A recent item that will have affected quite a number of you is that of Microsoft's discontinuation of support for Netscape-style plug-ins. Over at ZDNet there's an interesting roundup of the story, along with a couple of decent links:
COMMENTARY--Some people like to complain about all the new features that come with new versions of software. Microsoft recently took the unusual step of removing a feature from Internet Explorer, but don't get the idea that they're doing us a favor.
For many years, IE has supported Netscape-style plug-ins, which are client-side programs that can be invoked from a Web page using the EMBED tag. IE's support for ActiveX controls was always preferred, and ActiveX development was always more polished. There were a few cases of commercial applications available only in plug-in form and some other popular programming techniques that rely on plug-ins. But developers and users could always rely on IE supporting plug-ins.
Not any more. News stories came out recently about Internet Explorer 6--the version that comes in Windows XP--and how it no longer supports plug-ins. (In fact, Service Pack 2 for Internet Explorer 5.5 also disables plug-in support in that browser.) I asked Microsoft why they would do such a thing. Their response, according to Waggener Edstrom, a PR firm representing Microsoft, was that they aren't saying why.......
News source: ZDNet Commentary for more.
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