Internet Explorer 9 to use Mozilla's Firefox code base

[safeguy]

Internet Explorer 9 to use Mozilla's Firefox code base

Microsoft Corporation today quietly announced the end of internal development of Internet Explorer. A spokesman said that one of the senior managers saw a car-bumper sticker which said "The only good use for Internet Explorer is to download Firefox", which prompted some soul-searching within the company.

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The spokesman sheepishly admitted that Microsoft had effectively lost what has now become infamously known as "the browser wars". Declining to give his name, he said "When we originally released Internet Explorer we really just wanted to crush Netscape. We did that for a while, but now Netscape is coming back to haunt us in the form of Mozilla Firefox. Given that Firefox's market share keeps growing, we just don't know how to make it go away, leaving us with only one option."

He went on to say that the next release of Internet Explorer will contain only Mozilla's Firefox code. "At the moment we plan to release in early 2010, but considering our recent release history, that may well be delayed. We'll still brand it as Internet Explorer, by removing Mozilla Corporations trademarked images and icons, in much the same way that Debian has done with Iceweazel."

The spokesman said that "With the global downturn, we began to think of ways in which we could cut costs. Microsoft realised that having software coders on staff is really expensive, and we figured that for the amount of time and effort they expend in trying to make the current versions of Internet Explorer secure and bug-free, we could just use Mozilla's code base and get better results".

In what is possibly a large under-statement, the spokesman said that "It will require a bit of effort on the part of our customers to get legacy applications and websites to work with the new version of Internet Explorer, but we have recently subjected them to Vista and Office 2007, which has raised their pain threshold, so we think we can sneak this one in under the radar." He also stated that the currently employed software developers would be redeployed to assist customers with their migrations onto the new version.

The Mozilla Foundation issued a statment saying that they were somewhat surprised but very pleased with this, stating that it "vindicated all the hard work, both from within Mozilla and from the wider community".

More information will be made available at Press Conferences scheduled by both Microsoft and the Mozilla Foundation for the 1st of April.

Qouted from: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24163/1162/

I can't wait to see what IE9 is gonna be like. What about you guys?

P.S. Thanks ceyfer for the link.

[Polkadot]

Very interesting. They are spending millions developing/maintaining a piece of redundant software. If this actually becomes a reality, they will have more resources to divert to improving their core business: Windows! It could become a major step forward for them.

[noaccount]

WOW...! I am not believing this stuff as i didn't fetch anything like it... Mozilla Foundation for the 1st of April... its a JOKE!

@safeguy: see here

[stuge]

this thread is epic fail now .

Yup !it was a April fools joke !

[Polkadot]

Joke or not, it would be the biggest improvement to Windows in a decade!

[LunarWolf]

Is it true or is just a joke?

[leofelix]

Is it true or is just a joke?

by Hamish Taylor    
Wednesday, 01 April 2009

We'll still brand it as Internet Explorer, 
by removing Mozilla Corporations trademarked 
images and icons

More information will be made available at Press Conferences 
scheduled by both Microsoft and the Mozilla Foundation 
for the 1st of April.

[ceyfer]

Joke or not, it would be the biggest improvement to Windows in a decade!

Agreed. it's a low cost dev't for MS while more benefits for the user.

[Polkadot]

Unfortunately, the EU would sue the crap out of them if that actually did happen...as if the EU had an alternative. M$ did in fact, develop, and ship IE with Windows to knock the S$%^ out of Netscape, and Netscape, rather than spending million$ per year in legal fees, decided to branch into alternative markets, and spin-off (as a non-profit organization) the Mozilla.org. The world has benefited from Netscape's decision. If M$ were to follow this trend, the browsing world would be better off.

EDIT: If you would like to see an example of the original "Netscape Suite" (obviously updated by Mozilla), check this out:
It is a Browser, Mail client, and HTML(WYSIWYG) editor, plus IRC client, check this out (I have it installed on my machine, but I have 'unchecked' it as a 'start-up'). The FF security fixes DO trickle down to them...same house!

http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/m....installer.exe

it is an all-in-one-suite that is low on resources, and provides browser, e-mail client, IRC client, and one of the best HTML WYSIWYG editors I have found. And from Mozilla, it is all FREE!

[Lee]

We just got I.E. 8 and now version 9 is coming.

12 years ago version 5 was a beta.

I hope it's not going to be a case of releasing a new number 1 up every year like most software companies do now days.