Microsoft, Plugins and Patents
MS just lost a patent infringement case in the US courts over browser plugins. Appeals are still pending, but rumbles are already emerging from Redmond that they're looking at ways to amend their products to be non-infringing.
As a long-term IE non-user, I've got some vaguely-paranoid suspicions about what MS are planning. However, while I was mulling them over, Jeffrey Zeldman beat me to it. He also offers some thoughts about why it might not be that bad, mostly centred on the observation that Longhorn, MS's best hope of getting around this (and obliterating everyone else) just isn't ready yet.
Yet... I can't help worrying that MS's "solution", even if not the nuclear option that destroys RealPlayer and QuickTime overnight, will be proprietary in some way, leading to zillions of sites on the web with content that only works in IE. As if there weren't enough high profile sites out there that still have a crappy attitude to browser support*
*That page, despite its passing attempt at pretending to be XHTML, doesn't even come close to validating.
As a long-term IE non-user, I've got some vaguely-paranoid suspicions about what MS are planning. However, while I was mulling them over, Jeffrey Zeldman beat me to it. He also offers some thoughts about why it might not be that bad, mostly centred on the observation that Longhorn, MS's best hope of getting around this (and obliterating everyone else) just isn't ready yet.
Yet... I can't help worrying that MS's "solution", even if not the nuclear option that destroys RealPlayer and QuickTime overnight, will be proprietary in some way, leading to zillions of sites on the web with content that only works in IE. As if there weren't enough high profile sites out there that still have a crappy attitude to browser support*
*That page, despite its passing attempt at pretending to be XHTML, doesn't even come close to validating.