Microsoft tempted by Apple’s WebKit

Posted on 7 Nov 2008 at 10:06

Microsoft is considering the merits of Apple’s WebKit as an alternative rendering engine for its Internet Explorer web browser.

Chief executive Steve Ballmer made the surprising revelation in response to a question at a developers’ conference in Australia.

He was asked why Microsoft is spending money on its own rendering engine “when there are open source ones available that can respond to changes in Web standards faster?”.

Answering the “cheeky, but good” question, Ballmer said that he found open source alternatives interesting, specifically WebKit.

“Apple has embraced Webkit and we may look at that,” he said.

But for the time being, Microsoft is committed to Internet Explorer and particularly Microsoft’s own extensions to web page functionality.

“There will still be a lot of proprietary innovation in the browser itself so we may need to have a rendering service,” he said, suggesting that while Internet Explorer 8 pays much more attention to web standards than its predecessors, Microsoft is still determined to do its own thing.

Ballmer also said that he is impressed by the success of Apple’s App Store and by other platforms for quickly distributing software, notably Facebook.

“Some good work is being done with Facebook and the iPhone where it’s easy for developers to distribute applications. It’s easier to get exposure,” he said. “Microsoft can do more here. We are not ready to talk about opportunities, but fear not! We are hard at work, particularly with Facebook.”

[photo: Q&A with Steve Ballmer by Sumith Meher; some rights reserved]

Author: Simon Aughton

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