[Techtalk] why is Active X in web pages evil, but not Perl/PHP/Javascript?

[Kai MacTane]

At 1/20/05 12:10 AM , Almut Behrens wrote:

>Next, once they've actually installed Firefox, it of course has to
>compete with that other browser they love so much, so we need to supply
>a "fully" functioning alternative with all the nifty features you
>cannot live without, like ActiveX.  Sure.  So we just do it, it doesn't
>cause too much of a headache to implement under Windoze, after all.

Note that even under Windows, the ActiveX extension is just that: an 
extension. If you really, really *need* (or just "really, really *want*") 
ActiveX functionality in your Firefox browser, you have to go to the 
appropriate Web site and download it. It doesn't ship with the browser itself.

Given Firefox's overall philosophy with extensions, I can't imagine that it 
ever would ship with the browser.

Given that Firefox advocates (myself included) have been touting the *lack* 
of ActiveX as a feature, I really, really can't imagine they'd ever ship 
this particular extension with the browser. Even on the Windows platform.

                                                 --Kai MacTane
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