Will Microsoft Change How ActiveX Runs in IE 8?
,----[ Quote ]
| Some security experts, like Will Dormann, a vulnerability analyst at the
| Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute CERT/CC, are calling for
| ActiveX to be disabled from running by default in IE 8.
|
| Dormann is telling IE users that they should, from a security perspective,
| disable ActiveX controls from running by default. "It would be nice if this
| is something Microsoft did with the next version of the browser," he said.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Will-Microsoft-Change-How-ActiveX-Runs-in-IE-8/
Quote for the day:
"Windows 98 without Internet Explorer 4 is a working operation system and
Internet Explorer 4.0 is not an vital part of Windows 98."
--Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Recent:
Opera CTO: How to fix Microsoft's browser issues
,----[ Quote ]
| Embrace the standards, nicely, or get out of browsers
|
| If there was a functioning market for web browsers and operating systems, the
| past few weeks would have seen two announcements from Microsoft. After a
| firestorm of criticism from the web design community about Internet Explorer
| 8's misguided mode switching proposal, Redmond would have publicly backed
| down. Second, Microsoft would have bowed to 90,000 users demanding that
| Windows XP continue to be sold.
|
| There were no such announcements. Why? Because Microsoft, with its dominating
| position in the web browser and operating system markets, acts like a
| monopoly.
|
| A monopoly doesn't have to consider its customers' wants or needs. In a
| functioning market, vendors must consider such things in order to compete
| successfully. But the market isn't functioning.
|
| Microsoft's failure to respond to its customers' outcry shows that it is time
| to call on established antitrust laws that allow governments to impose
| sanctions on a vendor that has a dominant position in a market. The purpose
| of these sanctions is to ensure competition and innovation and thereby create
| a market in which consumers are heard.
|
| Recently, the European Commission opened several investigations into
| Microsoft's dominant position. As a regulatory body, they could decide to
| impose sanctions and while Microsoft might ignore their frustrated customers,
| they would have a harder time ignoring the European Commission.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/19/hakon_ms_reform_plan/
Be prepared: ActiveX attacks will persist
,----[ Quote ]
| A recent string of high-profile ActiveX vulnerabilities caused the U.S.
| Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) to advise users to disable the
| ubiquitous Microsoft browser plug-in technology altogether.
`----
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/02/19/08NF-activex-horror_1.html
Related:
Microsoft ruling may not bolster Europe's new case, warns lawyer
,----[ Quote ]
| The new investigation into Microsoft will look into whether it is legal for a
| company with its market dominance to include web browser Internet Explorer
| with its Windows operating system. It will also look at whether the operating
| system allows for enough interoperability with other companies' software.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/21/eu_microsoft_analysis/
EU round two: Commission probing Microsoft conduct on new issues
,----[ Quote ]
| ...I doubt Microsoft's legal team is surprised by this. After the September
| ruling on the first EC case, I asked Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith
| whether any additional features of Windows could fall under the same scrutiny
| that Windows Media Player received. Smith said:
|
| "I think that it's fair to say that features that the commission regards as
| being present in competing applications may be subject to the kind of
| scrutiny the media player was put under. We basically went through that kind
| of process already for Windows Vista. For example, there was a lot of
| scrutiny on the desktop search feature, on the encryption feature, on the
| various security features in general, on the new file format for portable
| documents and that's probably a fairly indicative list of the kinds of
| features that one would predict they'd focus on in the future..."
`----
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2008/01/eu_round_two_commission_probing_microsoft_conduct.html
Interview with ECIS's Thomas Vinje Regarding Opera's Complaint
,----[ Quote ]
| So that is one of the issues Opera is bringing to the EU Commission, that
| consumers are being held back by Microsoft's long history of extending
| standards with proprietary alterations/additions/tweaks and refusing or
| neglecting to support web standards. Mr. Vinje also speaks about Silverlight
| and I really hope the EU Commission looks into what bundling Silverlight
| could do to the Internet.
|
| The other issue Opera is raising, of course, is bundling, which is what makes
| it possible for a monopoly to ignore standards others would like them to use.
| While it's unknown if the EU Commission will care about standards as an
| antitrust issue, the bundling issue is very much more straightforward, as Mr.
| Vinje explains...
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071219231703353
Lights out for Silverlight
,----[ Quote ]
| The next point is the availability of the tools. Even though you can
| view Silverlight on OS X, you will have no chance of being able to
| author Silverlight content without a Windows licence. This is a
| conscious decision. On the one hand, Microsoft wants to get
| designers using their Expression toolset yet designers will have
| to come across to the Windows platform in order to do it. It may
| not be such a large hurdle but it is a hurdle nevertheless. Ever
| tried to force an OS X user onto Windows? They cry, they scream
| and they want their (at times) consistent GUI back.
`----
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Lights-out-for-Silverlight/0,130061733,339278334,00.htm
http://tinyurl.com/27jpuv
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