Saw this from another list.  It may be of interest for those purchasing
XP.
Steve
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2001 09:59:16 -0500
From: W. Nick Dotson <[log in to unmask]>
To: Multiple recipients of NFBnet GUI-TALK Mailing List
    <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: MicroSquish Again!



This should say it all to those of us considering the "XP" upgrade.  I did the Explorer upgrade in "good faith" and...

W. Nick Dotson
ZDNet: Tech Update: Windows NT/2000/XP / IE unplugged

ZDNet:
IE unplugged

By
Larry Seltzer
August 29, 2001
TalkBack!

Some people like to complain about all the new features that come with new versions of software. Microsoft recently
took the unusual step of removing a
feature from Internet Explorer, but don't get the idea that they're doing us a favor.

For many years, IE has supported Netscape-style plug-ins, which are client-side programs that can be invoked from a
Web page using the <EMBED> tag. IE's
support for ActiveX controls was always preferred, and ActiveX development was always more polished. There were a
few cases of commercial applications
available only in plug-in form and some other popular programming techniques that rely on plug-ins. But developers and
users could always rely on IE supporting
plug-ins.

 frame

 frame end

Not any more. News stories came out recently about Internet Explorer 6--the version that comes in Windows XP--and
how it no longer supports plug-ins. (In
fact, Service Pack 2 for Internet Explorer 5.5 also disables plug-in support in that browser.) I asked Microsoft why they
would do such a thing. Their
response, according to Waggener Edstrom, a PR firm representing Microsoft, was that they aren't saying why. They did
say this:
Microsoft made the decision not to support old style Netscape plug-ins in IE 6.0 and IE 5.5.
Content creators can continue to create plug-in components that are built on ActiveX technologies, as has been the
case since Internet Explorer 3.
Microsoft is continuing to work with key partners to ensure the best online experience for its customers.
You'd think that supporting plug-ins was a mistake to begin with. But of course, their unwillingness to explain why they
are removing plug-in support indicates
that there's no good reason for it. They just don't want people writing or relying on plug-ins anymore. Microsoft's
knowledge base article Q303401
gives some further explanation of the issue.

A recent AP story in the Wall Street Journal quoted Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan as saying that removing plug-ins
was intended to increase security,
although the article doesn't elaborate on how it would increase security. The same story quoted Rob Enderle of Giga
Information Systems as speculating
that it had become "more costly to support Netscape-style plug-ins." Once again, there was no elaboration. Neither
explanation makes sense to me, and if
there really were a good reason I think Microsoft would have told me.

Most of the press attention for loss of plug-in support has gone to Apple's QuickTime and Sun's Java Plug-in, but in fact
these are small potatoes in terms
of actual Web usage. By far the most popular use of a plug-in is for background sound. Have you ever gone to a Web
page, probably of the "my first Web
page" variety, and gotten an annoying jingle, probably a MIDI file, playing in the background? Such pages almost
certainly use a plug-in.

I know how I feel about pages like this, and it's tempting to think that doing away with such sounds is worth all the
trouble caused by eliminating plug-ins,
but I'll leave that judgment to historians. In the meantime, if you actually want to "fix" this on your own pages, you can
use IE's proprietary
BGSOUND tag.

I look at QuickTime and Sun's Java Plug-in and I have to wonder why they never made an ActiveX control to begin
with. They really should have considered
this possibility. But very few sites use these controls, especially the Java plug-in, so few users will be inconvenienced.
Microsoft's knowledge base article
also lists Finale MusicViewer by Coda Music Technology, and AlternaTIFF by Medical Informatics Engineering. Within a
couple of months all of these vendors
will offer ActiveX versions, Web pages will be updated to use them, and the issue will be done with, but some people will
have another reason to resent
Microsoft.

It's worth pointing out that Microsoft is hardly the first company to remove a widely implemented browser feature.
Netscape 6 abandoned proprietary models
for layers and other features that began in Netscape 4. There are still a lot of Web pages out there that use these
features. Luckily for developers, nobody
in the real world actually uses Netscape 6.

Over the long term, Microsoft treats developers really well. I honestly think this is the single biggest reason for their
success. It's rare that they do
something like this that inconveniences absolutely everyone, including users and developers, as well as some
competitors. And it's one thing for them to
make a change like this in a new major version of the product, but to do so to an existing version and through a service
pack is quite inconsiderate. Service
packs are supposed to be for bug fixes. If plug-ins are a bug that they just fixed, they should at least come out and say it.
But Microsoft's silence on
their reasons for killing off plug-ins says all that needs to be said.

Larry has written software and computer articles since 1983. He has worked for software companies and IT
departments, and has managed test labs at National
Software Testing Labs, PC Week, and PC Magazine.

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