Today I was going through this headline on many of the news sites. So I went on digging more about the news. I am not a windows guy. I love open source and its philosophy. But I like Windows too when it comes to UX. I am taking a neutral stand in it. Since my laptop doesn’t support Linux installation, I am using VM VirtualBox for installing Ubuntu inside it. It works fine anyway.
I have a good hands on with both Linux and Windows. With Windows 8 too. It is supposed to be released by the end of 2nd quarter of this year. It is expected to be a great release on their products portfolio which is being washed away by Android and iOS. Microsoft has their own browser IE which is still having the biggest market share than their competitors Firefox, Chrome and Safari. And also they have the biggest market share in desktop products. They have no other way to compete with Android and iOS, hence they have rewritten their Operating System to make Windows 8, which can also run on ARM based processor. Its a compulsive move for them to bring up the sinking market.
As far as I know, MS don’t follow any strategy to ban any particular application or software. They have a better platform to let others to build their own. I think this is just to make a media attention towards it and to make some stupid headlines without understanding the reality. I have reasons to stick with my point. I have used all versions of almost all browsers(IE, FF & Chrome). In my opinion, Chrome – Best|FF – Better|IE9 – Good. It varies between people and their usage. MS has made a lot of changes to their latest browser and Windows 8 comes with IE 10. I have tested that too. I am sure that it is better than IE9. They have completely rewritten their JS engine for IE9 and named it as Chakra.
The claim made was, Firefox is banned on Windows 8 ARM based editions. It is going to be used only on mobile, tablets and not on desktop products. My question is whether iOS allows firefox installation? whether Chrome OS supports firefox installation? A big NO to both the questions. They why not Microsoft? They have made a better product and they want to make it more popular now. And I don’t think, they are banning other browsers and definitely the standards and quality should be in higher end to get an approval since they are making a bigger push into both tablet and mobile market. Lets wait and see how this comes out.