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

[Almut Behrens]

On Thu, Jan 20, 2005 at 11:31:13AM -0800, Kai MacTane wrote:
> 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 ...

no, no, NO! ... I guess there's a huge misunderstanding! ;-)
Maybe I haven't expressed myself clearly (or I'm totally misreading
you here).  The prospective scenario I tried to describe is what I'd
consider quite a nightmare... and the tone was meant to be at least
mildly cynical.  Wasn't that clear?? <honestly interested>  Oh well,
I'll attribute it to me not being a native speaker of English... Maybe
I should better stick to a more direct and plain style next time :)

Really, I'm the last person to ever want ActiveX functionality in my
browser, or anywhere else... I'd be glad if it didn't exist at all! 
(This would keep inexperienced users from inadvertently activating it,
without really knowing what they're doing...)

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

Good!  I really hope it will always stay that way.

> 
> 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.

Funny.  My impression was quite the opposite (that's why I posted this
rant in the first place...)  I originally very much liked the Firefox
project, but now, I have that vague feeling that at least some of the
developers would try to push Firefox at any price, just to attract a
large user base...   I can't really cite any threads or discussion
snippets, but all in all, that's the conclusion I've drawn from various
stuff I picked up on the Net, and from friends and collegues...
But maybe I'm all wrong...  Actually, in that particular case, I'd be
glad to be wrong ;)

Hope that was clear, now.

Almut

(who'd never want to get labeled as an ActiveX advocate... <shudder>)