back to article Microsoft enlists web security pariah Adobe to help build Internet Explorer-killer Spartan

Microsoft has revealed it's working with Adobe on some aspects of project Spartan, its replacement browser that will confine Internet Explorer to the Antique Code Show. When one contemplates Adobe's contribution to browsers, it's hard not to think of the carnage its Flash plugin has wrought with a seemingly never-ending …

  1. Ian Easson

    This is the new Microsoft

    Let your partners in, but not so much they can destroy the whole foundation.

    1. PeterM42
      FAIL

      Re: This is the new Microsoft

      "Let your partners in, but not so much they can destroy the whole foundation."

      Er... I think you will find Microsoft have done that for themselves.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    (No title required)

    So, Microsoft can't actually write a web browser by itself?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: (No title required)

      That's news to you? Haven't they already very thoroughly proved it? Ad nauseam.

    2. dogged

      Re: (No title required)

      Adobe Web Platform Team are among the largest UI/UX contributors to Chrome and about a third of the way down the list on Firefox.

      Just don't let them anywhere near scripting.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Re: (No title required)

        "Adobe Web Platform Team are among the largest UI/UX contributors to Chrome and about a third of the way down the list on Firefox."

        So those are the fuckers who are responsible.

        1. dogged

          Re: (No title required)

          Pretty much, yeah :)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So the Spartans have invited the Trojans around to advise on the decor?

    "It's alright lads, they're just going to show us the newest UI thinking for decorative sculptures - it seems horses are very big this season. Boy do I feel sorry for our competitors - someone is in for a very big surprise!"

    1. Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: So the Spartans have invited the Trojans around to advise on the decor?

      20 internet points to Gryffindor! Top comment ;-)

    2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Re: So the Spartans have invited the Trojans around to advise on the decor?

      Great title, if I could give you 300 up-votes I would!

    3. John Sanders
      Pint

      Re: So the Spartans have invited the Trojans around to advise on the decor?

      Chapeau! the best comment!

      +100 points for you sir, and a pint!

  4. a_yank_lurker

    Where is the third blind mouse, Oracle?

    1. Captain DaFt

      "Where is the third blind mouse, Oracle?"

      Geez, are you trying for critical mass?

      The three of them working together on a browser could well trigger the internet apocalypse!

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Coat

        Oracle will be advising on LocalStorage functionality. After the first year you'll have the choice of negotiating Spartan's licence fee with one of Oracle's salesman or having the Ask Toolbar integrated as part of the browser experience.

  5. Kanhef
    Alert

    Very much panicking here

    Any code that handles web pages (i.e., untrusted data) can and will be used as an attack target. I recall a Firefox exploit where image buffers were allocated but not initialized; attackers could use it to read the contents of the screen. If vulnerabilities exist, they will be exploited; if it's written by Adobe, there will be vulnerabilities.

    1. Antonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Very much panicking here

      "Don't panic: The Photoshop giant's doing the pretty bits, not the secure bits"

      Eh? So who's doing the "secure" bits then? Microsoft??!??!?!!?!!!!!!one

      ratflmao

      That same Microsoft Corporation Inc. wot spawned IE upon the Earth?

      That's supposed to reassure us?

      1. gollux

        Re: Very much panicking here

        Just remember, Microsoft needed help the first time as well. They bought SpyGlass in a panic over Mosaic's success on the infant web of the time. And think how NSA appropriate the original name SpyGlass for the Internet Browser sieve that got renamed to Microsoft Internet Explorer.

  6. Mark 85

    Something about this arrangement..

    I can't quite put my finger on it, but something tells me that we're all so screwed as far as browser security goes. But it might look pretty... It it's just eyewash and nothing coming in via the web is being touch by Adobe... we might (big MIGHT) ok.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Something about this arrangement..

      I smell shenanigans too.

      Perhaps the two stooges are tired of the all flack they're getting from being caught doing the NSA's shimming and have banded together so they can each hide behind a beautifully harmonised "it was him"

      1. Ole Juul

        Re: Something about this arrangement..

        This is not good. As someone who only uses open source, Microsoft can be a problem, but that's nothing. Adobe is the devil.

  7. Antonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    I wonder...

    Who's embracing, extending... whom?

  8. Sanctimonious Prick
    Facepalm

    The Photoshop giant's doing the pretty bits, not the secure bits

    Yeah, but, what about that TrueType font handling thing?

    1. Ole Juul
      Mushroom

      Re: The Photoshop giant's doing the pretty bits, not the secure bits

      A whole browser written entirely in Flash would be pretty, don't you think?

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Alert

        Re: The Photoshop giant's doing the pretty bits, not the secure bits

        Forget about Flash, it could even look as good as Acrobat Reader.

      2. PeterM42
        Mushroom

        Re: The Photoshop giant's doing the pretty bits, not the secure bits

        "A whole browser written entirely in Flash would be pretty, don't you think?"

        I have renamed it as "CRASH" 'coz that's just about all it does.

    2. Antonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: The Photoshop giant's doing the pretty bits, not the secure bits

      Don't worry, font rendering is only a "pretty bit." Completely harmless. MSFT didn't really incorporate it into Windows' kernel. Nothing to see here. Move along...

      Déjà vu?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Also in the news Hannibal Lecter has been taken on by the local council as a lollipop man and is going to advise on road safety for children.

    1. Elmer Phud

      Ah, come off it!

      Not enough meat on small people . . .

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Ahhh... but..

        it's sweeter, the closer to the bone it is. smacks lips, fires up the barby

  10. naive

    Are they already finding excuses for flaws in sofware they did not release yet ?

    It seems Microsoft needs a better spin doctor. Apart from that, one can really ask what is the gain for Microsoft to make yet another browser with all the security exposure such a product has by its nature.

    How much more sense it seems to make to support browser development for an existing browser like firefox, improve a proven code base and help to make the world a safer place.

    1. nematoad

      Re: Are they already finding excuses for flaws in sofware they did not release yet ?

      "... for an existing browser like firefox, improve a proven code base..."

      Yes, get rid of all that Australis crap for a start.

      Though I wouldn't hold my breath. FF runs on Linux so is probably persona non grata round Redmond way.

  11. Lostintranslation

    Here's our newest design for Spartan. It involves a splash of cleverly designed colorful rectangular boxes, each of which has a different function. I don't know why anyone hasn't thought of it before.

  12. This post has been deleted by its author

  13. PeterM42
    FAIL

    Sounds like......

    ...YET ANOTHER disaster impending from Microshit.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thermopylae anyone?

    Weren't the spartans at Thermopylae undone by an un-secured backdoor?

    Just saying.....

  15. Dwarf

    Why stop at Internet explorer

    Looks like the whole of Windows 10 could do with it - assuming they want some consistency over everything.

    Looking at windows 7 would be s good start for look and feel

  16. PNGuinn
    Mushroom

    "The Photoshop giant's doing the pretty bits, not the secure bits"

    So - pretty insecure all round then.

    Icon - Nuke 'em BOTH from space - it's the only way to be sure.

  17. This post has been deleted by its author

  18. largefile

    I'll be happy if somehow in the future I'm protected from drive by installs of Chrome every time I update an Adobe product. Maybe with the new relationship Microsoft can get Adobe to "uncheck" the install chrome box.

  19. Tree

    Bloated

    It might start out spartan, but will soon turn to bloatware if Adobe has anything to do with it. I fear that the two software giants want to track me and know more about me than Facebutt and Gurgle combined.

  20. William Towle
    Joke

    Contributing “in the areas of layout, typography, graphic design and motion”.

    ...we're getting marquee text back?

    // hopes not

  21. This post has been deleted by its author

  22. athame
    FAIL

    Athenians Beware

    Putting the word Spartan and Adobe in the same sentence is surely a contradiction in terms?

    Would you order a truck load of ready mix concrete to fill a blimm hole?

    Expect major bloat ware.

    Meanwhile Athenians quake in their beds waiting for the adobe sky to fall in on them.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Adobe won't handle and security . . .

    . . . and Microsoft will.

    That's supposed to make everyone feel better? Really?

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