Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you know that Microsoft has finally realized that Internet Explorer is pretty much dead losing out to the likes of Google's Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. To that end, they have undertaken the design of a new browser, Spartan, and with it they hope to regain some of the market share they have lost over the years. Now it seems they are pulling out all the stops to help them create the best browser experience possible as they have now enlisted the help of third party developers to help them create their new browser.
Most recently, Microsoft brought in Adobe to help them with Spartan, but they are only one of many businesses who will be contributing code to the project.
"The [Adobe] team contributes in the areas of layout, typography, graphic design and motion, with significant commits to the Web platform," Bogdan Brinza, program manager of "Project Spartan" wrote in a blog post. "Adobe engineers Rik Cabanier, Max Vujovic, Sylvain Galineau, and Ethan Malasky have provided contributions in partnership with engineers on the IE team."
Microsoft has yet to confirm that Internet Explorer is, in fact, dead. But that has not stopped the rumor mill from spinning about the future of IE. On March 23, the IE team announced the development of two new updates in the Enterprise Site Discovery options for users, showing that it may not be the end after all.
Adobe's first contribution to Microsoft's browser landed in the March update of the Windows 10 Technical Preview. While you might assume that the company's involvement is in regards to Flash, it instead developed a new feature for CSS gradient midpoints. One might assume that at some point Adobe will be working to incorporate Flash into Spartan as well, although nothing has been confirmed.
Brinza continued to write in his blog post that Microsoft is looking forward to having "a more expressive Web." While it is safe to assume that Adobe would continue its work with Microsoft on Windows 10, nothing has been confirmed by either company as of yet.
While Microsoft still won't confirm or deny the ultimate fate of Internet Explorer, it seems for now the company is focused on bringing a top notch browsing experience with Spartan as it works to shed the bad taste in consumers mouth left by IE and focus on something new and sweet with Spartan.
