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> The web has been moving at a far more rapid pace in recent years, with Google pushing a lot of new standards and speed with Chrome, and Microsoft didn’t have the structure to keep up.

I'm surprised by this.

Why can Google afford to keep up but not Microsoft?

Do you think the fact that Safari is lagging behind Chrome and Firefox also means Apple does not want to invest as many resources as Google?

The article explains this. Web developers test against Chrome more, so Chrome gets compatibility for free. Forking Chromium gives Microsoft the same advantage.

I think this is a smart move by Microsoft. By doing less and building on what already exists, you can concentrate your resources. Much like coming up with Typescript rather than trying to replace JavaScript.

It's also about open source, both companies are moving towards being more based on open source. Using, building on, and creating projects in the open.
This has an interesting side-effect: Apple is now left out on it's own with a webkit-based browser. (Yes, I'm ignoring Mozilla at the moment.)

It would be nice to see Apple jump in as well, so we'd have a common rendering platform. In my mind, we all have the same network stack (TCP/IP + HTTP + SSL), so why not have this layer too.

Microsoft is proving that you can have a lot of standardization, but still get a custom implementation without having to bet the farm.

You are confusing standards with implementations.
My wording wasn't the best, true.

But if you look at SSL, at one time there was a bunch of overlap of people using OpenSSL libraries. I was trying to compare to that.

Satya Nadella has really turned Microsoft around. He & Sundar will achieve wonders & it will be a win-win for all.