This week Google went public with its secret Chrome gBrowser desktop application for Windows. Long incubated in hiding, it was born slightly premature - allegedly because the comic ad seeped out early.We have all seen its CSS rendering before in Safari; the Chrome browser is built on Webkit (Apple's fork of the KDE's "KHTML" rendering engine used originally in the KDE Konqueror). But its Javascript virtual machine, dubbed "V8," is brand new! Developed internally by Google team including Lars Bak (VM pioneer and former technical lead of Sun's Java VM HotSpot project) and Kasper Lund, it was opensourced under the BSD license. Google plans to port V8 to every major desktop OS, including Mac and Linux, and also of course to Android, which is launching soon on the T-Mobile/HTC Dream phone, just in time for the holiday sales.
The V8 VM competes directly with Microsoft Silverlight, Apple's SquirrelFish, Mozilla's TraceMonkey and Tamarin, and indirectly with Sun's Java Virtual Machine (the granddaddy!), and Perl Parrot (incubating for a decade?).
Although the 800lb gorilla in the room is not innovating with these little guys, Internet Explorer is following close enough behind to keep market share. The Rest Of The World is competing for performance increases and technical advancement (and yes, for paltry market percentage points) in a way that will open up new possibilities for cloud-based web apps.
Everyone knows a paradigm shift will throw down the reigning king of the hill, and that one of those comes every now and again. Until then, the arts & sciences are advancing, which is a win for consumers, developers, and the American dream. Carpe diem.
