Apple, Microsoft: Birds of the same feather

Microsoft is being sued in the European Union(EU) for antitrust practices – yet again. The piece of software that’s the bone of contention is Internet Explorer. In spite of being one of lousiest browsers, extremely prone to security exploits, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still holds a majority stake in the market of web browsers. Mozilla’s Firefox, comparatively a much superior product, comes second by quite a distance. The EU now wants to stop Microsoft from bundling IE with its Windows family of operating systems or bundle other competing browsers too. The rationale behind such a directive is to allow users the choice of trying out an alternative.Anyway, Microsoft’s practices have always been anti-competitive and for this reason it has been much vilified by the pundits.

On the other hand, Apple, in spite of being even more closed than Microsoft, has never come under the radar of the anti-trust laws. Firstly, Apple prohibits the usage of its operating system on any hardware other than Apple branded ones. The hardware that Apple sells has significant markups even though it is not necessarily superior. So for the same hardware capability, consumers pay an exorbitant price. Isn’t that anti-competitive? How is it then that Apple never comes under the scrutiny of the anti-trust sharks? When Psystar started selling computers with Apple Mac OS installed, Apple decided to sue to the company. Many thought it would be an open and shut case, but guess what? Psystar continues to sell its brand of Open Computers preloaded with Apple Mac OS. Psystar has also brought forward anti-competitive charges against Apple. Till date Apple has not won the case. So is there are a chance that Apple might come under the anti-trust laws at last?

And Apple is a really sore loser. The recently announced Palm Pre stole the thunder from Apple in this year’s CES. Experts are predicting that the Pre would probably dethrone the Apple iPhone. So what does Apple do? It responded with a veiled threat of suing anyone(read Palm) for violation of their IP. Well the iPod design was not Apple’s and they ripped it off. They survived that because the previous patent was held by an individual who could not renew it due to financial constraints. And being the unscrupulous corporate that it is, Apple did not even think of paying a one time royalty to the guy. But when sued, they brought him over to lend credence to their case in court.

So ladies and gentlemen, next time before maligning Microsoft over a coffee-table discussion, please give Apple a fair thought. They are no better than Microsoft. The only difference is that Apple enjoys the loyalty of a few high-nosed zealots that Microsoft does not have.

First impressions: The return of Palm – The Palm Pre

After pioneering a revolution in mobile devices like PDAs and smart phones, Palm, as of recent times, has found itself more and more out of the market due to stiff competition. Currently it is ranked fourth after the likes of Apple, Research In Motion(RIM) and Windows Mobile. All that is pretty much set to change if what Palm showed in CES lives up to its promise. And there is a high chance that it would.

Enter the Palm Pre. This is Palm’s latest entrant in the land of mobile devices, more specifically the smart phone segment. This segment is dominated by Apple and RIM. Even though Palm did have some success with its Centro, Treo and Treo Pro lines of phones, it was nowhere near to regaining the coveted leader position. With the Pre, Palm is pretty well set to pose a challenge that is serious enough to even topple the revered Apple iPhone.

If looks could kill or rather dethrone the iPhone, the Palm Pre has it. If functions and performance can poach users, the Pre has that. If coolness is such an important factor that entire cults grow around that, the Palm Pre is well equipped. The new design features a touch screen interface along with a slide out full keyboard. It sports Palm’s latest operating system the WebOS. The combination is stupendous.

The Pre is not only a pretty looking phone, but packs a mean punch too. There is innovation at its best coupled with legendary usability. Here’s a look at a few innovations that the Pre comes with.

Wi-Fi, GPS and email are standard on the Pre. The new Synergy system also allows a user to see all the conversations with a certain contact in a chat style. The universal search feature allows searching across contacts, Google, applications and even Wikipedia. Pretty cool, huh!

The Pre treats each running application as an activity card. Multiple applications can run in parallel and a user can switch between these running instances or activity cards with the mere flick of a finger. No longer do you have to close your email application to browse a web site. All notifications, like the ones for new messages, appear at the bottom of the screen and does not interrupt the user’s current activity. Quite nifty I say.

The calendar application in the Pre can show a combined logical view of calendars stored in Outlook, Google Calendar and Facebook. Also if a single contact is stored in different applications, they can all be linked together.

The browser is full featured and fast. It supports full HTML and has the now ubiquitous zoom and pan functions. Also all the applications installed on the phone are constantly updated via the internet. This gets rid of the rather dull “Update now” function.

Another innovative feature is the Touchstone wireless charging station with which the Pre can be recharged. The Pre attaches to the Touchstone device through magnets and remains in position without any cables or wires connecting the two. The phone can be used while charging.

The Plam Pre appears to be of fantastic value with the necessary looks and coolness. Check out the following gallery of images taken from the Palm website:

Here are the specs as detailed on Palm’s site and do not forget to watch the keynote presentation:
Carrier
Sprint
Operating system
Palm® webOS
Network specs
3G EVDO Rev A
Display
3.1-inch touch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color 320×480 resolution HVGA display
Keyboard
Physical QWERTY keyboard
Email
Microsoft Outlook® email with Microsoft® Direct Push Technology
POP3/IMAP (Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, etc).
Messaging
Integrated IM, SMS, and MMS
GPS
Built-in GPS
Digital camera
3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field
Sensors
Ambient light, accelerometer, and proximity
Media formats supported
Audio Formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV
Video Formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264
Image Formats: GIF, Animated GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP
Wireless connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with WPA, WPA2, 801.1x authentication
Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
Memory
8GB of user storage (~7.4GB user available)
USB mass storage support
Phone as laptop modem
Bluetooth tethering
Connector
MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
Headphone jack
3.5mm stereo
Palm® Touchstonecharging dock
Compatible
Dimensions
Width: 59.5mm (2.3 inches)
Height: 100.5mm (3.9 inches)
Thickness: 16.95mm (0.67 inches)
Weight
135 grams (4.76 ounces)

JavaScript is the future of RIA

A few days back I had written an article about JavaScript being the future of RIA. Adobe Flex, Microsoft Silverlight, etc. are all nice and good to have. The fact of the matter is that a whopping percentage of people still prefer JavaScript when it comes to implementing RIA solutions. 

To corroborate this claim of mine, I had been running a poll for quite some time now. After having got around 550 odd votes I think the time is now right to publish the results. The winner by a far and clear margin is JavaScript. Flex comes second. Here is graphic showing the results:

With the release of the new breed of web browsers that run on-steroid JavaScript engines this dominance of JavaScript in the field of RIA is most likely to increase.

The data presented here is not sponsored by any camp or company. Its strictly a poll that I ran in my personal capacity.

Google Chrome breaks Kubuntu 8.04 download: WebKit to blame?

Kubuntu has launched a KDE 4.0 version of its operating system. The KDE 4.0 environment sports a new UI also termed as Plasma which gives a refreshing new look to Linux systems. Even though the new UI needs a bit more on graphics power, I decided to try it on my humble PC.

First step was to download the ISO image. My PC that has a DVD burner runs Windows XP (unfortunately I cannot change that since its a shared one ). So I opened up Google Chrome and punched in http://www.kubuntu.org/ . The Kubuntu website came up with a big download icon on the left as shown in the following screen shot:

When I clicked on the “Free download” buttion nothing happened. Initially I thought that the click did not register properly. So I clicked again. Nothing. I kept on trying and it just did not respond. I tried the same on Firefox and it immediately took me to the download page.

So what’s going on? Is this because Google Chrome is based on WebKit unlike Firefox? Looks likely. I tried the same thing on Apple’s Safari and faced the same problem. So probably its the WebKit software that is to blame here and not Chrome.

Here’s the version of Google Chrome that I am using:

Google Chrome losing user base

According to statistics gathered by Net Applications, the market share of Google’s Chrome seems to be diminishing. Within an hour of its release on Sept 2, 2008, Chrome had captured about 1% of the browser market. This share is apparently declining steadily. According to reports, users who had switched to Chrome from Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer are going back to those.

Here are some of the figures:

Apple’s Safari has remained more or less unaffected by the launch of Chrome. This is because Google is yet to launch Chrome for the Mac platform. 

Chrome’s decline is being attributed to a couple of factors. Firstly, many companies mandate the use of IE in the workplace. That is one of the reasons that Chrome’s acceptance has not improved. Secondly Google had not put in much effort in marketing its browser. Even though Chrome shows up as the first hit on Google search, on Yahoo its second while on Windows Live it does not seem to appear on the first page.

A silver lining to this seemingly dark cloud is the fact that the number of people using Chrome increases during after work hours. 

JavaScript for RIA gets yet another boost from WebKit SquirrelFish

Rich internet applications or RIAs are becoming a defacto standard for web applications. The selling point of RIAs is to provide responsive web applications that behave more like desktop applications than traditional web apps. Initially JavaScript seemed to be the only option for creating RIAs but it suffered from certain maladies, most important ones being performance and cross-browser compatibility. Taking advantage of this, Adobe came up with Flex and more recently Microsoft offered Silverlight. Both these platforms took away a portion of developers who were working on providing RIA capabilities in brower based apps.

With the popularity of Flex and to a limited extent Silverlight, JavaScript seemed to be heading for certain death until recently. The announcement of TraceMonkey from Mozilla and the subsequent release of Google Chrome that incorporated a JavaScript virtual machine called V8, JavaScript seems poised to make a come back. Both TraceMonkey and V8 have put the JavaScript engines on steroids and the reported boosts in performance are impressive. TraceMonkey is slated to be released with Mozilla Firefox 3.1 but interested people can have a taste of it by using the v3.1alpha releases from Mozilla’s web site. Chrome has already drawn rave reviews with its fast performance and responsiveness of JavaScript apps.

The latest salvo in this war between JavaScript and other technologies comes from WebKit. WebKit forms the core of brilliant web browsers like Apple Safari, KDE Konqueror and Google Chrome. The programmers at WebKit recently announced their own improvements in the JavaScript engine called the SquirrelFish Extreme. This new engine is supposed to be more than twice as fast as its previous incarnation. Here’s a graphic to show the performance boost:

According certain other studies SquirrelFish is reported to have beaten Google’s V8 and Mozilla’s TraceMonkey on performance. Click here for that study.

So is SquirrelFish Extreme the fasted JavaScript engine yet? Well we would have to wait for some more data to decide that one. But one thing is for sure – JavaScript is here to stay.

With all this attributed importance to JavaScript by the major players, the indication is stronger than ever that RIA developers would switch over to JavaScript once its major problems are sorted out. The work that is being done seems to be concentrating on this very aspect. 

Is this the second coming of JavaScript based applications? Just wait and watch.

Why Google Chrome uses Microsoft code

Scott Hansen in a recent post of his has dissected Google’s recently released Chrome web browser and has found code that uses the Windows Template Library(WTL). The WTL was open sourced by Microsoft in 2004. Till now it was relatively unknown, but now since Google has used it, its going to pickup interest. Google uses the WTL to draw the UI for Chrome. In using this library Chrome makes the most of native speeds. Another of Microsoft’s pioneering efforts, the XMLHttpRequest object in web browsers, was also popularised by Google in its GMail web mail system. Prior to that this little gem from Microsoft was pretty much unknown. GMail ushered in the era of Ajax and the RIA.

It makes very good business sense for Google to use the WTL for Chrome. That way they can generate impressive startup speeds and make the user experience a lot more enjoyable one. Unfortunately Chrome is yet to be released for Mac and Linux operating systems. Taking a different perpective, it makes all the more sense for Google to target the Windows version first. The fact is Microsoft Windows is the dominant desktop operating system. By providing Chrome for Windows first, Google has ensured that it reaches a huge number of people even though the Mac and Linux audiences are being made to wait. Also, due to the WTL, Google could achieve a more enjoyable experience with Chrome on Windows with relatively less effort. That is definitely one of Google’s objectives.

According to reports, the Mac and Linux versions are still some distance away.

“Enterprises stay away from Google Chrome”, says Preston Gralla

Here is a rather ‘interesting’ article that I came across from Preston Gralla. In a gist, Gralla warns enterprises from embracing Google’s Chrome web browser, because he feels that Google intends to take over the enterprise world using it!!! WOW. Is that even possible?

Ok, so Gmail, Google Docs, etc. would run faster on Google Chrome. But is that a serious enough reason for enterprises to dump their current setup of Microsoft Exchange(or any other mail solution), Microsoft Office, etc ? Come on Mr Gralla get real. 

For arguments sake let’s accept Mr Gralla’s warning. So Google intends to dominate the enterprise. So what? Hasn’t Microsoft being doing that successfully to a large extent for years? Where were the warnings then? Doesn’t Apple harbor similar ambitions? 

In fact Microsoft and Apple’s products have much more potential of casting dominance rather than Google’s. But according to Mr Gralla, Chrome is what people should be worried about. 

With Chrome, the enterprises would rather have an expanded choice. They can choose to run JavaScript enabled web applications that would be responsive and efficient. Their software teams have more flexibility in choosing a technology stack for implementation. There would be a very steady flow of development resources that would keep their development efforts from being stymied. For developers who would otherwise have to learn new tips and tricks, Google’s Chrome saves their existing skills from obsolescence. Isn’t that a good thing? 

I am not against new technologies, but I firmly believe in open technologies. Embracing open standards based new technologies is probably the best bet for enterprises keeping in mind return on investments in the long term. Proprietary technologies, though sometimes very compelling, can prove to be very expensive and might be an overkill. 

Chrome is meant to be a browser and people should consider it exactly that and nothing more. I doubt that Google would be betting on seeing an increase in their enterprise business because of Chrome.

Google Chrome performs better than Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 … at least for now

Reports have been rife that Mozilla’s TraceMonkey JavaScript engine would leave Google’s V8 in the dust. As of the latest build, this does not seem to be the case. 

TraceMonkey is the new JavaSctipt engine that would be integrated in Mozilla’s next release of the Firefox web browser (v 3.1). Presently the alpha release of the browser is available for download and since its still alpha TraceMonkey is disabled by default. To enable TraceMonkey for Firefox 3.1a1, go to the about:config URL and add a Boolean preference with the name javascript.options.jit.content and set it to true.

I used the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark tests to see how Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox 3.1a1 measure up against each other. Here are the results:

Mozilla Firefox 3.1a1

Total:                     2413.0ms +/- 1.4%

3d:                   	    267.0ms +/- 5.8%
	cube:                89.4ms +/- 0.8%
	morph:               78.2ms +/- 2.6%
	raytrace:            99.4ms +/- 15.1%

access:                     340.2ms +/- 5.1%
	binary-trees:        42.8ms +/- 32.8%
	fannkuch:           156.0ms +/- 2.0%
	nbody:              101.8ms +/- 3.7%
	nsieve:              39.6ms +/- 5.7%

bitops:                     272.8ms +/- 1.6%
	3bit-bits-in-byte:   51.6ms +/- 1.3%
	bits-in-byte:        67.4ms +/- 1.0%
	bitwise-and:         66.8ms +/- 4.6%
	nsieve-bits:         87.0ms +/- 1.8%

controlflow:                 31.6ms +/- 2.2%
	recursive:           31.6ms +/- 2.2%

crypto:                     167.0ms +/- 1.7%
	aes:                 60.8ms +/- 0.9%
	md5:                 53.0ms +/- 4.7%
	sha1:                53.2ms +/- 4.2%

date:                       201.8ms +/- 12.2%
	format-tofte:       122.2ms +/- 20.6%
	format-xparb:        79.6ms +/- 2.4%

math:                       257.0ms +/- 1.5%
	cordic:             114.0ms +/- 0.8%
	partial-sums:        91.2ms +/- 2.2%
	spectral-norm:       51.8ms +/- 8.4%

regexp:                     209.0ms +/- 10.2%
	dna:                209.0ms +/- 10.2%

string:                     666.6ms +/- 2.8%
	base64:              67.4ms +/- 2.8%
	fasta:              120.4ms +/- 3.3%
	tagcloud:           118.0ms +/- 4.9%
	unpack-code:        273.6ms +/- 4.3%
	validate-input:      87.2ms +/- 9.2%

Google Chrome

Total:                     1291.8ms +/- 1.5%

3d:                          92.6ms +/- 1.8%
	cube:                22.8ms +/- 13.6%
	morph:               39.8ms +/- 8.1%
	raytrace:            30.0ms +/- 10.2%

access:                      66.6ms +/- 4.7%
	binary-trees:         5.4ms +/- 12.6%
	fannkuch:            22.8ms +/- 4.6%
	nbody:               23.2ms +/- 17.9%
	nsieve:              15.2ms +/- 6.8%

bitops:                      49.2ms +/- 2.1%
	3bit-bits-in-byte:    4.2ms +/- 13.2%
	bits-in-byte:         9.0ms +/- 13.8%
	bitwise-and:         14.4ms +/- 7.7%
	nsieve-bits:         21.6ms +/- 8.7%

controlflow:                  2.6ms +/- 26.2%
	recursive:            2.6ms +/- 26.2%

crypto:                      44.6ms +/- 2.5%
	aes:                 17.0ms +/- 5.2%
	md5:                 14.4ms +/- 4.7%
	sha1:                13.2ms +/- 7.9%

date:                       215.8ms +/- 5.0%
	format-tofte:       136.4ms +/- 3.6%
	format-xparb:        79.4ms +/- 10.1%

math:                        86.0ms +/- 4.2%
	cordic:              46.6ms +/- 6.7%
	partial-sums:        29.2ms +/- 1.9%
	spectral-norm:       10.2ms +/- 13.4%

regexp:                     309.2ms +/- 1.8%
	dna:                309.2ms +/- 1.8%

string:                     425.2ms +/- 2.4%
	base64:              53.6ms +/- 11.0%
	fasta:               46.0ms +/- 0.0%
	tagcloud:           117.0ms +/- 2.8%
	unpack-code:        148.8ms +/- 2.0%
	validate-input:      59.8ms +/- 0.9%

Well from these results it looks like Google Chrome is almost twice as fast as Mozilla Firefox 3.1a1 in its present form.  Firefox trumps Chrome in the date tests and the regexp tests. In all the others Chrome outdoes Firefox by a huge margin.

Hopefully the final version that would be coming out of Mozilla will have better results.

The future of RIA is JavaScript not Flex or Silverlight

With the advent of Web 2.0 a new concept became the most sought-after technology for web applications. Popularized by Google’s GMail, rich internet applications or RIA very quickly became the need of the hour. At the heart of RI applications was JavaScript, a scripting language for the web, that was in existence long before Google was even born. Google, with its GMail, demonstrated what could be achieved with JavaScript and thus paved the way for the next generation of web applications.

JavaScript had its own problems. The biggest of them was probably cross-browser compatibility. Led by Microsoft through its Internet Explorer web browser, JavaScript quickly became a victim of non-standard usage. Microsoft, in order to prove its dominance over Netscape, supplied browser objects and functions that could be used to generate ‘cool’ effects in a web page easily. These were never ratified by any standards bodies. Since Microsoft was dominant on the desktop and also bundled IE with its Windows operating system, the exponential growth of IE in popularity apparently vindicated their arrogant violation of established standards. Netscape died under Microsoft’s onslaught and so did the standards of JavaScript. Developers started writing applications that were IE specific. It was not uncommon to see applications labeled “Best viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer”.

The arrival of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser changed all this. Users, plagued by IE’s numerous vulnerabilities and instability, adapted to Firefox. Firefox implemented a more standards compliant version of JavaScript. So developers started writing rich applications that used standards compliant JavaScript. Even then there was one more problem with JavaScript and that came to the forefront due to RIAs. This was performance. 

Some of the leading vendors saw an opportunity in this short coming of JavaScript. Notable amongst them is Adobe and more recently Microsoft. Adobe’s Flash technology was initially meant to serve the multimedia needs of web applications. Flash was great for animations and effects, for video and audio playback, for slide shows and image manipulations, but it was never meant for rich internet applications. So enter Adobe Flex, a technology based on Flash, but offering widgets and controls for business applications. Cross-browser compatibility was achieved but at the cost of an added Flash plug-in. Not to be undone by Adobe, Microsoft entered into the fray with its Silverlight software. Silverlight did all the cools things that Flash did and also needed a plug-in to run. It seemed like JavaScript was doomed.

Mozilla and Google had different plans. Mozilla’s Firefox 3.1 browser, still in testing, and Google’s recent Chrome web browser breathed a new life into JavaScript applications. In Google Chrome, Google introduced the V8 JavaScript virtual machine that offered significant performance boosts for existing applications. Mozilla has incorporated the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine that has reportedly achieved performance boosts of up to 85%!!! With these two products JavaScript is surely set to make a come back.

As things stand, JavaScript has overcome its two worst adversaries – cross browser compatibility and performance. With the availability of brilliant libraries like Yahoo UI Toolkit, Dojo toolkit, etc. that help ease development of RIAs, JavaScript is here to stay and the way to go for future applications. For a JavaScript performance comparison study click here.