[ubuntu-in] activex in firefox/ubuntu

[Sanjay Bhangar]

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 10:35 PM, C S Shyam Sundar
<csshyamsundar at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> How can I view the websites with activex controls in my ubuntu 10.04
>> system?
>
>
> One sane way which I recommend for users is to install Virtual Box, setup
> an XP guest and then visit the site using IE 6 or 7.
>
> I would recommend the same. This used to work for me:
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page , but even then it only
supported upto IE 6 and I dont think the project is maintained. Besides, the
last couple of times I tried to install it, it did not work. It actually
goes to the microsoft.com website to download some dll's and things, and I
think this is where the program fails. MS probably moved the location of
those files, is my guess, but I could be off the ball.


> Activex has always been a security nightmare.
>
>
> Not necessarily true. ActiveX run native code, can serve better and are
> faster. It is the browser's security model which has made activex
> vulnerable.
>
> That still made it a security nightmare :), apart from it being a
completely proprietary, platform-specific implementation completely unsuited
for the  web. It's really sad how much it is still used :(.


>
>
Similar implementations are mozilla extensions.
>
> Which provide, I think, superior capabilities in terms of access to native
code, etc. and have a much cleaner security model in that the user has to
explicitly install a piece of software and the browser warns them that they
should trust the site, etc, apart from the additional layer of trust
addons.mozilla.org provides.


> That is why very high end web apps  provide activex, xpi. If both of them
> don't work, then they resort to java applets.
>
>
Hopefully soon most of what you need would be cleanly defined in HTML 5 (and
related specs), and implemented across browsers - Local Storage, device
control, read access to the file-system and we wont need any of these things
:)

Sorry for going OT - to the OP (original poster): first, send an angry
letter to the webmaster of said site, then either install VirtualBox with
windows in it (surprisingly straightforward to do), or access said site on a
friend's windows machine (i think some people still use that OS .. :) ..

Would be really great if someone does have a solution for installing
Internet Explorer through wine or something though. It's really hard to make
websites work in a browser that refuses to follow standards AND won't even
install itself on your operating system :/

-Sanjay



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