feature before FF *** are you talking about.
Tabs oh come on just because one browser uses it all the others should be doomed to have to open a million windows and Opera had this before FF did.
Lets start yelling at Honda for including doors on there cars because Ford had them first.
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/gazelle-062909.aspx
Seriously? Who talks like that...? Do you talk to people in real life in that way?
Fair enough. I submit that IE8 is better than prior versions of IE7 but not as good as any of the other major browsers. Sorry but I only use it when a web application actually needs it. It's slower, clunkier and still doesn't support Ctrl+L as a shortcut to the URL bar (I know it sounds minor but it drives me nuts).
Fair enough. I submit that IE8 is better than prior versions of IE7 but not as good as any of the other major browsers. Sorry but I only use it when a web application actually needs it. It's slower, clunkier and still doesn't support Ctrl+L as a shortcut to the URL bar (I know it sounds minor but it drives me nuts).
You can get to the URL with ALT + D
This works for all browsers except Safari which uses CMD + L only.
I understand the frustration. I've learned the ALT + D route instead of CTRL + L and I hate it when I use Safari because it doesn't comply with my muscle memory.
Eh actually in the default sandboxed mode in Vista and Windows 7 its the most secure browser.
*coughs* erm no thanks
"making sure that different Web applications are protected from one another"
when did windows ever do that? with normal applications no less
"when did windows ever do that? with normal applications no less "
Vista and Win7 both protect applications from interfering with each other for increased stability.
How about that MS? it's not much to ask. Let Open Source worry about Browsers because they to a better job than you! [CNET editors' note: Prohibited content deleted.]
Define not working. Seem to me that FF is doing just fine, Chrome is growing like crazy and each and every year IE loses market share. These things don't happen over night and any improvements in the browser market over the past few years are directly due to competition. Regardless, of which browser you use, it is impossible to argue that we would better off with JUST IE and none of the alternatives.
"First Vista is now 7 (same sh...), "
Please explain that comment in full detail how Vista is the same as Win7 and I do believe you'll find yourself alone on an island of misunderstandings.
Really now, try something new and original instead of letting others think for you?
I am running Windows 7 on a pretty low-spec computer (one that could never run vista), and it works very well.
Given just how many plugins, and programming hooks, work-arounds, scripts are needed in ALL the browsers to make them work, all we have succeeded in doing is turning them into Fat Client, Client Server apps. Why don't we just stick with ZERO INSTALL, FAT CLIENT APPS in the browser or outside - who cares anymore. They are much more productive then Web Apps which are very flaky with all these plug-ins, forget things and often a backspace press in the wrong field and you lose all your data :)
I'd still taken Quicken FAT client than Quicken ON-LINE any day of the week. I can work ANYWHERE with it.
Silverlight and Flash should be the only platforms web developers use. HTML is a blight on humanity.
I believe this is the point where I lost interest. If the applications that my computer is going to be running are in the cloud then what do I need Windows for? I'm expecting the desktop computer to become more of a dumb terminal and I'm damned sure that I don't need a Windows license to manage the limited resources that the web applications will need. The last thing that we need (but I suspect Microsoft does) is another means of chaining the Internet to Windows.
I agree that Java is **** but Java does not equal JavaScript ... two different things
I have been hearing of Microsoft's demise for 15 years. how foolish these open farce people are
In the eighteen months of owning an iPod touch and especially in the year that the App Store has been around, I find myself using my home computer a lot less. It's a MacBook that has gone out the front door twice in the past year.
On top of that, these little devices use apps to access data on the Internet. I get e-mail, news, stocks, sports scores, weather, traffic, streaming audio/video, TV and movie schedules, maps, access to social networks, IM, share files, buy stuff (music, apps, etc.) and can book restaurant reservations without using the World Wide Web (i.e., not using a web browser).
Developers, journalists, technologists, and other pundits still cannot see the forest for the trees. Thinking of the web browser as an operating system is obsolete because already people are using Internet services and accessing data without firing up a browser. I'm doing it and I'm an old fogey.
And frankly, the Mozilla Foundation better get their butts in gear as well. They have no credible mobile browser and their entire business model is based on directing people to Google for search. While that's not quite a house of cards, it's a model with limited growth potential.
The future is in the palm of your hand, not sitting on your desktop back at home.
PCs will live for a long time and OSs will still be battling it out for the rest of my lifetime. The standard desktop metaphor will survive.
Microsoft needs more than a Proof-of-Concept to outrun Mozilla, or even Chrome.
Gecko is so far different from IE as it is from the original Netscape code base that it inherited when the project started. The main reason was that developers found that traditional browser conceptions were antiquate and introduced tons of useless code, for example VML, HTML+Text, etc.
IE 7 was Microsoft opportunity to create a fresh start from IE3/4/5/6 evolution, but got wasted when Microsoft saw this too complex a project to accomplish in a finite amount of time. Now IE8 has taken Windows 7 approach and just refactored and splitted so the development team can actually manage the release. But no new code seems to be introduced and rendering does become faster, but more due to compiler optimizations and code enhancements, than completely new and fresh code.
So IE8 is no match to Chrome's V8. It would have been better to scrap the Active Scripting Engine of IE6 in favor of a CLR compatible Dynamic Language runtime, than what they did, which is good for compatibility sake, but closes the path to improvement.
In many ways IE8 and Windows 7 reveal the challenges that Microsoft has for the next 10 years, that is keep legacy compatibility while introducing new functionality without "feature creep" and the creation of unmaintainable code.
Win7 team drop the towel of legacy support and introduced the creaky "XP Mode" which has now created a nightmarish scenario where TWO TEAMS are required to maintain Business Win7: "Vista team" and "XP Team".
Should IE thread than same path. Time will tell if the Win7 people were Win3.11 right or Workplace OS wrong. (People that know Workplace OS will understand this statement clearly)
lol, Windows 7 for me.
I Love Windows 7!!!
Sheesh. Talk about being gullible....
The Prime Directive of MS, as is Apple's or Google's or any other corporation, is to supply value to shareholders and turn a profit. If, as many suggest, the browser is the OS of the future, MS can't fulfill that directive if it loses the browser war. So, following a well-trodden path, it seeks to further appropriate the browsing experience by means of reinventing the wheel in its own image.
Or, maybe I'm just bitter because my g*****n Vista notebook crashed again this morning....
It is a good question.
Why not have a small electronic box just for doing typing and another just for web surfing.
Having an all you can eat carte blanch OS is BLOAT WARE in the extreme.
Would be nice to buy a program embeded into a hardware device just for that purpose.
Kinda like how they are selling games on a joystick at the checkout lanes in tech stores.
See comment above from lennie22 ... they are the first to fall in any simulated attack. Vista and XP SP2 are two of the most secure. Props to Linux too as it is pretty tight.
Also, why do I need the adminstrator password to delete a SHORTCUT ICON that is on MY desktop (standard user). For gods sake, talk about ridiculous usability issues!!!
And Vista has 70 processes open now, with no programs running
- by ca5ter July 7, 2009 10:17 AM PDT
- I'm eating a can of beans
- Reply to this comment
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- by rapier1 July 7, 2009 11:14 AM PDT
- I like beans. Only navy beans though. Anyone that eats pinto beans is insane and stupid.
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