Toward Native Web Execution

By Kirk L. Kroeker

Several software projects are narrowing the performance gap between browser-based applications and their desktop counterparts. In the process, they’re creating new ways to improve the security of Web-based computing.

Most Internet users do not expect the performance of browser-based applications to be the same as desktop applications, which are driven by code created from high-quality compilers and designed to run natively at the operating system (OS) level. However, several ongoing projects at Google, Microsoft, and other companies aim not only to close that performance gap, but also to eliminate some of the security weaknesses that have plagued Web browsers since the early days of the Internet.

(This article appeared in CACM, vol. 52, no. 7, July 2009, pp. 16-17.)

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