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 …
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.
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]
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)
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.
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...
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.
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).
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?
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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