Just another webNivaran weblog
Browsers War
Browser Woes
7679 days
by webNivaran
in Browsers War
Windows 7 has been released worldwide, but in Europe, the retail copy of the latest OS from Microsoft has not come pre-installed with a browser. Internet Explorer, till recently was a part and parcel of the Windows OS. This change of circumstances has evolved due to the pressure from the European Commission, not only that, this was announced just before the ruling of Microsoft’s anti-trust charges.
The European regulators also added that Microsoft abuses its dominant status by adding their own internet browser leaving users with no choice on that subject. They had suggested that other browser be included in the package so consumers can make a choice for themselves, but Microsoft have retaliated by giving European consumers no choice at all.
What Drives the Browser ?
1680 days
by webNivaran
in Browsers War
The browser wars aren’t just about the feature-rich against the featureless, nor about open source software butting heads with Big Evil Corporation #22935. It’s really the underlying technology — the browser engines — at war here: the way these browsers take the mess that is HTML code, and turn it into something pretty for us to see.
Why, though, does the browser engine suddenly matter? We’re happy to compare programs on their features, because it’s really the features we’re using. Right? But there’s more to the browser than the features. With a great browser engine comes the ability to take that engine everywhere: from Windows to Linux to the Mac to the mobile phone to the game console to the Magic Intertube-surfing Shoe. A classic example is WebKit, which started out as the wind beneath Safari’s wings, but now powers Google Chrome, the Android web browser, the web browser for Symbian, Safari Mobile, and such obscure but well-loved browsers as OmniWeb and iCab.
The simplest engine
Let us consider a hypothetical browser engine whose only purpose is to take HTML and convert it into a displayed web page — none of these fancy JavaScript or CSS designs for this one. As it receives HTML code, it finds an opening tag — , for example — and recognizes that it needs to start spewing out bold text until it reaches the closing tag.
Browsers Ahoy
1680 days
by webNivaran
in Browsers War
Filled with activity in the browser industry, internet users have increased options to choose from. We look at the latest happenings with Opera, Safari and more
Browsers have witnessed significant changes in recent times. Whether it’s a boost in speed or some added functionality, browser developers are pulling out all the stops to come up with the most superior product. Opera developers also came out with their bid – Unite, a technology that they claim will turn a computer running the Opera browser into a web server. Contrary to the traditional client-server approach, Opera claims to place the user in control of his / her own data, by allowing users to connect directly to their friends for sharing files and also allowing several other activities such as networking and more. But who really wants so much control? More importantly, does anyone care? People are very comfortable having hundreds of photos hosted on third party servers. Most average users won’t even understand the difference between sharing content from hosted services and their own hard drive. If Opera wants to succeed with Unite, it’ll have to move past flogging this concept and playing on users inherent fears about privacy and control. Besides, many online bloggers have pointed out that given the centralized routing of data, you eventually do end up relying on Opera proxy servers, making this an indirect approach after all.
We seriously doubt all the hype that Unite will reinvent the web. Services such as Windows Live Sync and Dropbox have been allowing file-sharing and similar services for a long time, albeit without browser integration. In fact, many of the little services offered by Opera Unite are already being offered by different players independently. All Opera is doing is consolidating all of them under its browser’s umbrella – hardly ground breaking.
