3 ms·

> They would have a faster and more compliant engine than they seem to be able to build themselves. I don't believe it's a lack of ability - Microsoft could ea

> They would have a faster and more compliant engine than they seem to be able to build themselves. I don't believe it's a lack of ability - Microsoft could easily produce a standard complaint browser. Adopting WebKit doesn't necessarily they would keep it compliant. Given how important IE is to the Operating System in general, I doubt Microsoft could do this technically - not without breaking a raft of things... Given the incompatibility bumps with Vista I'll suspect they're would be seeking a more conservative path for the moment.

axod 18y ago
"Microsoft could easily produce a standard complaint browser" So why don't they? Is it to hold back the web so that they milk their desktop applications like Office a little bit more?
- jwilliams 18y ago
  Not sure - suspect it's because up until recently there wasn't much to compel them to.... Probably that combined with a lot of legacy to support.
  - axod 18y ago
    That's a really sad state of affairs though. Just because you have the most market share, it should not mean you stop innovating - It does seem like this is exactly what happened with IE6 though, and why IE is the total mess that it is. If Microsoft had actually embraced the internet as a new exciting medium, instead of just releasing IE to kill off mozilla, perhaps they would have been one of the ones leading new development, instead of trailing hopelessly behind all the time. I don't know what the answer is for IE, I can't see them giving up any control, they'll most likely muddle along with their own quirks and bugs while there's a slow but steady shift in users onto the new crop of browsers.
- briansmith 18y ago
  Download IE8 beta 2.
  - ivank 18y ago
    It has event bugs all the way back from IE6. It's not even close to compliant, except for the most complained-about things.
    - briansmith 18y ago
      DOM 2 event support and other javascript issues are easy to work around. If you use any kind of framework like jQuery then you usually don't even have to worry about them.
      - axod 18y ago
        That's a silly argument. The creators of the framework really have to worry about them. IE8 seems to be worse than the rest. Once again my site is broken in IE8. Just like it was in IE7 when that came out. They can't even keep the same basic functionality as previous versions.

axod 18y ago

"Microsoft could easily produce a standard complaint browser" So why don't they? Is it to hold back the web so that they milk their desktop applications like Office a little bit more?

jwilliams 18y ago
Not sure - suspect it's because up until recently there wasn't much to compel them to.... Probably that combined with a lot of legacy to support.
- axod 18y ago
  That's a really sad state of affairs though. Just because you have the most market share, it should not mean you stop innovating - It does seem like this is exactly what happened with IE6 though, and why IE is the total mess that it is. If Microsoft had actually embraced the internet as a new exciting medium, instead of just releasing IE to kill off mozilla, perhaps they would have been one of the ones leading new development, instead of trailing hopelessly behind all the time. I don't know what the answer is for IE, I can't see them giving up any control, they'll most likely muddle along with their own quirks and bugs while there's a slow but steady shift in users onto the new crop of browsers.
briansmith 18y ago
Download IE8 beta 2.
- ivank 18y ago
  It has event bugs all the way back from IE6. It's not even close to compliant, except for the most complained-about things.
  - briansmith 18y ago
    DOM 2 event support and other javascript issues are easy to work around. If you use any kind of framework like jQuery then you usually don't even have to worry about them.
    - axod 18y ago
      That's a silly argument. The creators of the framework really have to worry about them. IE8 seems to be worse than the rest. Once again my site is broken in IE8. Just like it was in IE7 when that came out. They can't even keep the same basic functionality as previous versions.