Microsoft is pretty much done with version 8.0 of the Internet Explorer browser. What many might not know is that it has another browser in development, based on a kernel called Gazelle. Microsoft has put all emphasis on security with Gazelle and it claims that the browser is more secure than any browser currently on the market, the problem is that Gazelle is not on the market. The IE-based browser has been developed by the software giant to show the problems of building a super-secure browser.
There is another catch, beside the fact that the browser is nowhere to be found; performance. Gazelle will require more resources and be slower than other available browsers.
The thing that separates Gazelle from conventional browsers is that it more or less works as its own operating system. Something Microsoft sees as a possibility for future browsers;
“Our prototype implementation and evaluation experience indicates that it is realistic to turn an existing browser into a multi-principal OS that yields significantly stronger security and robustness with acceptable performance and backward compatibility,” – Microsoft Research
More information on Gazelle can be found at Microsoft Research.
