back to article IE captain flees Microsoft for Google

After fifteen years of work on Internet Explorer, browser architect Chris Wilson is leaving Microsoft for Google. "As I reached the conclusion that I’d helped IE along as much as I could, I felt it was a good time to reassess where I ultimately want to go with my career, and I realized that I really needed to stretch my wings …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    So was his work at MS passively good

    or actively evil?

  2. Gunnar Wolf

    What possibly happens...

    Is that the reality field around Wilson has shifted - so that MS is just "standard practice". And next to it, Google is undeniably good. Not perfect (that's left for monks on hills like the Free Software flowerchildren) but just good.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    This does not bode well...

    ... for chrome

    1. Blain Hamon
      Coat

      You're worried about Chrome?

      This does not bode well for office chairs!

    2. MacroRodent
      Happy

      Internet time

      With the 1-year noncompete clause, the issue is moot. An eternity in internet time.The hottest browser next September is ChromedSafariFox 0.9 that nobody has heard about yet. Or the desktop browser wars may be irrelevant because everyone uses the net only via smartphones next year.

      1. MadonnaC

        what non-compete?

        Noncompete agreements are automatically void as a matter of law in California, except for a small set of specific situations expressly authorized by statute. (California Business and Professions Code Section 16600). See, e.g., Edwards v. Arthur Andersen LLP, 44 Cal. 4th 937 (2008). They were outlawed by the original California Civil Code in 1872.[6]

  4. The Cube
    Thumb Up

    "Open Web Platform in Microsoft’s Developer Division"

    Ha

    Hahahahahahhaha!

    Hahaahahahha!

    Oh, who says Redmond execs have no sense of humour?

    "Open", good one, off to Google to put "Privacy" in his job title now?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Going to google to do "good"?

    I wonder if the sky is blue in his world?

    1. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

      Blue Desktop maybe...

      Well, he did work at M$...

      The point is, google is going to probably regret it if they let him touch too much, which can only be good, I suppose.

  6. Sailfish
    Pint

    Good for him and ...

    the industry. Chris gets to experience other challenges and Google gets more talent in the Chocolate Factory.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So what was his excuse for the crap standards support in IE?

    Will Chrome suffer in future?

    1. dave 46

      Bad standards support

      Is standard operating procedure at Redmond - it's not a bug it's a feature, a mission critical feature.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting...

    That he leaves as IE 9 is showing some promise of being closer adherence to standards..

    1. Martijn Bakker
      Boffin

      Standards adherence

      Don't worry about IE's standards adherence

      Every IE version since IE5 has been promised to feature "better support for HTML x", "closer adherence to CSS standard y" and "improved support for Ecmascript z".

      This brought us to the point where IE8 needed a separate IE7 compatibility mode.. but had an equally lousy support for actual (x)HTML,CSS etc.

      In variation on a venerable, white bearded joke: MS promised they won't violate standards any more (of course they won't violate them any less, either)

  9. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
    Grenade

    "he will not work on Chrome at Google – at least not initially"

    Hehehe... If google are wise, they won't ever put him on Chrome.

    I reckon they're probably milking him for intel. What good would he bring to google one wonders, but ruin.

  10. Bilgepipe

    Microsoft != Open

    Open Web Group? In Microsoft? Sounds like he was fed up with having nothing to do....

  11. The BigYin

    He wants to do good?

    OK then - leave the 'net alone!

    Prediction: Google begins to use tech that is not part of an open and accepted standard, locking customers (companies and individuals) to their platform. Businesses did not learn from IBM, and did not learn from MS. They are doomed to shaft themselves again.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Internet Deplorer? or Internet Exploder?

    Wasn't that another great reason to not use Microsoft products?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You want to do good...

    Go join the FSF

    How much money do you need?

  14. Keith 21
    WTF?

    What?!

    He wants to "do good" so he joins the corporation whose mantra is, quite blatantly and these days openly, Do Evil?!

    Ho hum.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Muppets

    1 year non compete. LOL.

    Yes, he'll be officially doing something else. But he might just happen to be in the staff cafe and the Chrome guys might just sit next to him and he might just get talking about what the roadmap for IE is and you never know what might happen next.

    Chrome will be doomed thanks to his influence. IE 9 is doomed unless you're running Windows 7 (of course, corporations who want an easy life may keep it alive). Firefox will run out of money. Safari - if someone at Apple has the guts to look into utilising graphic hardware acceleration on the PC platform might just have a chance and Opera - well, I don't know how they make any money...

  16. Simon B
    Grenade

    bob no and what hope of doig good at google

    I hope that I can use this as an opportunity to not only do no evil, but to actively do good he said.

    hope to do good at Google? Bob hope? no hope? what hope?

  17. ddogsdad
    Stop

    NNNOOOO!!!!!!!!!

    Say it ain't so....IE anything Sux....

  18. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    WTF?

    One can only hope google has done this so they can take him outside and shoot him.

    Architecting the worlds least compatible and least secure browser, killing off competition then sitting on his arse for 7 years, and only spurred in to action when Firefox started taking market share. Putting down is the only humane thing to do.

    1. Jean-Luc
      Thumb Down

      Fairly representative, but no less idiotic.

      than the other comments.

      IE sucks. So what? IE9 may actually be a bit more standards compliant. Who knows?

      More to the point, maybe he wasn't so happy with the dumb M$ corporate strategy on IE. Maybe he's actually a clever guy who actually wanted to build a better browser. If he was nominated to participate on the standards committees, maybe it was because he actually liked standards.

      Unless I know the details, I won't hold one person accountable for the mess that IE is. It may very well have been his boss and the boss above and... Balmer (one person on which I do wish a pox).

      None of you ever worked for a team of morons? Good for you. And spare me the "you could have worked elsewhere bit". Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't (15 years _is_ a long time though).

  19. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    'I want to do good'???

    Going from Microsoft (who got so big for their boots that they thought they could tell the world what to do) to Google (who are getting so big for their boots that they think they can tell the world what to think)...?

    Has anyone else's Irony Detector just gone into meltdown?

  20. Rob Dobs
    Linux

    Birds of a feather....

    This says more about Google and their culture, than it does about M$.

    Wouldn't a do no evil company have no place for ex M$ execs?

  21. Wibble
    IT Angle

    CV reads...

    1995-1997 - beat those bastards at Netscape by ignoring standards

    1997-2000 - write our own "standards" and build several substandard browsers

    2000-2005 - created a substandard browser that proper fucked the web and held back development

    2005-2008 - created a substandard browser that proper fucked the web and held back development

    2008-2010 - created a mediocre browser that didn't support HTML5

    2010 - built a browser that's nearly, but not quite, as good as all the others

    Why, Google, Why?

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