On 23/02/07, James Knott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Apparently, even setting the default browser to Firefox or other doesn't always work. In the recent Iowa MS trial, a tech setting up internet access for the lawyers found that out the hard way. Even though he had set Firefox as default, somehow IE became default and it took a lot of effort to change back. This happened right in front of the court that was handling the MS antitrust case!
I hadn't heard about that. Interesting. On systems that I've worked with (friends systems, and a few university machines) I have had no problem setting Firefox as the default browser.
Incidentally, this problem with IE being tied so close to the operating system is the result of another MS lawsuit over forced bundling of IE. MS claimed it had to be there, as it was part of the OS and sure enough, when the next version of Windows appeared, it was. So MS deliberately did that, in violation of good software engineering practices, solely to back up a claim made in court. The world has been suffering for it ever since.
I'm pretty sure that IE was bundled with Windows ever since version 3, in 98SE. They did that to screw Spyglass out of the licensing fees for mosaic. Read about it here: http://what-is-what.com/what_is/internet_explorer.html Disclaimer: my site.
You can thank MS for doing the above for much of the security problems with Windows. You don't have anywhere near that level of risk with anything else. For example, there has never been a viable virus for Linux. I don't recall any for OS/2 either.
Thats because other systems: a) have a clear line drawn between user apps and system apps. The former cannot alter the latter b) enforce and encourage the usage of the machine for everyday tasks as a non-root (administrator) account. How does this relate to Open Office? It doesn't, so the discussion is off-topic for the OOo-users list. I recommend interested parties research Thunderbird, Firefox, Linux, and other open source alternatives to proprietary software. Security-wise, open source apps have a much better security record than proprietary apps. I'm not saying that because I am an advocate of open source. Rather, I am an advocate of open source because it is true. Dotan Cohen http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/artist_albums/570/69_boyz.html http://what-is-what.com/what_is/protocol.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
