Microsoft Analysis has published a brand new article that explains in extra layperson-like terms precisely what its “Gazelle” Web browser is and why the company;s researchers believe it;s needed.
Microsoft is slated to present a paper on Gazelle at the Usenix Security Symposium in August. At that event, the Gazelle team will describe “the design and construction of a browser that is actually a multi-principal operating system.” (A copy of Microsoft;s Gazelle Usenix paper is available now.)
I;ve had Gazelle (the project which started life as “MashupOS”) explained to me a couple of times, but I never quite understood it. The new Microsoft-authored write-up, however, actually helped me understand a lot more about where Microsoft is going with this project.
It;s worth reiterating that Microsoft hasn;t said when,
Genuine Office 2010, how or if it plans to commercialize Gazelle. It;s not accurate to call Gazelle the next version of Internet Explorer (or replacement for IE) or a future iteration of Windows. For now,
Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2010, it;s a Microsoft Study project only. (But most Microsoft Investigation projects do end up ultimately becoming commercialized in some way, often times years after they first debut.)
Microsoft researchers describe Gazelle;s design as that of a “multi-principal OS.” What does that mean, specifically? From the new Microsoft Research post:
“In browser parlance,
Windows 7 Professional Key, a principal generally equates to a Web site. Given that there is usually just one user at a time on a PC, the sharing of resources is actually across applications from different origins; in the case of Web pages, each page could consist of content from different principals,
Office 2010 Professional Plus Key, each staking out a share of computing resources. The browser is therefore the natural choice of application platform for managing principals and resource requests.”
Up until the past few years, it;s been assumed that applications require operating systems to run. But Web apps don;t have this limitation. And because they don;t, Web apps often can be less secure. Current-day browsers also don;t handle resource management for devices,
Office 2007 Pro Plus, the new article said.
These are the driving forces behind the way Microsoft Investigation is architecting Gazelle;s “browser kernel.” The kernel — a layer that sits between underlying operating systems and the principals — will protect principals from one another and from the host machine, according to the post.
The Gazelle team decided “the time has come to apply decades-old operating-system experience to the browser-design space.,” the article said. “Gazelle essentially leverages the existing mechanisms of operating systems and tailors them to the needs of Web applications.”
If you;re interested in where the Softies are going in security, browser design and OS design, the Gazelle write-up is worth a read….