Mozilla & Microsoft, Strange Bedfellows, Stranger Allies

You know things are getting weird when Microsoft and Mozilla agree on anything. After all, one is a closed source developer, the other is open source. The one uses bullying tactics and sheer market drive to push its browser, the other has used an appeal of quality to the prospective users.

This is one of those ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ moments, which in the land of computers, comes very infrequently.

The problem for many seems to be that Chrome, or any browser based upon the WebKit engine, is the enemy of the old guard – any browser not using that framework.

It does seem very convenient, however, that a company that stresses its differences from the industry leader as those of safety, would attack another browser on the basis of its strides to make the industry leader safer, though it might be by non-standard means (plug-in).

from ComputerWorld

But Chrome Frame’s biggest problem, said Baker, is that it cedes control to the site, not the person surfing. And that will just confuse users.

“For many people, Chrome Frame will make the Web even more unknowable and confusing,” Baker said. “Image you download Chrome Frame. You go to a Web site. What rendering engine do you end up using? That depends on the Web site now, not on you.”

Microsoft took a different tack when it slammed Google for releasing Chrome Frame. The plug-in, claimed Microsoft, not only doubles the risk of attack — users have to worry about vulnerabilities in both IE and Chrome — but also breaks several features in its browser, including the private browsing mode.

Mike Shaver, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering, weighed in yesterday alongside Baker, but also gave Google some advice.

“The user’s understanding of the Web’s security model and the behavior of their browser is seriously hindered by delegating the choice of software to the developers of individual sites they visit,” Shaver said. “It is a problem that we have seen repeatedly with other stack plug-ins like Flash, Silverlight and Java, and not one that I think we need to see replayed again under the banner of HTML 5.

“It would be better for the Web if developers who want to use the Chrome Frame snippet simply told users that their site worked better in Chrome, and instructed them on how to install it,” Shaver added.

The people at Mozilla, by making Google a target through the third party (the user) takes the coward’s stance, and making the attack seem noble, instead of weak, and small. Besides, if their complaint is valid, why not release the results of their (hurried) analysis?

- also -

The Chrome Frame plug-in works with IE6, IE7 and IE8 on Windows XP and Windows Vista. It’s available from Google’s site as a free download.

Google did not immediately reply to a request for a reaction to Mozilla’s criticisms of Chrome Frame.

I’m thinking that Google saw no reason to give any response. What purpose would it serve.

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October 2009 – BCA Month

Race for the cure…

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