back to article Microsoft bans all plugins from touchable IE10

Windows 8 will include a version of Internet Explorer 10 that uses Microsoft's "Metro" touch interface, and this new-age browser will not allow plugins – at all. The move is yet another blow to Adobe Flash, which is famously banned from Apple's iPhone and iPad. With Internet Explorer 9 and its successor IE10 – which is …

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  1. John Savard

    Adobe Doesn't Have to Die

    This doesn't have to kill Adobe. After all, the Flash player plug-in is given away by Adobe free of charge. The thing that Adobe sells, and makes money from, is the authoring software.

    So, if it becomes possible for HTML 5 to permit content to be displayed in a manner comparable to that of Flash, the Adobe software can presumably be modified to save content in that form. Of course they will lose the advantage that fewer people have the Silverlight player installed than the Flash player - but Flash became dominant because of Adobe's superiority in the whole technological field.

    1. jonathanb Silver badge

      However if they don't use Flash for the front end, then they could use the same Visual Studio to authour it that the probably use to develop the back end.

      1. CD001

        Which just means you'll end up with 2 camps - graphic designers creating Flash content using Adobe tools because they integrate well with the whole CS suite (Photoshop, Illustrator etc) and app developers possibly using Visual Studio to build Flex apps because that's what they're used to.

        I might hurt Adobe's market share with the Flash authoring tool a bit but I'd be amazed if it killed it outright.

        1. StooMonster

          Even Adobe can see the writing on the wall

          Flash is history, Adobe have already started switched their focus to HTML5 with the latest updates to their tool suite and their "labs" products too.

  2. heyrick Silver badge

    Dear Microsoft...

    I've set my IE to paranoid permissions (so no, microsoft.com isn't auto trusted) and, correct me if I'm wrong, but that dodah that the updates site wants to run to check my copy is legit.....is a plug-in...?

  3. Jay Jaffa
    Devil

    doea anyone care about Microsoft?

    IEX..N - do they matter anymore?

  4. Jeff 11

    "Also Javascript has worst memory leaks. Firefox coming to 400 - 500 mb memory usage?"

    That has nothing to do with Javascript as a language; it's because Firefox's piss-poor JS implementation has more leaks than the Titanic.

  5. Captain DaFt
    FAIL

    Ooh... That headache's back!

    So.... IE 10 won't allow plugins.... except it comes in two flavors on the same OS, and one does, but the other doesn't.... depending on whether you use your mouse or fingers... Aaaarh..

    And what about ARM based Windows? Will it be that one doesn't and one does... If some one ports the plugins to the ARM architecture?

    I need aspirin.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Flash doesn't need to die

    For all its sins, Flash is too useful - it keeps kids amused.

    There's a pretty simple solution really... as every man and his dog can write browsers these days, Adobe should create their own browser and include Flash. It only has to be a mediocre browser as MS's IE9 distinctly offers a poor experience for users in comparison with their earlier versions.

    Why does Microsoft love to alienate their faithful customer base by upsetting their workflows - recent Office releases annoyed users with their ribbons, Windows 7 annoyed users with their unintuitive file search implementation, and IE 9 has the moronic design of toolbars...

    Tis too late in the evening to list examples of Microsoft's folly further, but Adobe - go for it - your future is in your own hands.

    P.S. Do try not to create bloatware if you do have a go! Adobe Reader 10 is on my list of not-to-be-installed applications as it is/was so unstable.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Flash is crap.

    Bravo.

    Good riddance Adobe malware.

  8. Al 4

    Plug-ins the reason I don't use IE

    Flash blocking and other plug-ins are the reason I use FF. The last thing I want is some add screaming when I visit a web site for research purposes. I like being able to keep the sound on, on my PC so I can hear the warning beeps and other acknowledgments. It's the same reason I turn the sound off during commercials cause I don't want to listen to their annoyance at an elevated volume.

  9. Chris Reynolds
    WTF?

    Flash ain't the only plug-in

    Skype and corporate phone systems use plug-ins to make calling from web browsers easier. Various ActiveX controls allow corporate apps to run in the browser.My OneNote plug-in makes it easy to gather online content and share with colleagues.

    It'd be nice if both could run on the same machine. Start with the basic flavour to make things fast and smooth, but pass the session to the full-on version when a plug-in is required (or if the user requests).

    I want my cake and I want to eat it.

  10. Mikel
    FAIL

    0.6% share = nothing of value was lost

    Android does flash. People like flash for, er, "web content". You know - the kind the Internet Is For. Android gives you the whole web, on your terms. It doesn't try and tell you what parts of it you should have. I mean, who would put up with that from their phone?

    So all this does is make Windows Phone less attractive against Android. If WP were going anywhere our little green mechanical buddy would get a boost from that. But at 0.6% of global sales Windows Phone just doesn't have a gnat's whisker of extra lift to offer Android anyway.

    The end of flash? I think not.

  11. wheel
    Stop

    Won't last long

    Once Opera and Mozilla produce Metro browsers which works with plugins, people would stop using IE. I can see the tagline: 'Opera: browse the WHOLE web'.

    This is one reason why Apple refuses to let other browsers on iOS, but it is unlikely that MS would risk such a move being third/fourth/fifth/twenty-second to market with their tablet OS. Otherwise I can see the tagline: 'Android: browse the WHOLE web'.

  12. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
    Trollface

    No Plugins

    Fantastic, can't stand going round and finding people with millions of useless toolbars and then go oh yeah I don't know how that got there, I only clicked an advert for free smilies.

  13. Xtreame96
    FAIL

    Technically Incorrect

    The approach uses what Adobe calls a "captive runtime," a version of the Flash technology bundled along with the application. Captive runtime is one of the features of the soon-to-be-released AIR 3 that accompanies Flash Player 11.

    And because Metro runs Web apps, not just Web pages, on its IE10 engine, Adobe's customers can package their Web content for that environment, too. Both Web apps and packaged AIR apps can be sold through the Windows Store,

  14. Dotter
    Unhappy

    Adblock

    A pity, I happen to like my adblock plugins.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Flash

    Almost every time I have had to force-quit Safari it has been because of Flash. I can understand why MS don't want it - their software is unstable enough anyway!

  16. JDX Gold badge

    Adblock isn't a browser plugin

    As per my previous post. Plugins are ActiveX or nsAPI components.

  17. xeroks

    drm - iPlayer

    Hmm wonder how like of iPlayer will handle it's DRM freeness. Did iplayer ever make it to the iphone?

  18. Flossie
    Stop

    HTML 5 lacks video streaming support

    The problem with HTML 5 video isn't just down to the lack of a standard codec and DRM (assuming you agree with such technology). HTML 5 also fails to specify support for a video streaming protocol, without which HTML 5 is useless for any serious video application.

  19. Gordon Fecyk
    Flame

    You all asked for no ActiveX...

    ...and now you got it, and all you can do is complain.

    There's just no pleasing you people. First it was, "Windows has no security (Win95/98)," now it's, "Windows has too much security (UAC)." It was, "ActiveX is so buggy, so insecure, get rid of it." And now it's, "don't take ActiveX away, you morons."

    Make up your scuppering minds.

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      @ Gordon

      ActiveX != plugin. Sure, there are some serious overlaps, but it's like banning 4WD vehicles from the roads by banning anything with four wheels...

      As for Windows security, certainly it is better than it's Win32 days, but replacing something broken with something differently broken isn't exactly a "fix".

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