Microsoft Chrome
History
In May 1997, Microsoft bought pioneering startup Dimension X, developers of several Java-based animation tools including
Chromeffects was an XML-based wrapper that allowed Chrome to be called from within a web page.[2] Embedding Chromeffects objects in HTML pages could produce rich content in the same way that VML does for 2D artwork. Chrome's project manager, Bob Heddle, claimed that "It is going to propel the industry. We're moving DirectX from programmers to artists."[1] Likewise, Microsoft Liquid Motion was a layer similar to Chromeffects but within Java.
Chromeffects did not support any of the media standards that were being developed at the
Chrome was previewed in July 1998 at that year's SIGGRAPH, with a developer's release following in August. At the time, Chrome demanded relatively hefty machines to run on, a 350 MHz Pentium II or better with an AGP graphics card. Even Microsoft admitted the hardware requirements were steep, according to Brad Chase, Vice President of Windows marketing and developer relations at Microsoft, "The initial PCs that will run the Chrome feature of Windows 98 are going to be 350MHz Pentium boxes. You're not going to be able to have this on a standard Pentium today."[4] However, Microsoft claimed that this standard would be widely met by new machines; the general manager of multimedia at Microsoft, Eric Engstrom, noted "Over next 12 months, our projections show that 55 to 60 million units capable of running Chromeffects will be shipped."[2] In spite of these promises, feedback from the testers was almost universally negative, complaining about poor performance and general bugginess.
In September 1998, Steve Ballmer announced Chromeffects during his keynote speech at Seybold '98.[5] He announced that Chromeffects had been released to hardware manufacturer partners and that they were integrating it with the Windows operating system that they are now shipping on new machines.
Given the almost universal negative press, both from its own developers and the wider community, Microsoft announced that "Based on developer feedback, we are stepping back and redesigning Chromeffects technologies to better meet both our partner and customer needs."
Microsoft did deliver on their promise to better track internet standards, releasing Microsoft Vizact which was based on HTML+TIME. Vizact saw little uptake and was discontinued in 2000.
See also
- Adobe Atmosphere, a similar technology
References
- ^ a b Alex Lash and Michael Kanellos, "Microsoft buffs its Chrome" Archived 2008-09-06 at the Wayback Machine, cnet, 26 March 1998
- ^ a b Randy Weston, "Microsoft debuts Chromeffects" Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine, cnet, 21 July 1998
- ^ a b c d Paul Festa, "Microsoft shelves Chromeffects" Archived 2012-10-24 at the Wayback Machine, cnet, 12 November 1998
- ^ Craig Barth, "Chrome: Microsoft's Heavy Metal"[permanent dead link], Windows IT Pro, NT News Analysis, August 1998
- ^ "Steve Ballmer Speech Transcript - Keynote at Seybold 98" Archived 2022-02-15 at the Wayback Machine, Microsoft News Center, September 2nd, 1998
External links
- "Early Chrome Preview", scraped version of Microsoft's early web page
- Brad Neuberg, "Blast from the Web Past: DirectAnimation, Microsoft Chrome, and Cartoon Chat", ajaxian, 24 October 2008