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Firefox Disables Microsoft .NET Addon
ZosX writes "Around 11:45 PM Friday night, I was prompted by Firefox that it had disabled the addons that Microsoft has been including with .NET — specifically, the .NET Framework Assistant and the Windows Presentation Foundation. The popup announcing this said that the 'following addons have been known to cause stability or security issues with Firefox.' Thanks, Mozilla team, for hitting the kill switch and hopefully this will get Microsoft to release a patch sooner." Here's the Mozilla security blog entry announcing the block, which Mozilla implemented via its blocklisting mechanism.
Was it without consent though? I'm sure it would have been buried in the small print somewhere when installing/updating the .Net framework.
and Microsoft is recommending that all users disable the add-on.
Well gosh, that "unable-to-be-disabled" feature seems really quite stupid now, doesn't it?
Mike, I haven't seen anyone else say this, so allow me. As a grateful firefox user and evangelist, thanks for your efforts, contributions, and patience in putting up with all of us. Please pass this thanks on to your co-team members.
I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
People, please let this idea die VERY quickly. Chrome is NOT there to get an install base for Chrome. It is there to get an install base for modern browsers with fast javascript/DOM.
Googles operates in the browser and in order to be able to get the next generation products out there, it needs to ensure that those products can be run. IE/MS ain't capable of this, so they both push MS by making them scared to completly loose the browser AND by capabilities to IE to make it play catch up with the real browsers.
In a way, what Google is doing is installing electricity cabling into every house. NOT because it wants to be in the utility business but because it has all these design for electric machines and they ain't going to be selling them to people who use candles and woodstoves.
MS on the other hand does NOT want people to have modern browsers, or rather not browsers that act like browsers. Its business relies on activex and .net and the like to keep apps closely tied to their windows OS.
MS fears projects like gmail and worse wave. It knows that its software is increasingly a major cost of computers (check it, hardware prices go down, MS prices go up) and while so far its software offers a lot more features, the sign of netbooks is that, a lot of them ain't needed. I got a netbook (with linux) that is not nearly as capable as a full PC. I can't game on it, its office tools are simplistic but guess what, it is all I really need.
MS has been selling XP, a lot, for netbooks but it has been doing it at a fraction of the price it would like to charge and really, it only sold XP so cheaply because else Linux would have been installed. You would be right in assuming a LOT of people would replace Linux with an OLD XP copy (license of an old PC you threw away is still valid) but MS doesn't even want the idea that there maybe yet another OS out there. An OS that while not perfect is good enough. People are already getting dangerously exposed to this idea by their cellphones. Quick poll, who has Windows Mobile and is willing to admit it? Everyone knows that an iPhone gets you the girls, this even goes for girls.
MS ideally wants to sell you their OS for 300+ dollars, that doesn't fit well for a 300- netbook or indeed a mobile phone, but that is MS business model, and ideally, you should spend another 300 for the office suit. (please, MS fanboys, do NOT link to student discounts or OEM versions. Full price for the box in the MS store.)
Google is doing something completly different. It is saying. Nah, you don't need a 300 dollar OS with a 300 dollar productivity suite. Just a browser (free) on free/cheap OS and you got all you really need. For free. Sure, there are some angles (your data is on the google servers) but for a lot of people, it is good enough.
AND that, is what scares MS. Because... even if people would still use windows, the window sthey would be using is their old XP. This is already the case in a many companies. And without the cashcows of Windows/Office, how can MS afford all its other attempts to control markets?
The browser wars are back, but they are being fought for a different reason. Chrome is NOT netscape 2.0
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Doesn't it seem a little odd that the company that is competing for market shares in the web browser area would create a addon for a competing company?
Not really if you look at where the real competition is occurring.
The REAL product that Microsoft is trying to protect is the Windows platform. This is how Microsoft maintains their monopoly. IE is merely a means to try to control the web market to use Windows only across the board. The windows platform maintains much of its monopoly power by controlling the software to run on only Windows. Microsoft has long known that 3rd party developers were a big factor in building their monopoly, and keeping them on Windows maintains that monopoly.
This plugin lets you run parts of .Net on Firefox, correct? .Net is largely Windows only software, correct? So by having Firefox (an increasingly popular web browser on Windows) run .Net software, Microsoft is trying to maintain .Net on web browsers as a viable platform. By doing this they try to ensure that you'll need a Windows computer to run .Net software on a browser. The alternative is that Web developers increasingly reject .Net components because of the increasing popularity of FireFox (and .Net not running on FireFox, thus developers don't want to lose the market share and choose non .Net alternatives). That's bad for Microsoft, since it means more inter-operability with other OS's, which would decrease the relevance of Windows.
Pretty clever, really. Frankly I think the Firefox developers should stop this nonsense not only because of the security concerns, but mainly because it's an attempt to control Firefox by Microsoft. Does Mozilla really want to answer to whatever Microsoft decides to inject into Firefox this week?
I also think it's a anti-competitive move by Microsoft and an abuse of their monopoly power. I doubt anyone will do anything about it though.
AccountKiller
I consider any plugin installed without my consent to be malicious, especially if it's a plugin FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S SOFTWARE.