Category: Microsoft
Engineering POV: IE6
IEBlog Writes
The topic of site support for IE6 has had a lot of discussion on the web recently as a result of a post on the Digg blog. Why would anyone run an eight-year old browser? Should sites continue to support it? What more can anyone do to get IE6 users to upgrade?
For technology enthusiasts, this topic seems simple. Enthusiasts install new (often unfinished or “beta”) software all the time. Scores of posts on this site and others describe specific benefits of upgrading. As a browser supplier, we want people to switch to the latest version of IE for security, performance, interoperability, and more. So, if all of the “individual enthusiasts” want Windows XP machines upgraded from IE6, and the supplier of IE6 wants them upgraded, what’s the issue?
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Microsoft Joins HTML 5 Standard Fray in Earnest
cNET writes:
After leaving much of the creation of a new version of HTML to Apple, Google, Opera, and Mozilla, Microsoft has begun sinking its teeth into the Web standard.
The move adds clout to the effort to renovate HyperText Markup Language, the standard used to describe Web pages, which last was formally updated in 1999. In a mailing list posting on Friday, the software giant offered a host of questions and concerns with the present proposal.
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Microsoft: No Browserless Windows 7 After All
cNET Writes:
It looks like there won’t be a browserless version of Windows 7, after all.
Microsoft said late Friday that it won’t ship the Windows 7 “E” version of Windows even though Europe has yet to sign off on its revised plan. The plan calls for the company to ship Windows 7 with Internet Explorer, but present a ballot screen in which users in Europe can decide whether they want Internet Explorer or another browser.
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Microsoft Caves to EU Pressure, Will Offer Browser Ballot
Ars Technica writes:
Microsoft has decided that the last thing it needs in this economy is some combination of the following: fines, legal bills, and a delay of Windows 7. It has offered to adopt the European Union’s preferred solution for bowser competition: a browser selector screen at startup.
Although Intel may have been hit with a bigger fine, the multi-year saga of Microsoft’s fight with the European Union’s Competition Commission may have run up larger legal bills, given its longevity. The most recent point of contention between Redmond and Europe has been the browser; Microsoft bundles its own with its operating systems, but the EU views that as using monopoly power to the detriment of potential competitors.
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Opera Slams Microsoft’s Windows 7 E Move – Again
The Register writes:
Microsoft is continuing to insist it has gone to great lengths in recent months to appease European antitrust watchdogs by saying it will “respect the user choice of the default browser” in Windows.
However, rival browser maker Opera, which brought the original complaint about Microsoft tying its browser to its operating system to the European Commission in 2007, continues to proclaim the software giant hasn’t gone far enough yet.
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Microsoft Will Charge 4 Euros for a CD with Internet Explorer 8
NTRA Net writes:
The decision to remove the browser from the European version of Windows 7 to charges of the European Commission’s dominance of market forces to obtain the software by means other than that built into the system, so Microsoft has created a guide guidance for installation and the availability of a CD to pay.
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Microsoft Releases Silverlight 3 and it Looks Pretty
Introducing more than 50 new features, Microsoft Silverlight 3 Final has been released. With lots of improvements in many areas, H.264 video support, MP4, ACC, 3D and GPU hardware acceleration support and many more, Adobe should be really worried.
In the recent benchmark between Silverlight 3 and Flash, Ryan Rea said: “Silverlight not only had lower CPU usage, but it also used the four cores more uniformly.”
To answer Opera users question: no, Opera is still listed under “not supported” browsers.
If you would like to experience the awesomeness of this release, head over to the following page for the 720P+ video.
Google For Your PC (Video)
With all the buzz building around Google Chrome OS, Kevin Pereira discusses the fundamentals of this OS and how it can affect Apple as well as Microsoft.
Microsoft’s Gazelle Browser: A Layperson’s Explanation
ZDNet Writes:
Microsoft Research has published a new article that explains in more layperson-like terms exactly what its “Gazelle” Web browser is and why the company’s researchers believe it’s needed.
Microsoft is slated to present a paper on Gazelle at the Usenix Security Symposium in August. At that event, the Gazelle team will describe “the design and construction of a browser that is actually a multi-principal operating system.”
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Thanks to Daniel Hendrycks for sending this.
