Gazelle (web browser)

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Gazelle was a research web browser project by Microsoft Research, first announced in early 2009. [1] The central notion of the project was to apply operating system (OS) principles to browser construction. [2] In particular, the browser had a secure kernel, modeled after an OS kernel, and various web sources run as separate "principals" above that, similar to user space processes in an OS. [2] The goal of doing this was to prevent bad code from one web source to affect the rendering or processing of code from other web sources. [2] Browser plugins are also managed as principals. [2]

Gazelle had a predecessor project, MashupOS, but with Gazelle the emphasis was on a more secure browser. [3] [4]

By the July 2009 announcement of ChromeOS, Gazelle was seen as a possible alternative Microsoft architectural approach compared to Google's direction. [5] [6] [7] That is, rather than the OS being reduced in role to that of a browser, the browser would be strengthened using OS principles. [5]

The Gazelle project became dormant, and ServiceOS arose as a replacement project also related to browser architectures. [8] [9] But by 2015, the SecureOS project was also dormant, after Microsoft decided that its new flagship browser would be Edge. [10] [11]

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References

  1. ↑ "The Multi-Principal OS Construction of the Gazelle Web Browser" (Microsoft Research whitepaper, PDF)
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Gazelle: Applying Operating System Concepts to the Browser" OSNews July 7, 2009
  3. ↑ Foley, Mary Jo (11 March 2011). "Microsoft's ServiceOS: A potential piece of Microsoft's cloud play, post-Windows 8". ZDnet. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  4. ↑ Foley, Mary Jo (23 February 2009). "Microsoft's MashupOS leaps like a Gazelle". ZDnet. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  5. 1 2 "Microsoft's Gazelle browser takes a radical path" CNet July 7, 2009
  6. ↑ "Google’s Chrome OS vs. Windows" The Week July 8, 2009
  7. ↑ "Google Chrome OS: is it copying Microsoft's Gazelle or is it more like Splashtop?" The Guardian July 8, 2009
  8. ↑ Resource Management for Web Applications in ServiceOS
  9. ↑ Foley, Mary Jo (26 May 2010). "ServiceOS: Microsoft's morphing browser-operating system project". ZDnet. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  10. ↑ Foley, Mary Jo (2 December 2015). "Microsoft plans to add containers to Windows client, too". ZDnet. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  11. ↑ Newman, Jared (29 April 2015). "'Project Spartan' no more: Microsoft's new browser is called Edge". PCWorld. IDG. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
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