Opinion: Microsoft’s involvement in the Chromium project has made Google’s Chrome browser better than ever.
What strange times we live in. Who’d have thought that I’d be writing an article on how Microsoft is the best thing to happen to Google Chrome? A few years ago the idea of Microsoft getting involved in an open source project would cause a mixture of laughter and dread.
You know… Microsoft, the foe of open source who had a CEO that once said that Linux was “a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches.” The company that couldn’t make a decent web browser to save its life.
But, believe it or not, I really do think that Microsoft’s involvement has made Chrome a much better browser.
First of all, Microsoft ditched its antipathy to open source a good while ago now, and it’s a now a platinum sponsor of the Linux Foundation, and in some metrics it’s also now the biggest open source contributor in the world.
Basically, since dropping its opposition to open source, and not only embracing it, but putting its money where its mouth is, the thought of Microsoft being involved with an open source project is no longer the stuff of nightmares.
