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Google Retiring Chrome Frame

An anonymous reader writes "Google today announced it is retiring Chrome Frame, a plug-in that brings Chrome's engine to old IE versions. The company wouldn't share an exact date, but did say it will end support and cease releasing updates sometime in January 2014. Google's reasoning appears to be based on the fact that Chrome Frame was released (initially in September 2009 and then as a stable build in September 2010) at a time when old versions of Internet Explorer, which don't support the latest Web technologies, were still in very high use."

10 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. IE still doesn't support modern web technologies. by dgatwood · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was seriously considering using Chrome Frame just a few months back as the means to support a very complex website based on HTML editing because IE's support is so broken so as to be almost useless. I tried very hard to support IE, but after spending a small eternity on it, I eventually gave up and declared IE unsupportable. Although I have not tried IE 10 yet, IE 9 and earlier are basically unusable in many areas, and were running at least two or three years behind where Safari, Chrome, and Firefox are in terms of robustness and feature support. Thus, all of the reasons for using Chrome Frame are still there just as much as they were four years ago, and I have zero faith in Microsoft improving that significantly at any point in the foreseeable future.

    In spite of that horrible state, however, I did not bother to take the time to implement support for using and recommending Chrome Frame, even though I seriously considered it. Why didn't I take the time? Precisely because after watching so many people get burned repeatedly by Google yanking support out from under them, I no longer trust that anything Google provides will still be supported in six months. They've burned too many bridges at this point, to such a degree that at this point, I assume that if Google was behind it, it's only a matter of time before they drop support.

    So thanks, Google, for proving my cynic hat astoundingly right yet again.

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  2. Re:IE still doesn't support modern web technologie by cheesybagel · · Score: 2

    Why the heck do you need Chrome Frame for anyway? Just install Chrome. The supposed advantage is you don't need to launch a new browser but that does not seem like a major issue to me.

  3. Re:However... by Ignacio · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And this is Microsoft, where saying "it works" is often preferred to actually making it work.

  4. Re:IE still doesn't support modern web technologie by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not everyone gets to use their choice of browser.

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  5. Shame. it's the best way to deliver WebGL to IE. by ron_ivi · · Score: 2
    Some of our customers have annoyingly "standardized" on IE; yet permit "browser plugins" including Chrome Frame.

    We use this to deliver the WebGL parts of our apps to them.

    Hope Google changes their mind on this.

  6. Re:IE still doesn't support modern web technologie by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

    Not everyone gets to use their choice of browser.

    Architecturally, Chrome frame is pretty similar to just installing Chrome(it has to be, to support rendering pages as they would appear in Chrome). Mysteriously, though, the fact that it's shoved into IE soothes some reactionary IT departments.

    Whether or not they are right about this, Google appears to be betting that people who were willing to install Chrome Frame to support something will just install Chrome. Their 'Legacy Browser Support' makes managing the distribution of troublesome pages between the two browsers relatively easy to manage.

  7. Re:Die already! by mrbester · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not like they weren't warned. Standard support for XP ended in 2009, and Micosoft generously allowed *five fucking years* for extended support (and *seven* for XP embedded). Not going to allow a different browser after all this time? Don't care any more.

    The fact that the operating system is going to be obsolete RSN is of more concern. Planning for the replacement should have started years ago, and if some exploit is found that leaks all your data / takes down the network then that's just too bad. You're on your own. You won't get any sympathy from anyone.

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  8. but they get to install ie plugins like chrome fra by gl4ss · · Score: 2

    Not everyone gets to use their choice of browser.

    but they get to install ie plugins like chrome frame?? hell no. that's why they're discontinuing it. the only people who find use for it CAN NOT FUCKING INSTALL IT due to policies. if they want compatibility("no need to run another browser") they should make ie frame for chrome.

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  9. Google is like George R R Martin by hobarrera · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google is like George R R Martin:

    It completely impossible to know who'll die next, but you can always be sure someone's about to die really soon!

  10. Google jumps the gun by three months by tepples · · Score: 2

    But Google is still jumping the gun by three months on killing Chrome Frame. A hugely popular not-sane OS will continue to be supported until April of 2014.