Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ballmer "Interested" In Open Source Browser Engine

Posted by timothy on from the ted-bundy-was-interested-in-women dept.

Da Massive writes "'Why is IE still relevant and why is it worth spending money on rendering engines when there are open source ones available that can respond to changes in Web standards faster?,' asked a young developer to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in Sydney yesterday. 'That's cheeky, but a good question, but cheeky,' Ballmer said. Then came the startling revelation that Microsoft may also adopt an open source browser engine. 'Open source is interesting,' he said. 'Apple has embraced Webkit and we may look at that, but we will continue to build extensions for IE 8.'"

2 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How? by rtb61 · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    M$ will have to adopt the open source, service and support, web portal business model whether it wants to or not. Ballmer statement is much more about his own personal survival as the M$ CEO rather the given any indication of the future direction of M$. Ballmer has managed to produce the least successful version of M$ windows and M$ Office, xbox has been limping along and MSN is a disaster.

    So the statement about using open source in the browser is just to big note himself, a means by which to gain business publicity, to preserve his identity as the CEO of M$. M$ is stuck, IS is way too tightly embedded with the OS, making it impossible to realisticly combine Firefox with windows or open the source code of M$ IE. Of course M$ are currently stuck with their investment in sliverfish, the flash replacement that nobody wants, so perhaps this is just another song and dance to accompany the relaunch of version 2 advertising for that product.

    I M$ seriously want a long term future, they have to focus on MSN and, for that Ballmer has not been the solution, he has been the failure.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  2. Re:Some possible problems, here? by Daengbo · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Apple didn't "open source" anything. They took an LGPLed program, forked it, and held the source "until it could be cleaned up." Holding it was against the license.

    Summary: it was open source code when they took it. They tried to pretend that it wasn't, but it still was.

    --
    Put identity in the browser.