OMG Chrome Uses Black Magic Code from “Voldermort”…err Microsoft!

Another shocker for the world of purists…Google’s Chrome browser uses a bit of open source code from Microsoft.

(btw – the reference to Microsoft as “Voldemort” is a lighthearted nod to the reporter from the Chrome announcement press conference who made the same reference).

Rather than the shock and sadness others may feel about Google using the tools of “You-Know-Who”, I see it as another sign of the right technical decision made by Google while developing software they give away free to the rest of us.

It’s a smart move by Google to use an open source library native from the OS provider to make their code run the best on that operating system. I expect Google to make use of Mac libraries when it finishes its port to OS X and Linux libraries for its port to that platform.  Why would they do anything else?

Technical choices aside, there is a lingering touch of oddness about this in that like the Chrome announcement press conference, Google doesn’t like mentioning “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”…clearly something is behind that.

Then again, maybe they are just being polite and following their mother’s rule of “If you can’t say something nice…don’t say anything at all”.

Whatever the case may be, Chrome users everywhere should say “Thank you Microsoft for releasing the your ‘Windows Template Library’ as open source. Even if Google had to be nudged to give you you credit, we’re still grateful. And more more thing…we like this open source thing, please do more.”

(PS – if anyone knows the name of the reporter who called Microsoft “Voldemort” during the Q&A section of the Google Chrome press conference, please post it as a comment so I can include it here. TY).

Google Reveals Reasons For Chrome Browser as Open Source

When Google announced the Chrome browser, part of that announcement included the fact that it would be released as open source.

That wasn’t much of a surprise, but they didn’t really specify the reasons for it.

Fortunately for us, Ben Goodger, former lead developer on Firefox and now one of the technical wizards behind Google’s Chrome browser shared his thinking with Wired magazine on the topic.

His 3 reasons:

1. “We’ll be able to scale our testing efforts”
2. “It’ll enable people to do things we haven’t thought of”
3. “And it’ll generate trust that we’re not doing something evil.”

It’s great when smart developers doing great work have their hearts and minds focused on doing the right things in the right way. Go Ben!

Ben Goodger’s personal blog is here.

Chrome rallies the “Army of the Dead” into battle

Huh?

I was reading a story by Matt Asay on CNET about how Chrome is ‘Google’s new Trojan Horse’.

He gets it. I posted a comment to his story that I thought was worth sharing here.

As I mentioned, geeks get where Chrome is going.

Everyone else is left scratching their heads and saying “What’s so cool about Chrome?” or “IE works fine, why do I need another browser?”.

Having seen the rise of Microsoft and their victory over Netscape, this Microsoft vs Google war is going to be VERY entertaining as it plays out.

Google’s revenue stream comes from ads. Microsoft’s comes from software.

Who better to harness the army of “software should be free” open source developers than the company who doesn’t depend on revenues from software?

Reminds me of “Lord of the Rings” where Aragorn raising the “Army of the Dead” for the battle of Minas Tirith…who could have guessed you could get THOSE guys to show up and join the battle against evil?????

Of course, I’ll end the analogy there without going so far as to call say that Microsoft are the forces of evil like Sauron and his crew.

They’ve actually done some great things for the world of software and computers…and Bill is doing great work for the world now.

Matt Asay’s full article is here.

PS – Thank you New Line Cinema for making a great set of films. The image above resides on their site “www.lordoftherings.net”.