[X4U] Help. Explorer: never thought I would look for it

[Stroller]

On 6 Feb 2006, at 22:20, Steve Self wrote:

> ActiveX was a Microsoft mistake and should never be used by web  
> designers. One has to ignore all standards to use it... Yet  
> laziness leads to it's use. And it immediately locks out all mac  
> users. It really is poor technology.

I'm not sure that locking out Mac (and Linux) users is a bad thing  
from Microsoft's point of view, or ActiveX a mistake.

I rarely see ActiveX on "real" websites but Microsoft-centric  
application developers love it, as it can be built with this  
whole .Net thing. The buzz-words that are "web-enabled application"  
have filtered down to all the small & crumby software houses now, so  
all the sort of apps that used to be knocked up in VB (by a team of  
two programmers and a salesman) can now be accessed through a web- 
browser. Small & crumby software houses cover a massive section of  
the application market - all those niche apps for estate agents and  
financial consultants and whathaveyou - and if apps are going to be  
accessing through a web-browser I'm sure that Bill considers it  
better that said web-browser is locked to Microsoft.

Without in any way defending anyone that chooses to be locked-in to a  
single IT vendor, ActiveX is actually Really Cool (tm) if you have  
access to & a use for it - it's very slick and it offers features  
that I think might be difficult to reproduce in Java or some other  
cross-platform language. Microsoft use it as part of their Terminal  
Services software now, so that you can remote desktop through a web- 
browser (so long as that browser is Internet Explorer, of course). An  
employee can power up their PC at home and access the office intranet  
- not only is the webmail completely Outlookised but they can log  
into a virtual desktop, run third-party applications installed at the  
office, drag & drop &c. A Dell server that a customer of mine bought  
recently came supplied with a remote access card, which allows you to  
VNC into the machine using a Java applet; because the card is in  
hardware you can see the power-on messages and enter the BIOS &c. The  
VNC client runs under Linux, too, but an additional feature that  
requires ActiveX allows you to remotely mount a CD drive though your  
web-browser - this allows you to format the hard-drive and reinstall  
the o/s from the other side of the Atlantic.

Stroller.