Microsoft nixes ActiveX add-on technology in new Edge browser

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2920892/web-browsers/microsoft-nixes-activex-add-on-technology-in-new-edge-browser.html

by uladzislau • 11 years ago

55 42 11 years ago

computerworld.com

MichaelCrawford• 11 years ago

Yay.

dogma11386• 11 years ago

Wow, not even legacy support? Not sure if that's going to fly the amount of both extremely old and even brand new enterprise crap systems that still use ActiveX is quite staggering for everything from banking applications to VPN and such ActiveX is still used quite a bit.

Edit: nvm didn't load half the page, enterprise version will have ActiveX & BHO support :D

atonse2• 11 years ago

Seriously? It's damned if you do, damned if you don't for MS. ActiveX is the last bastion of archaic plugin APIs that have been replaced with native html5 features (in most cases). It's about time MS took this thing out and shot it.

The awesome thing about Edge is that they can make these decisions and start fresh without hurting backwards compatibility (because there IS no backwards in Edge, it's brand new), and they can just say "you want all this legacy stuff? use IE" - IE, with its 4 rendering engines, ActiveX, and various zones and modes to appease IT departments, is not going away.

mschuster91• 11 years ago

and various zones and modes to appease IT departments, is not going away.

That "zone" crap is something I never understood anyway. It's a real PITA to setup a Windows Server (tried 2008 and 2008 R2, and I believe its predecessors also had it), because you have to click a dozen different buttons, checkboxes and sliders just to visit a website - and to download stuff like a driver or, heaven forbid, another browser, even more clicks.

Also, these days I don't believe that the whitelisting approach works anymore either, because every website on the web loads content (ohai Jquery and friends) from others... hope it's gone for good in the "new IE".

dogma11386• 11 years ago

Wasn't saying it's a bad thing, but the enterprise market, especially in finance is bloated with various ActiveX components because it was the flavor of the week (turned into the falvor of the decade) when companies had to transform legacy thick client applications to web applications, the sad part is that by the time everything was in place ActiveX was already legacy :) Heck I've had to review ActiveX builds are recent as last year which were "brand new".

I personally loath ActiveX, i hate pretty much any tech that require me to load a 3rd party app inside my browsers whether it's the pesky JRE which you can never update because the 1 site you need it for won't support anything past JRE 7.1, or that ancient ActiveX which you need to open in IE10 in IE7 compatibility mode with virtually every security measure disabled. I'm just saying this move might hurt quite a bit of people, but MSFT seems to be moving away from their usual desktop software modus operandai and moving towards becoming more and more of a services providers/SAAS company.

It doesn't mean that if they decide to take out ActiveX it won't hurt allot of people, and even MSFT in the short time, luckily they still will have some sort of backwards compatibility support and i hope it will be available to normal consumers on demand also. Since sorry but once in a while i need to use an ActiveX too, whether it's some old WebEx or Citrix installation or some really outdated SSL VPN and i don't want to keep some Windows XP/7 VM on hand all the time to do it.

I know it's not what the cool kids do, but sadly for people that tend to work with big and sometimes anachronistic enterprises it's a reality.

outside1234• 11 years ago

There will still be Internet Explorer for the dinosaurs that need ActiveX.

karmakaze• 11 years ago

Good choice by MS. If something's not available by default for consumers, then it isn't mainstream tech. What happens in a special edition is only relevant for that submarket.

deskamess• 11 years ago

Interesting... so for non enterprise users it looks like applets are out. Do not care either way, but that leaves just Firefox supporting applets across all user bases.

zerr• 11 years ago

ActiveX is generally considered as an old tech, but what are the alternatives outside the browser? I mean for desktop apps.

cies2• 11 years ago

Now lets prevent this dark in history from repeating itself. Let keep the web free of proprietary "single-browser" tech.

bad_user2• 11 years ago

PNaCL? Dart VM?

esrauch• 11 years ago

I don't think DartVM was ever turned on in Chrome

Igglyboo• 11 years ago

Almost no one uses either of those, Dart VM never even made it into a non-experimental version of Chrome.

cies2• 11 years ago

Is PNaCl proprietary? Is it something that other browser could not support? Would the maker of this technology put effort in preventing other implementations?

msie• 11 years ago

How else do browsers innovate? I don't have much faith in innovation by committee.

ptx• 11 years ago

I was recently reading David Chappell's "Understanding ActiveX and OLE" (published in 1996) and found this part amusing:

"Once the Windows shell itself lets you browse the Web, the need for a separate web browser application becomes less apparent. But while web browsers as such might one day fade into the mists of history, that day hasn't yet arrived. And even if browsers per se vanish, [COM] components such as the Web Browser object and the HTML viewer will survive."

frik2• 11 years ago

Windows shell itself lets you browse the Web

Microsoft implemented it, called "The Microsoft Network" (MSNv1): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_Dial-up#The_Microsoft_Netwo... . It used the Win95 Explorer as interface. Internet Explorer 1 (rebranded Mosaic) shipped with Win95b / Win95 Plus add-on CD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)

See MSN1 in action, the introduction film with Jennifer Aniston: https://youtu.be/kGYcNcFhctc?t=17m16s (watch it for 2-3 min to get the idea; or direct link to MSN1: https://youtu.be/kGYcNcFhctc?t=19m16s)

Read Bill Gates (former internal) 1994 memo: "Windows: The Next Killer Application on the Internet": http://www.microsoft.com/about/companyinformation/timeline/t... . "The memo starts with a background on the Internet in general, and then proposes a strategy on how to turn Windows into the next "killer app" for the Internet." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish

bdcravens• 11 years ago

Internet Explorer 1 (rebranded Mosaic)

Keep in mind that this wasn't the original NCSA Mosaic

"Spyglass, Inc. licensed the technology and trademarks from NCSA for producing their own web browser but never used any of the NCSA Mosaic source code. Microsoft licensed Spyglass Mosaic in 1995 for US$2 million, modified it, and renamed it Internet Explorer."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)

woah• 11 years ago

Actually very prescient, except that the MS tech he mentions is not being used. He basically describes the exact role that the browser plays on mobile devices today.

7952• 11 years ago

Browsers are definitely starting to offer what operating systems do. It is interesting to poke around in the chrome://gpu pages and you see just how aware chrome is of the underlying hardware. It disables features based on hardware, and drivers rather than rely on the underlying system.

Browsers offer a reliable way to use hardware without any configuration. It is easy to forget how difficult something like video playback could be (relying on player software) before sites like Youtube came along.

john-waterwood• 11 years ago

Wow, just wow!

shimonamit• 11 years ago

HTML5 is an excellent alternative to ActiveX, particularly in the area of mime type handling, but it does not facilitate native desktop interaction. There is still a basic need for certain websites to interact with pre-installed native/legacy applications using a secure method such as Google Native Messaging, but Microsoft hasn't committed to anything similar.

RRRA• 11 years ago

Can they ditch Silverlight too so we can -finally- get rid of plugins on the web?!

nathankunicki• 11 years ago

Sadly no. The one last remaining hurdle, the main reason for still using Silverlight (And to a lesser extent, Flash), still hasn't been solved - that of the requirement for DRM by rights holders.

Until all vendors get on board and ditch their idealistic objections (Right or wrong), those plugins will remain.

kuschku2• 11 years ago

Actually, we have DRM in HTML5 now :/

shmerl• 11 years ago

Good. It's long overdue.

Animats• 11 years ago

Also leaving: Browser Helper Objects. This seems to be the death knell of Flash.

tuna-piano• 11 years ago

In related news from last month, South Korea is finally moving away from ActiveX, with the goal of having at least 90 percent of the country's top 100 websites 'ActiveX-free,' by 2017...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/02/south_korea_to_depor...

For those who need some background: "A law passed in the late 90's to facilitate ecommerce security requires using an ActiveX control, and therefore IE, to shop on Korean sites."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/due-to-secu...

http://www.zdnet.com/article/south-koreans-use-internet-expl...

Microsoft nixes ActiveX add-on technology in new Edge browser

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