Re: Does not look like a good proposition for desktop app developers
Probably you're not old enough too :)
Actually, ActiveX predates the Internet/browser frenzy. They were designed as UI elements embeddable in any application able to host them, and driven via COM. The whole Visual Basic was designed around ActiveX - ActiveX was the natural evolution of VBX - with standard COM interfaces and not designed to be used by a single tool.
When web pages attempted to go beyond simply static contents and some CGI script, and Sun attempted to put Java applets inside your browser, MS answered supporting ActiveX controls inside Internet Explorer (which rendering engines, is in turn, it's an ActiveX itself and can be hosted by other applications...) - but actually you can host them in any ActiveX container.
Back then JavaScript was still in its infancy, and there were no ways to deliver complex GUIs in a web page. Sure, it was a portable solution, and like Java, the implementation was too much unsecure to be really useful.
Universal Applications are a totally different thing.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
