Microsoft holds back the web again

By drhowarddrfine
in General Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

Veteran

REM2000

Posted
Posted

I can understand why people are saying that emails should be plain text, however i like having sales emails etc.. from amazon.co.uk and play.com, laid out with images of latest releases.

Emails started as plain text, however that does not mean it should not be extended. It's a real shame that html emails have been exploited so much by virus writers and spammers, as it gives people the opportunity to send information in a formatted function, which makes it easier for groups of people to work together.

Everybody who makes use of the internet uses their inbox as a mind dump / storage, it contains vasts amount of information which they use for their daily lives, businesses especially.

Again like IE, Microsoft is in a different position to many other email clients, simply because it's the most used email client, when looking at businesses it has an even bigger slice of the market. When you own the market you have to ensure that others have access to the market and can compete.

People like Firefox, thunderbird, linux etc.. all ensure you the consumer have greater choice in the market place. They also push and try to ensure that when you purchase something from a supplier other than microsoft you can still have access to your media / information etc..

I think Microsoft owe it to the computing industry not to go back on it's self and start trying to lock users in again, they need to continue their good work and keep their products standardized.

Grand Master

zhangm Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted

I've never cared much for HTML formatted e-mail. I set my clients to force the display as plain text.

I do hope that Microsoft invests some effort in improving web rendering in the Office suite however.

But is the situation as bad as people would want us to believe?

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090626/...in-perspective/

Mentor

_dandy_

Posted
Posted
Well of course, if you limited e-mails to plain text and disallowed any attachments you couldn't send any viruses because you couldn't send anything.

Uhhh, I hate it break it to you, but people had been exchanging email for decades before somebody had the bright idea of using HTML in email, and it worked just fine.

Because you apparently don't see it doesn't mean that all of a sudden plain text email would become useless.

Grand Master

The_Decryptor Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
Uhhh, I hate it break it to you, but people had been exchanging email for decades before somebody had the bright idea of using HTML in email, and it worked just fine.

Because you apparently don't see it doesn't mean that all of a sudden plain text email would become useless.

Because that's exactly what I claimed.

If you removed the ability to send anything other than plain text (that is, any type of attachment) then you couldn't send any viruses.

The format the e-mail is in doesn't help or hinder the format it's attachments are in, plain text e-mails aren't more or less likely to have viruses than HTML e-mails are.

Experienced

C_Guy

Posted
Posted
Can't this company do anything right?

Find out how many computers around the world run at least one piece of Microsoft software and then get back to us with the answer. Don't forget to count mobile phones, media players, and video game consoles.

Post your findings and we'll help you answer the question if you're still confused.

Mentor

_dandy_

Posted
Posted
Because that's exactly what I claimed.

If you removed the ability to send anything other than plain text (that is, any type of attachment) then you couldn't send any viruses.

The format the e-mail is in doesn't help or hinder the format it's attachments are in, plain text e-mails aren't more or less likely to have viruses than HTML e-mails are.

Attachments are just one vector common to all clients. You must've missed all the viruses that propagated over email by using exploits in IE. No need for attachments at all.

Take out a huge complex rendering engine and replace it with a simple one that only displays plain text, and suddenly your attack surface is reduced significantly.

Grand Master

HSoft

Posted
Posted

I'm completely failing to see what the problem is here apart from it being an obvious troll thread.

So MSFT doesn't use IE as a rendering engine in Outlook 2K7, it uses Word instead. What does that prove?

When you compose the email you'll be composing it in Word as well and since most businesses use Office I really don't see what this thread is about.

As stated by someone previously, most HTML emails coming from the web are spam. Most intra and inter office communications in a business will be typed up and read within Outlook/Word. This has absolutely nothing at all to do with web standards or holding back the web.

Please troll somewhere else.

Grand Master

+Nik Louch Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted
As stated by someone previously, most HTML emails coming from the web are spam.
the business sector uses html mail ? well yeah they do, for the spam and ad mails....

Can you possibly give your source of figures for that? I have worked in 4 independent companies where we had paid users (in one instance 40,000) who expected to receive HTML newsletters.

I'm completely failing to see what the problem is here apart from it being an obvious troll thread.

Yup.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • Microsoft about to radically change how often your Edge browser updates

      By testman · Posted

      Everyone else has said it. I'm gonna say it - you don't know what you're talking about. I do. I have two laptops. One work, one personal. I have access to two more laptops - both personal. At home I manually update my personal laptop when I see on Neowin that there is an update - I carry on and only apply the updates when I am ready. My work one only updates when my workplace decides to send it - I carry on and only apply the updates (when they actually arrive, which is usually days after the release) when I switch off the laptop at the end of the day as usual. The two other personal laptops only get updated when I get to it which is rarely - the people who own them carry on using them until I get to it and update them. All of the browsers on all laptops are configured to restore the tabs when launched. Google and Microsoft have changed from 6 weeks to 4, and it looks like it's going to move to 2. None of these changes affect how any of these browsers on the laptops are used. Not one jot. My advice to you is stop panicking whenever you see an update. Just carry on with what you're doing. This even benefits you in a way - from your comment you sound like you don't like the changes or the frivolous new features - great - then carry on as before!
    • Lethal fake phone chargers are still being sold on Amazon and eBay, UK watchdog warns

      By Brian Miller · Posted

      AMAZON needs to take total accountability for this.
    • Windows Server gets DNS over HTTPS (DoH) support

      By binaryzero · Posted

      Server Summit had a heap of announcements, ADCS changes are baller.
    • Linux 7.1 arrives with an NTFS overhaul and major hardware performance boosts

      By Max Norris · Posted

      Nice, hope they *finally* fixed the issue with the NTFS driver where the system would completely brick during large file copies using the built in driver. It's been broken for years requiring me to use the older, slower, NTFS-3G FUSE driver.
    • Windows 11 KB5094126 BSODing, freezing, forcing BitLocker lockout, breaks OneDrive, and more

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      Windows 11 KB5094126 BSODing, freezing, forcing BitLocker lockout, breaks OneDrive, and more by Sayan Sen Microsoft released Windows 11 KB5094126 and KB5093998 last week as the latest Patch Tuesday updates. Following that the company also published the accompanying dynamic updates under KB5094149, KB5095971, and KB5094156. While Microsoft has so far not acknowledged any major problems with the release, some users online are running into problems. These range from OneDrive and Dropbox access issues, BitLocker recovery lockouts, to blue screens and BSODs. The most common one seems to be happening with HP systems wherein affected users say they hit 0xc0430001 BSOD (blue screen of death) error code after the KB5094126 update. We wonder if this could be related to the recent bug we covered on HP devices wherein the ongoing Secure Boot certificate updates are leading to similar issues. While we are not certain, users affected by this issue likely need to ensure that the boot.stl file is included on the installation media (such as a USB installer or ISO), if the above-mentioned dynamic updates are deployed. If this file is missing, computers may fail to boot from the installation media and could display the error 0xc0430001. This STL file is used by Secure Boot to verify that the boot files are trusted, so it must match the same Windows version and system architecture. To ensure the file is included, Microsoft recommends using the Update WinPE script, which automatically updates the image and handles the required files. Alternatively, you can manually copy the boot.stl file from the Windows\Boot\EFI folder on a Windows device and place it in the matching folder on your installation media before deploying the updated image. Aside from blue screening some users also note their systems have been freezing following the update. This could be happening to Lenovo PCs specifically. In the case of the OneDrive and Dropbox access issues, a user figured out that there could be a conflict with UAC. He explained: "Okay, so I did some digging, and in our environment KB5094126 breaks OneDrive and Dropbox in Explorer. I went through all our GPOs and found out that the combination of disabling UAC and having my user being a local admin breaks OneDrive in Explorer. ... If I enable UAC again, then it works, even with KB5094126 still installed." Hopefully, Microsoft will look into these issues. Source: Microsoft forum (link1, link2, link3, link4), Reddit (link1, link2, link3, link4)

  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Jeroen Wilms earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      rolfus earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Leroy Jethro Gibbs earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Conversation Starter
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Month Later
      AndreaB earned a badge
      One Month Later

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      508
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      197
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      138
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      90
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      80
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!