Gazelle (web browser)

Gazelle was a research web browser project by Microsoft Research, first announced in early 2009.[1] The central notion of the project was to apply operating system (OS) principles to browser construction.[2] In particular, the browser had a secure kernel, modeled after an OS kernel, and various web sources run as separate "principals" above that, similar to user space processes in an OS.[2] The goal of doing this was to prevent bad code from one web source to affect the rendering or processing of code from other web sources.[2] Browser plugins are also managed as principals.[2]

Gazelle had a predecessor project, MashupOS, but with Gazelle the emphasis was on a more secure browser.[3][4]

By the July 2009 announcement of ChromeOS, Gazelle was seen as a possible alternative Microsoft architectural approach compared to Google's direction.[5][6][7] That is, rather than the OS being reduced in role to that of a browser, the browser would be strengthened using OS principles.[5]

The Gazelle project became dormant, and ServiceOS arose as a replacement project also related to browser architectures.[8][9] But by 2015, the SecureOS project was also dormant, after Microsoft decided that its new flagship browser would be Edge.[10][11]

  1. ^ "The Multi-Principal OS Construction of the Gazelle Web Browser" (Microsoft Research whitepaper, PDF)
  2. ^ a b c d "Gazelle: Applying Operating System Concepts to the Browser" OSNews July 7, 2009
  3. ^ Foley, Mary Jo (11 March 2011). "Microsoft's ServiceOS: A potential piece of Microsoft's cloud play, post-Windows 8". ZDnet. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  4. ^ Foley, Mary Jo (23 February 2009). "Microsoft's MashupOS leaps like a Gazelle". ZDnet. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Microsoft's Gazelle browser takes a radical path" CNet July 7, 2009
  6. ^ "Google’s Chrome OS vs. Windows" The Week July 8, 2009
  7. ^ "Google Chrome OS: is it copying Microsoft's Gazelle or is it more like Splashtop?" The Guardian July 8, 2009
  8. ^ Resource Management for Web Applications in ServiceOS
  9. ^ Foley, Mary Jo (26 May 2010). "ServiceOS: Microsoft's morphing browser-operating system project". ZDnet. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  10. ^ Foley, Mary Jo (2 December 2015). "Microsoft plans to add containers to Windows client, too". ZDnet. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  11. ^ Newman, Jared (29 April 2015). "'Project Spartan' no more: Microsoft's new browser is called Edge". PCWorld. IDG. Retrieved 22 April 2018.