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Microsoft Is Building a New Browser As Part of Its Windows 10 Push
mpicpp sends word that Microsoft may be working on a new browser. "There's been talk for a while that Microsoft was going to make some big changes to Internet Explorer in the Windows 10 time frame, making IE 'Spartan' look and feel more like Chrome and Firefox. It turns out that what's actually happening is Microsoft is building a new browser, codenamed Spartan, which is not IE 12 — at least according to a couple of sources of mine. Thomas Nigro, a Microsoft Student Partner lead and developer of the modern version of VLC, mentioned on Twitter earlier this month that he heard Microsoft was building a brand-new browser. Nigro said he heard talk of this during a December episode of the LiveTile podcast. Spartan is still going to use Microsoft's Chakra JavaScript engine and Microsoft's Trident rendering engine (not WebKit), sources say. As Neowin's Brad Sams reported back in September, the coming browser will look and feel more like Chrome and Firefox and will support extensions. Sams also reported on December 29 that Microsoft has two different versions of Trident in the works, which also seemingly supports the claim that the company has two different Trident-based browsers. However, if my sources are right, Spartan is not IE 12. Instead, Spartan is a new, light-weight browser Microsoft is building. Windows 10 (at least the desktop version) will ship with both Spartan and IE 11, my sources say. IE 11 will be there for backward-compatibility's sake. Spartan will be available for both desktop and mobile (phone/tablet) versions of Windows 10, sources say."
Just ditch Trident. Why do we need more browser engines? What is wrong with WebKit? Why waste man hours and money on this waste of time project instead of helping with the development of WebKit?
More like Trojan.
It's not I repeat it's not IE12.
Yet another quirky browser to support. More idiots using -yetanotherbrowserspecificcsstag: 0px;
Please, not another useless Chrome clone. We already have more than enough browsers with crap UIs, thank you.
But only is they make Trojan for OS X or Linux
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Just ditch Trident. Why do we need more browser engines? What is wrong with WebKit? Why waste man hours and money on this waste of time project instead of helping with the development of WebKit?
Because there are many "enterprise applications" out there still coded for IE5.5 / IE 6.0 HTML and there is not enough money to fix them.
Trust me, I work on one....
At least it's not "Your desktop IS your browser."
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
It will be interesting to see if this is true, sources say. At least it will look like Chrome and Firefox, sources say..... sources say, sources say, sources say...
If the JS and rendering engines are the same, then there's nothing new that matters to developers. Making it look like Chrome/FF is not necessarily a good thing, as those browsers have stripped the browser UI of many of the most important elements.
Trident is ancient hacked up garbage that MS needs to replace.
Enh. TFA seems long on speculation. I can see Microsoft doing this in an effort to (a) create a browser that is performant on portable hardware, (where their competition clearly beats them) and (b) try to (eventually) dump the millstone of decades of backwards compatibility, which is, in general, a good thing. [1] But just because it's a logical move is not proof in and of itself that Microsoft is actually doing it.
But I wonder how different, and especially how "lightweight" this hypothetical browser can be if it's using the same rendering engine? Wouldn't it just be IE with a different skin?
[1] apropos of nothing: Over Christmas break, at my daughter's request, I installed an old Windows 95 game on her Windows 7 PC, and it worked! I was deeply impressed. And a little appalled.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
another first generation microsoft product
So they keep the Rendering Engine and the JS Engine... but otherwise IT'S COMPLETELY NEW...
like a new shirt... for grandpa.
Right now, if I make a website or web application, I need to test it on Chrome, a couple different versions if IE, and FireFox. If I have the time, I can test it on Safari and Opera as well. I also need to test my site/application on my laptop, a tablet, and a smartphone. The latter two in both Android and iOS. After all of this, I can rest assured that my web site/application will work fine - at least until someone comes in with a weird configuration that I didn't test and it all blows up*.
Now Microsoft is going to add in "Spartan" as a new web browser for me to test on? If they are going to sunset IE and switch to Spartan, that would be one thing. Yes, IE usage would remain for awhile but it would be a constantly dwindling population until it got small enough to simply ignore due to time constraints. If they plan on running with two different browsers, though, they're just making the lives of web developers everywhere even harder.
* Anyone who says "just code to standards and your web site/application won't have problems" hasn't coded anything too complex. There are always browser quirks and what works in one browser isn't guaranteed to work in another one. Though, usually, I've found that IE is the problem-browser (especially older versions) and Chrome/Firefox/etc work nicely with, at worst, minor issues.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
giving up control is an anathema to them
- there, FTFY
Although, given how much their market share has been slipping, perhaps anthem is the right word after all?
If so it's dead on arrival.
"... giving up control is anthem to them."
For future reference, that should be "anathema".
You mean, like how Google is heavily restricting Chrome extensions these days?
n/t
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
IE is the best browser to use to download other browsers.
Sent from my TARDIS
Glad they aren't trying to spit polish that same old turd yet again.
Sometimes I wonder if IE's biggest problem these days is marketing and the negative reputation they've built with older version of IE. I had to use IE recently here at work and it's not bad; certainly not the horrible, buggy, bloated POS it was in the 90s (comparatively speaking). I still prefer IE and Mozilla (plugins, etc), but if faced with a modern IE I wouldn't loathe it. So, IE isn't so bad anymore. But because it was so shitty for the longest time, I really don't want to go back to it. Perhaps this is what MS has realized: They're going to have to change the name so people won't associate the new browser with bad memories of the past...
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
MS knows it has to do something right to save their ass; Remember when Bill thought the internet browser wasn't a big thing and The Netscape catch up? Their answer? make the IE logo spin like the Netscape one, ha ha. Then slowly websites started working better in IE than netscape for some reason... Well putting away the cluttered browser no one uses anymore couldn't hurt right? Maybe it will have it's own Porn search engine that can't be tracked...
It might be a pseudo-english term invented by german speakers.
Give it some more time, and also you'll be calling your mobiles 'handy'.
I fucking better not have to rewrite all my ASP.NET web apps.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Just how many times can you say "Sources Say" in a slashdot blurb.
Creating a new browser means reinventing old and new bugs. MS is still getting rid of bugs in Windows Explorer in version 11 and the new browser will take at least 11 or more versions and hundreds of patches to even come close to other, more mature browsers. What are they thinking?
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
I always thought IE's big security problem was its tight integration with the Windows OS. Too easy a path for malware into the core of the system. I hope this new browser just sits on top of the OS like a regular application, and every other browser. Updating the browser would be easier too and not require a reboot either. Let MS do this and remove IE completely and just leave behind what elements needed for their file manager!
So if Microsoft is staying with the same old engine and doing basically just tweaking and UI improvements. Is it any big deal? Look at the market share and realize Microsoft has again dropped the ball on what used to be the leader in browsers. I am no big Google fan, but numbers say many like Chrome and that seems to be the trend. Firefox is shrinking and the rest are really bottom feeders for the small few who want a browser that does certain things well. I still use IE when I have too, which is not often. If I could completely drop it I would.
Look Microsoft hates the very idea of Extensions - giving up control is anthem to them.
IOW, they'll do it when the fat lady sings?
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It might be a pseudo-english term invented by german speakers.
That is actually a pretty concise definition of "English."
Good to see MS playing catchup but my sources are either ketchup or mustard, who gives a shit about the browser vendor so long as it works?
How fast is the VBScript engine?!
We already have the original Internet Explorer and the metro "Internet Explorer", which isn't quite the same thing, and now a whole new browser (new but still using the same rendering engine and javascript engine as before).
poor performance on hardware nearing 10 years old
who would have thought
in unrelated news, my hp48gx can not run crysis.
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
But Active-X plugins are perfectly fine and safe?
They are going to need in order to gain any traction in the mobile world, where they have been stuck at 3% (or below) market share for years now. Their monopoly in the desktop won't help much here.
i'm having difficulties getting my tandy to load up titan fall and destiny...
at least not if they keep up with the path they started with IE10 and continued on with 11. They've been pushing standards compliance because they can make way more money selling software-as-a-service (Office 365) then keeping browser competition down. Netscape's dead, buried and the built a playground on the burial site. Firefox and Chrome exist to serve ads. It's a different market now that requires different strategies, and Microsoft isn't shy about pivoting.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Except IE is slow at like 15-25 tabs and get worse the whole time.
Chrome more instantly become shit and and the 64 bit version is way worse than the 32 bit one.
Something new with lots of holes to PEN test!
giving up control is anthem to them
Right here on Slashdot, the quality of public education on display.
It's worth killing IE dead if that stops people turing their MS Windows PCs and the file shares they are connected to into a malware swamp with just a single click.
If I sent an accurate description of the malware situation now back in time to 2000 it would be discarded as a blatant attack rant on MS disguised as incredibly unlikely SF.
If the browser Crashes they MUST include "THIS IS MADNESS!" as the error message.
when it starts up one 200% Volume soundbite playing "THIS IS SPARTA!!!"
if not done by MS....im sure we can get it via plugins.
MicroSoft Disk or SSD Windows Desktop and Mobile Operating System Roman Numeral X.
Immersive IE, the metro/ modern / Windows 8 store style Windows app version is slated to go away in Windows 10, so there'll only be two browsers. Given MS and their complete inability to name things I expect the difference will be IE / IE for business or IE / IE Express but I probably need more coffee to get more confusing.
The instability is the big one for me. It does a good job of rendering content these days, but I've got a few pages that can crash IE every time if you just sit on the page for a couple of minutes. WinPhone, too, although different sites. And it's been like this for at least 5 years. Maybe they figured it's the only way to "fix" IE (that and the Trident code fork), but odds are, Spartan will crash just like it's older brother.
ok it wasnt just me...
MS always wanted us to extend their browser. The problem is they basically let us inject code right into the browser. It was a cool idea but badly thought out.
So modern browsers are a disaster on 8 years old hardware with ram filled and 8GB filled of the swap space? I don't believe you...
http://dictionary.reference.co...
Which is worse than viewing Apple's ads and making them more money...how?
user created dictionaries aren't dictionaries
Yes they are. If you want to see how well prescriptivism works go to France. Even the French hold l'Academie Francaise in contempt... although the same can be said about most things where the French are concerned.
Does it run crys.. Oh never mind
60% of the language is based on Latin roots.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Have you seen the memory these things gobble?
Murphy was an optimist
MS PLEASE!!!
Do not make it "seamlessly intergetraited" into the operating system. Please take a look at the 7 layers of the OSI model. A browser is an aplication not only is it an application but an application that is normally used in an insecure environment ( the Internet) so sand box that bitch not make it part of the OS.
Thank you.
I continue with it.
Yeah. So.
IE 10 - Shit.
Firefox - This was the browser fooling around with tabs and blinking and shit. Machine never uses up more than 4 GB of RAM and 4 GB of swap but the browser act like shit and graphics become black and such. Turns out the build is 32 bit (As far as I understood there was no considering fully working 64 bit version as is.)
Chrome 32 bit - Best by far
Chrome 64 bit - Far from the one above for me.
As for "10 year old machine" - So what?
(Opera I guess is just wasted effort for the moment.. Kinda like IE 10.. and maybe evil minds would even dare say F...)
The browsers? Yes? That's kinda the idea.. but in relation to each others.
Firefox loses out because it only runs one process (forgot to say that) and is 32-bit so stuck at 4 GB.
Why Chrome 64-bit act much worse than 32-bit I don't know for sure but the difference is huge.
Chrome 64-bit act worse at less RAM usage than Chrome 32-bit.
IE I haven't bothered much with. Just get slower and slower for the little you add and in the end you give up and open Chrome anyway.
So modern browsers are a disaster on 8 years old hardware with ram filled and 8GB filled of the swap space? I don't believe you...
... except IE do it way-way beyond that while Chrome 32-bit works ok up to like full ram and 16+ GB of swap
(and Chrome 64-bit do so before 32-bit one do.)
Absolutely correct. IE is a lot like M$ Outlook. One asks the question "How in the hell can you need a binary image that big, and consume that much memory, just to give me a simple grid of my emails and a fucking calendar?"
:-)
Because we create Web Sites for public consumption I often find myself doing final client acceptance testing with Chrome, FireFox, Safari, and IE all running at the same time, Windows is practically crushed on a 3 year old premium desktop by this.... Which is just wrong
Murphy was an optimist
Well.. I've tried to use kmail in KDE...
That was on an even worse machine but whatever. .. and then there's mutt. Or gmail.
I hear ya. The thing is, Exchange Server is pretty slick, it does things that IMAP doesn't. It's the suck-ass bloatware that is the client that's the issue...
For example I have a desktop, a laptop I take to meetings, and an iPad. IMAP can synch the inbox... Exchange synchs the sent items folder. Which is really useful... if you're 100 miles from your desktop and needing to find an email you sent this morning while in the office.
Although I think Outlook's main selling point is that Lotus notes sucks even more LOL. Gmail's OK except that I use open windows email as my task list sometimes...
Murphy was an optimist
It's more likely that your computer is just shit (hint: 4x the speed of an eight year old, dual-core Athlon 64 still isn't very fast). IE launches and responds faster than any other browser on my system and is very comparable in JavaScript speed and HTML rendering to Chromium.