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Microsoft Bows to Eolas, Revamps IE

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the here-ya-go dept.

Tenacious Dee writes "The patent quarrel between Microsoft and Eolas takes a strange turn with an announcement from Redmond that the Internet Explorer browser will be modified to change the way ActiveX controls are handled. A Microsoft white paper details the behavior change."

10 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Or... by Eli+Gottlieb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They could perhaps just remove ActiveX entirely, insecure as it has proven to be.

    1. Re:Or... by IntlHarvester · · Score: 5, Informative

      I knew someone would turn this into a flamefest about ActiveX.

      Allow me to make a technical point on slashdot -- ActiveX is nothing more than an interface standard. It's neither "secure" or "insecure" by itself. As it is used in IE it's no less secure than any other browser plugin mechanism, including those found in Firefox or Safari.

      The technology you dislike is not ActiveX -- it's called Internet Component Download. And while it still exists, it's pretty limited in XPSP2, and there's been some rumblings that it will be removed alltogether in Vista.

      --
      Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
  2. Extra click to interact with objects in pages. by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This solution sounds like flashblock.
    I personally hope it is like that, because then content won't be doing dodgy stuff without consent.

    Thank you Eolas :)

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    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Extra click to interact with objects in pages. by IntlHarvester · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, it's not like Flashblock. The article indicates that flash movies will play as they normally do. Only that if you want to click the "Stop" button, you will actually have to click it twice - once to activate the control and a second time to click the button. Dumbdumbdumbdumbdumb.

      Furthermore, the webdev can bypass this stupidity using some simple javascript to write out the tags.

      Note also that Firefox and other browsers will need to implement a similar change.

      --
      Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
  3. about time by eneville · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ActiveX has been a huge problem with IE (you should know this already). I hope ActiveX is removed, rather than improved. It would reduce people's dependancy on the browser, perhaps then authors will consider cross platforms, or rather, the forced to do things that are cross platform.

    --
    Why UNIX?
  4. What this means for other browsers by drgroove · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Microsoft is doing this for a strategic reason - other browser vendors cannot hope to pay the patent licensing fees that Eolas will charge them. Additionally, it will be difficult for other browser vendors to change their software as quickly - remember, MS had a prototype version of an "Eolas compliant" browser at least last year.

    Interesting move.

  5. Re:Uninformative blurb by n0dalus · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can see the Patent Here.

    Essentially, it's a total bullshit patent attempting to own the concept of having an interactive server/client style application embedded in a webpage.

  6. Better security by lheal · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The paper will explain how the IE changes will be implemented and to warn developers that users won't be able to directly interact with Microsoft ActiveX controls loaded by the APPLET, EMBED or OBJECT elements without first activating the user interface with an extra mouse click.

    That's what should happen anyway, stupid patent or no stupid patent. You shouldn't be able to go to a web page and have it run whatever it wants to on your computer. This won't protect against tricking the human, but it does raise the bar slightly for classic phishing popups, viruses and spyware.

    I'd say Microsoft wised up a little, except that there are probably other ways to get IE to run ActiveX without user intervention.

    --
    Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
  7. Workaround? by Teppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I understand Microsoft's writeup correctly, ActiveX controls will still load without user intervention, but will require an additional click to begin accepting user input the first time.

    What if someone were to write an ActiveX control that goes around and does all the clicking for other controls on the same page?

  8. Re:Or... What's at stake for the industry by h4rm0ny · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Is my enemy's enemy my friend? I don't think so. If I chastise Microsoft for patenting software (which I do), then I can hardly endorse it in anyone else. When what you dislike is the weapons themselves, then it hardly matters who is using them on who.

    --

    Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.