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Microsoft Update Slips In a Firefox Extension
An anonymous reader writes "While doing a weekly scrub of my Windows systems, which includes checking for driver updates and running virus scans, I found Firefox notifying me of a new add-on. It's labelled 'Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant,' and it 'Adds ClickOnce support and the ability to report installed .NET versions to the web server.' The add-on could not be uninstalled in the usual way. A little Net searching turned up a number of sites offering advice on getting rid of the unrequested add-on." The unasked-for extension has been hitchhiking along with updates to Visual Studio, and perhaps other products that depend on .NET, since August. It appears to have gone wider recently, coming in with updates to XP SP3.
Well it changes the user agent.. I assume to say firefox is IE, thus making firefox's market share look smaller, making firefox appear less relevant to pointy haired bosses everywhere.
I worry about the well being of the two folks who modded this off topic. You guys ok? You feeling good? Ok then.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Yeah but unlike Sony, Microsoft has stuff people actually want to use. It's not like people are going to dump Windows for Lin-sux or DeadBSD.
You sad little person. Go on, get off your computer and get a life.
99.9% of Firefox users choose to install flash. Presumably this 99.9% of users would also prefer Firefox to handle ClickOnce (rather than display huge gobs of XML like it does without this feature).
Personally I would be quite happy for the whiny 0.1% of users who don't want this feature (ie: 0.02% of Windows users) to either put up, or fuck off in an orderly fashion in the direction of their nearest RMS lookalike, so they can STFU, and have all the freedom they want without interrupting me, who wants his shit to just work without offering a hundred goddamn options.
3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
Oh STFU Balmer -- you should have just offered it through the appropriate Mozilla extension site like every-freaking-body else who has a useful extension to contribute, instead of shoving it down everybody's throat. Stupid, stupid monkeyboi!
Caveat Utilitor
So...
Where can I buy these attachments?
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
you're an idiot. The very first hit on google for "quicktime without itunes" is to a quicktime only download. http://www.apple.com/au/quicktime/download/
This comes up everytime someone mentions iTunes on slashdot, and everytime there is some idiot who can't be bothered to even try to find the download.
and surprise, if you instal iTunes it requires Bonjour for some of its features.
Yes, that's right. Dammit, I HATE them Micro$oft soooo much, how dare they. Why if I hated them any more I would've... wait, I've got Windows installed. You're claiming that Windows users hate Microsoft. If that isn't proof that you're a retard, what is it? Could it be... TROLLING?
Santa's suicide mission go!
Don't blame him if you can't think about larger concepts than American Idol. Also, don't interrupt the grownups when they are talking.
oh man, why do you post anonymously? I'd befriend you for your analogy capabilities and finesse. Like an ugly, fat, mentally challenged, not so full of rotting teeth woman rapping a rootkit author in a dark alley during a rainy night.
Reliable open-source Ninnle Linux would never allow this to happen, either by M$ or anyone else.
Who asked you? :-)
Could they have made it an XPI? Maybe, but really? It's functionality to help software run better.
It's funny how the fanboi mentality works (and not as a valid argument, mind you)
I guess it's always easier to look and judge rather than assess what's really going on. Everyone complains and complains and when something is done to fix it, complain some more.
Sound more like an incessantly nagging spouse on a power trip please...
This was brought up by a fellow developer a week ago. Just that one specific developer. No one else cared... This particular developer is a decent programmer, but definitely not even top 5 of the coders we have around here. He dual boots two separate installations of Windows XP at home, one is a standard installation, the other doesn't even have the drivers installed for anything internet related. He installs all third-party applications on his non-networked installation to avoid ever being 'hacked'. He browses the internet on the other installation, which is completely bare and has every security setting imaginable turned up to annoying levels. No other developer in our office sees a logical reason to do this because WE understand how all of this shit works, from working with it for the past 10 years to the education we gained in school for 4 or more years...
He's also 45, single, fat, pathetic, and no one in this world or the next will ever enjoy being within 100m of him.
That's you. He is the quintessential slashdot user. Smart enough to get in trouble, too stupid to understand how any of it works.