That's a real end of an era. Internet Explorer's legacy engine is going to be relegated to old grayhair horror stories. Not unhappy it's going away, but it feels like a big chapter is closing.
relegated to old grayhair horror stories.
We nearly lost the damn open web to the horror of IE6 and the peak "embrace, extend, extinguish" version of Microsoft.
Now, of course, we're happily creating another browser monoculture and handing the web over to Google. This time, we're doing it with a smile instead of a grimace.
Unlike IE6's reign of incompetent terror, Chrome is actually a competent browser. Techies are embracing the takeover instead of fighting it. It's guaranteed to succeed.
IE6 was also a good browser. It didn't stay a good browser over the 5-10-15 year lifespan it had (depending on who you ask) but at the time of release it was easily the best.
But it was pretty bad in other ways: security, stability, etc.
Seems like a better approach in every way than the old mosaic/trident closed source mess.
Sure, you can look at (most of) Chrome's source code, and fork it all day long if you want. But it will amount to little when it comes to actual control of the web. You simply won't have the marketshare to steer the direction of the web standards themselves.
The end result will be the same as we suffered with IE's dominance: de facto control of the web by a single entity.
But at least the ride to hell will be nicer.