Microsoft vs Mozilla II
Readers may recall a couple of weeks ago, I complained about a suspected update to Explorer causing a bunch of crashing in my browser of choice, Mozilla Firefox. I had quipped that it would not surprise me if something was amiss there, based on the timing of that last updates from which source and when things starting to go wrong. Since then, through some various methods I had reduced the number of hangup and lockups to a substantially less number, but they, the lockups in particular, were still happening enough to be concerned. Thanks to a friend on Facebook, kudos to you Drew, I have been vindicated somewhat in my original thought on the matter.
Turns out that Microsoft, in the last update to .NET, slipped in a plugin into the Mozilla Firefox browser that makes it able to handle the .NET extensions to the browser just like Explorer does. I am sure if you are not in the know, your first question is why in the world would they do that? The easy answer is to gain additional function. Let me explain that a bit more though.
The browser as it sits in the wild has very limited capabilities to do any kind of processing beyond the document formatting. Various tools extend that and among the top two or three favorites these days is Java, PHP, and .NET. Java also requires a download to you system and processes on your computer similar to the way .NET does. It is psuedo propeirtary, despite it never having suppose to have been, depending on who you ask any given week. It is also, generally very slow comparatively speaking. PHP processes things up on the server and while it can be faster (depending on the server of course) requires, like Java, a good deal of knowledge.
Enter .NET from Microsoft. It is not bad speed wise, extends both the Explorer browser and a number of common programming languages including C++ and Visual Basic. The last one is key, as there lot of less that stellar programmers that can hack out a VB applet type of thing just based on the GUI nature of the the interface and the ability to hack around until works. Ad to that the last year of pushing from Microsoft to move to SharePoint services, which also uses similar technology in the background.
So what is the problem then if it is an okay system and extends things so much. Up until last month it only worked on Explorer. Which mean that I was running Firefox and encountered one of these apps I was stuck without a solution short of firing up Explorer to get the job done. I had been running into a surprising number of such apps on the web as of late and it was an aggravation, but no impossible with which to deal.
Microsoft, in its wisdom, with the last update to .NET pushed out this plugin to “patch” the problem in Firefox. They did it without any notification to the user that it was being done. I have issue with that on both a moral grounds and the fact that I like to make informed choices about what I am putting into my system. Yeah, I can not help to be reminded of the scene with R2-D2 interfacing “strange” systems. It was worse though, they disabled the uninstall option for the plugin. You can disable it, but to uninstall it requires hacking around in the register – NOT for the feint of heart. Even worse, several companies that have used the .NET are now saying it works on Firefox perfectly now.
It is goes from the bad to just plan ugly. In addition to the lockups that my system seemed to be having from this little helpful move, it turns out that I see a security issue. Using .NET extensions it is possible to install plugin and even manipulate the system in other ways. Silently! Meaning, just like this update, no user interaction about what is going onto the system.
I have to hand it to Microsoft for slipping this one in so slyly. I honestly was kind of jesting with my last post, but it appears that I hit it right on the nose, or slight to the left side of the the nose, but mostly only target after all. Oh and for those that want to know more, check out this Washington Post link.
