Many people think that the browser is starting to replace the operating system as the center of the personal computer.
Naturally, the view that Windows is on a path to irrelevance is not one generally espoused by Microsoft. That said, at least some inside Redmond’s walls argue that the Web browser needs to start acting more like an operating system.
“Some of today’s browser policies are not very safe,” says Microsoft researcher Helen Wang.
Wang, who has been at Microsoft since getting her doctorate from University of California at Berkeley in 2001, argues that the Web browser should act as more than just a file clerk that rubber-stamps each request that comes its way. Rather, it should act more like a traffic cop, keeping things moving smoothly and ensuring that the computer’s resources are fairly allocated.
In short, Wang says, the browser needs to act more like Windows does–making sure that different Web applications are protected from one another–even those running within the same site. So Wang and her team came up with a prototype, called Gazelle, that does just that.
Microsoft first outlined Gazelle earlier this year, but has only recently started to detail its thinking. Wang plans to present a paper on Gazelle at the Usenix security conference next month, and last week Microsoft posted an article on its Web site explaining more about Gazelle.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10280270-56.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1
