In this video, Chris Bryant of Microsoft makes an offhand comment that the components of the new Microsoft Office 2010 for Web are “some of the biggest Javascript applications ever built”.
The Javascript performance in Internet Explorer generally lags behind that of its competitors (Firefox, Safari, Chrome) – though the importance to the end user experience is debatable. IE has made strides, but the others have improved performance by orders of magnitude.
The reason is simple: Javascript has never been really strategic for Microsoft. They obviously support it and improve it, but it’s not a differentiator in any way. It’s just a matter of being “good enough”.
Other languages, such as C# and Visual Basic, have obvious value for Microsoft. They are the main languages that are used by its developer ecosystem, driving Windows sales, and MS makes money selling development tools like Visual Studio. Javascript, however, has never fit into Microsoft’s finances.
But now that MS has committed to a rich, cross-browser version of Office, Javascript becomes strategic; it now underpins something that they sell.
This is the first time that one of Microsoft’s cash cows truly depends on the browser, and therefore browser performance. If they are competitively forced to sell a Web version of Office, you can bet that they want people to use IE.
My prediction: an IE 8.5 (beta/preview/whetev) will be released within 6 months of Office 2010’s ship date. The major bragging point will be a (let’s say) 4x speedup in Javascript.
Microsoft is generally very good at squeezing performance out of very complicated software – if they have the incentive. Now they do.
http://www.viddler.com/simple/dd97219a/
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Related: Why not Silverlight?
Funny that Google is developing an OS and Microsoft is developing web apps. Also of note: Chris Bryant, the *product manager* for MS Office…has a very ugly office. ;p Discuss.
An ugly office with a bitchen projector!
I had thought that at one point Microsoft’s really wanted to introduce their version of a client side script paradigm (not Jscript)? Regardless, they were dragged to drink from the JavaScript well by the ubiquity of it.
I think you’re right about Microsoft squeezing performance out. I really think there is an end game here and IE8 didn’t try and adopt a C++ written JavaScript parser similar to V8 for a reason other than pride. At least I sure hope so. Also, what do you think the chances are that Office 2010 runs mysteriously slower in Chrome?
While the Google vs. Microsoft drama makes great press, I think it’s the same as in any vertical; the consumer is always the winner in this competition.
Oh and also, I just realized how many Word add-ins are used by businesses for day-to-day operations right now.
If Office 2010 works like FaceBook or the iPhone and permits developers to create components which can be added by users, than the new cottage industry is going to be porting Word add-ins from managed code or VBA to the web.
What wants to make a gajillion bucks?
Yeah, I won’t be surprised if MS has a look at the V8 source code to get some ideas. Will it run slower in Chrome? If it’s pure web (no Silverlight or ActiveX) then I think it would be really hard.
Fingers crossed that you’re right. We’ll still have the older engines to deal with, but faster JavaScript in IE would be a blessing for those of us who toil away trying to please corporate clients.
Also, here’s hoping this web-based Office will signal the death knell of IE6- if MS offers limited or no support for IE6 we might be able to get all those IT departments to finally move out of the stone age.
He’s in a conference room.
He’s in a conference room.
A subject close to my heart several thanks, i have been thinking about about this topic for some time.