On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 4:56 PM, Rugxulo <rugx...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 6:59 AM, dmccunney <dennis.mccun...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 7:36 PM, Rugxulo <rugx...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> The point I'm trying to make is that it's pointless to pretend that >>> all web browsers (and OSes and cpus) are created equal. Most aren't >>> supported well, if at all. Even the developers who know how just don't >>> care enough. >>> >>> If you aren't using IE, Safari, Chrome, or Firefox, then you're >>> probably out of luck with anything more than the bare basics. >> >> Untrue. What you need is a current HTML and JavaScript engines. > > There is a pervasive bias against anything that isn't "Windows, OS X, > or Linux", and those (at least in modern, supported versions) don't > target legacy machines (esp. nothing older than a P4). The trend seems > to be to eventually obsolete i686 entirely in lieu of AMD64 (and ARMv7 > or even AArch64 [ARMv8?] or whatnot).
And why *should* they target legacy machines? Exactly how long is something supposed to be supported? Hardware is steadily smaller, faster, and cheaper. Have fun finding a new x86 machine these days that *isn't* 64 bit. ARM is still largely 32 bit, but that's changing too, and we're likely to see 64 bit ARM in server installations for power savings. > It's not fun being on the receiving end of obsoletion. It's not always > for technical reasons either. No it's not fun. But in general, you're stuck with it. Hardware is cheap. If you can't *afford* to upgrade to something more modern and supported, you have far more important problems than software support for legacy hardware. >> In IE that's Trident. In Firefox, it's Gecko with IonMonkey. In >> Safari, it's Webkit and V8. In Chrome and now Opera, it's Blink and >> V8. > > These only give you the illusion of choice. In reality, you have no > say at all. Upstream decides everything, and they aren't always > considerate of end users. Oh, bullshit. Who is this "upstream" you speak of? There are multiple choices in browsers for reasonably current hardware (I think I have a dozen or so installed for testing.) They may be based on common underlying runtimes, but that's largely inevitable. The nature of the computer market is winnowing and things falling by the wayside until a few approaches dominate. And frankly, what most folks are looking for is freedom *from* choice, and a *reduction* in the number of things they must consciously consider and make decisions about. Offer folks two or three choices of something, and all is well. Offer a dozen, and watch activity grind to a halt. >> Flash isn't going away on the desktop, and is still maintained. I >> just had Firefox Nightly complain I was running an older and possibly >> vulnerable version of the plugin and updated. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash#Availability_on_desktop_operating_systems > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash#Alternatives I *did* say "on the *desktop*". I'm well aware Flash is going away in mobile. >> The principal use case for Flash is streaming video implemented as >> Flash objects, and there's still a batch of that around. As HTML5 >> becomes prevalent, that will go away (and making it go away and >> dispensing with the need to the Flash plugin is a major reason why >> people are pushing HTML5.) > > Flash is probably legitimately half dead. It's not well-supported > anymore. It was very popular (and still is), but there were many > people who actively hated it. It's hard to go against the grain. It's > hard to support or use something when everyone is fighting against it. I'll be just as happy when Flash is gone. For instance, I use Firefox, and Firefox has a plugin_helper application called from within it when a plugin is run. It provides a sandbox in which the plugin can execute so a crashing plugin doesn't take the browser with it. Guess which plugin was a worst offender that pushed Mozilla into creating plugin_helper? But I'm not holding my breath while Flash goes away. A technology that pervasive and deeply embedded doesn't simply go away overnight. IT needs to be replaced, and the content that used it recrafted in something else. ______ Dennis https://plus.google.com/u/0/105128793974319004519 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download BIRT iHub F-Type - The Free Enterprise-Grade BIRT Server from Actuate! Instantly Supercharge Your Business Reports and Dashboards with Interactivity, Sharing, Native Excel Exports, App Integration & more Get technology previously reserved for billion-dollar corporations, FREE http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=164703151&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
