drgoodtrips
Feb 5th 2010, 11:48 AM
I've been doing some research for a class on operating systems and I stumbled across something interesting. Most people are familiar with chromium (google's chrome browser). The unique thing about chrome is that it applies the same principles of operating system security to the web browser. An operating system treats processes/applications as a series of things that it doesn't entirely trust and it isolates them from one another.
As the web browser has evolved to do more and more things, it has lagged behind in approach, leaving it open to all sorts of security vulnerabilities. There are three full scale projects that have recently attempted to rework the browser to act like an "OS for the web": a research concept browser called 'OP', chrome, and this:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10280270-56.html
This has gotten little hype or fanfare, but since the other two already exist, it seems as though Microsoft researchers are perhaps developing with an eye toward learning from the experience/use of the others. This is a pure R&D project completely independent of Internet Explorer development.
I just found it curious that Microsoft could wind up going from the dog of online security to its standard bearer, if this project is successful.
As the web browser has evolved to do more and more things, it has lagged behind in approach, leaving it open to all sorts of security vulnerabilities. There are three full scale projects that have recently attempted to rework the browser to act like an "OS for the web": a research concept browser called 'OP', chrome, and this:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10280270-56.html
This has gotten little hype or fanfare, but since the other two already exist, it seems as though Microsoft researchers are perhaps developing with an eye toward learning from the experience/use of the others. This is a pure R&D project completely independent of Internet Explorer development.
I just found it curious that Microsoft could wind up going from the dog of online security to its standard bearer, if this project is successful.