Browser Wars Declared Over?

Kelson writes to mention Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera and Google took the stage this week at the Web 2.0 expo and in addition to discussing pressing issues have declared their intent to avoid another browser war. All the panelists agreed that security was the largest concern currently facing browser developers. "Brendan Eich, the chief technology officer at Mozilla, said that security was hard and always will be. 'I don't think we should take security lightly; it's an end-to-end problem and we have to step outside the current model to win on this front,' he said. For his part, Chris Wetherell, a software engineer at Google, said one of the scenarios that kept him awake at night was offline access to the browser and what that meant from a security perspective, particularly on the user-to-user front."

Another Misleading Headline

[WrongSizeGlass]

FTFA:

But the primary participants in the industry were not interested "in another browser war. We are all committed to interoperability and we are listening to what our users want," he said.

That paragraph is the only mention of browser wars (or any kind of war, fighting, slapping or name calling) in that article. I officially declare my contempt for this thread and all posts in it (including my own).

Security, sure, but let's not forget consistency

[PapayaSF]

As a web developer, my biggest concern (aside from the difficulties creating multi-column CSS layouts [slashdot.org]) involves differences in the way browsers render pages. It's incredibly frustrating to write perfectly valid HTML/XHTML and CSS and have the pages show up very differently depending on the browser. The biggest offender, of course, is Internet Explorer, and now that version 7 is out but many haven't switched to it, I have to test in both 6 and 7. And since I couldn't figure out a way to install both on one PC, my workstation now has a Mac and two PCs for IE6 and IE7 browser testing. I consider this Microsoft's contribution to global warming....

I estimate that at least 10% of my time is spent avoiding and tracking down browser display differences that really shouldn't exist in the first place. I get paid by the hour so maybe I shouldn't complain, but the inefficiency of the whole thing still bugs me.

Yalta, 1945

[smellsofbikes]

I am reminded of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meeting at Yalta in 1945 [historyplace.com] as they start to pre-emptively divide up their mutual enemy, while declaring that they'll all cooperate in the future.

Re:Security, sure, but let's not forget consistenc

[marcosdumay]

You can install both at the same computer if you run Linux. Take a look at WineTools.

I dont want them to be over!

[schweini]

I, for one, would not want the browser wars to be over - as someone else pointed out, the fact that there's a "war" going on is a good thing, since that means that web developers, frameworks and companies all have to think of the other browsers, instead of only IE, as they did ca. 5 years ago. This, in turn, means that they will try to stick to the official standards (as much as they can), which in turn means that if I'd want to develop a new browser from scratch, it would be a lot easier for me to code it, and for users to use it, as long as it sticks to the standards, which means that competition is open for all. Even though I try to enlighten all IE users I meet, and try to get them to switch to a superior browser, the fact that IE users are out there is fine with me, as long as their mass doesn't squash any alternatives. So, now that the browser wars are waging again, we only have to start the 'war' on Office-like-products (by getting OpenDocument accepted, or at the very least all important standards opened), in order to give alternative software suites a fair fighting chance to compete on functional grounds, instead of the same old "oh, but everybody else is using MS Office, so I can't switch even if I wanted to". After that is accomplished, getting people to switch, or at least try alternative operating systems would be a breeze.

Re:Security, sure, but let's not forget consistenc

[Kalriath]

Actually, I don't think that's the case. Seriously, I can actually picture Visual Studio's development team at Microsoft glaring evilly at the Internet Explorer team. Have you seen what Visual Studio thinks of IE hacks in your CSS? Let's just say that if it looks right in VS, it'll look right in Firefox. But the demons help you if you want it to look right in Internet Explorer. "filter? What the fuck kind of CSS attribute is filter? FIX YOUR CSS2.1, BITCH!" "-moz-opacity? Nuh uh! I don't see THAT in the spec!" And my personal favourite "Wherre's your demon damned doctype? INSERT A BLOODY DOCTYPE!" Yeah. That's Visual Studio's take on "IE CSS Extensions" or "Firefox CSS extensions". Oh, and VS does the Box Model like Firefox, not IE.

The Browser Wars Are Over When...

[YetAnotherBob]

The Browser Wars are over when Microsoft bundles Firefox with Windows. (They will of course also have the latest IE, maybe opera too, possibly a Konquerer spin-off.)

Until then, it's all just wishful thinking.