Filed under: Microsoft, Mozilla, Browsers, Op-Ed
Dear Microsoft, please keep your lousy mitts off my Firefox install
So what gives, Redmond? Why - especially after the fallout from the last incident - would you go and push a Windows Presentation Foundation plugin on my Firefox install? I didn't ask for it, and I don't really want it. Plenty of people consider software that installs in this kind of underhanded way to be malware.
Not to mention a security risk. You know, the same way you (Microsoft) consider Google's Chrome Frame to be a security risk for your own browser. I'll need someone to explain to me how MS figures the situation is different when the shoe is on the other foot.
I'll clear something up for you right now - and this goes for all software companies, not just Microsoft. I expect control over what gets installed on my system and what doesn't. Go ahead and offer me updates, add-ons, and plugins. But please, give me the choice to install.
Heck, I can choose to put off Windows updates forever if I want and some of those are pretty critical patches. So why should I not be given the choice to opt out of something as trifling as a WPF plugin for my non-IE browser?
Get your filthy hands off my browser, you damn, dirty ape!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
birotunda said 2:27PM on 10-17-2009
Seems to be an all too common practice. Let's see what I've got in my Firefox plugins. "CANON iMAGE GATEWAY" - must've come with the printer drivers. Don't remember giving permission for that. "Google Update" - did that come with Google Earth? Don't remember giving permission for that either. "iTunes Application Detector" - Apple installs stuff everywhere so that's not even a surprise. Aside from security, I'm sure all these plugins slow down the loading time of Firefox.
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Jamus said 2:43PM on 10-17-2009
A lee-till sabatah-geeeee don't you think?
Very much like the tried and true Oracle method... "We don't make our product better, just ruin our competitors as much as possible".
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Penguin said 8:24PM on 10-17-2009
Now this makes me mad too. I didn't ask mozilla to remove those plugins, I use them. They are actually useful, and not some crazy spyware everyone says they are. I actually went and disabled that blocklist because of this.
Eggbrook said 2:49PM on 10-17-2009
Actually Firefox just came up with a message saying it blocked the "windows Foundation Presentation" last night. Was that only a random event with both my laptop and desktop or has Firefox wised up?
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Kris120890 said 2:56PM on 10-17-2009
Same thing just happened to me. Its just asked me to block them. Firefox fires back.
Apfelgluck said 3:29PM on 10-17-2009
That's because it has been added to Mozilla's Add-ons Blocklist :
https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/blocklist/
Grant Robertson said 3:38PM on 10-17-2009
I just got the same. I'm totally sending The Mozilla Foundation a Christmas Card this year.
EGOvoruhk said 2:49PM on 10-17-2009
Judging by what birotunda said, shouldn't the real problem lie with Mozilla? Why are they allowing extensions to be installed without the user's consent? It may be a security risk, but it's not brought on by Microsoft, they just brought it to your attention
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Kris120890 said 2:55PM on 10-17-2009
I'm on the latest build of minefield 3.7 and got a popup telling me they were causing instability and it asked to block both those microsoft firefox addons. Its just blocked both of them.
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AlexL said 3:24PM on 10-17-2009
This is more Mozilla's problem than Microsoft's. For a very long time Firefox users have complained about the "Plugins" which are different from the standard Firefox "Extensions". Unlike Extensions, Plugins are frequently installed without the user noticing and after they are installed, frequently users find that there's no way to uninstall them from Firefox. Worse yet, Mozilla has explicitly said that this flaw will not be fixed.
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Apfelgluck said 3:25PM on 10-17-2009
Not to mention 'Google Earth Plugin" installed de facto with ... Google Earth.
I think it's about time Firefox sets a permission request for ANY plugin install.
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danielkza said 5:51AM on 10-18-2009
There's nothing they can about it: Firefox has no way to stop other program from putting stuff in it's folder if they have proper access rights.
The only possible solution would be having an encrypted-in-some-way database of installed plugins, instead of just loading anything in the plugins folder. When previously nonexistent plugins show up in the filesystem, Firefox could allow the user to select which ones to block or run.
Apfelgluck said 6:03AM on 10-18-2009
OK, I'm not aware of that. Anyway, like crossing the road, always better to have a look at the traffic than to trust the only red/green light, always better as well to check installed plugins... and the remaining of the computer :)
Howard Pearce said 8:08PM on 10-17-2009
lol, funny, my FF just bombed on that
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Ted said 3:57PM on 10-17-2009
This addon sucks; it crashed the hell out of my browser earlier this week.
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SilverWave said 4:01PM on 10-17-2009
So MS installs a plug-in without user permission on a competitors browser...
And then there is a critical bug which lets trapped web sites own you if you have this plug-in installed...
Hmm interesting...
Fool me once...
There is a sucker born...
Windows runs you.
You run Linux.
Just saying.
Notes:
Blocklist all versions of "Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant" extension and associated "Windows Presentation Foundation" plugin.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=522777
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whiskey said 4:50PM on 10-17-2009
We've been telling this to people since ever... Will they start listening now? Will they turn around and at least try what it feels to be free?
SilverWave said 5:19PM on 10-17-2009
@whiskey
Almost all the malware authors target windows machines... so windows users are actually helping me by playing "Target" :)
But if a friend asks, I advise them to install Ubuntu Linux and run any needed windows apps in a vm.
But most users don't like change so stick to what they are given.
You can only help people how want help.
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2late2die said 5:37PM on 10-17-2009
Linux is useless for gamers. WINE, CrossOver, Win4Lin, even Cedega can't reliably run any of the modern games and even many of the classics. It's basically a crapshoot when trying to have the game launch. Sometimes it'll work with minimal effort (though still way more effort than simply, pop disc, install, play), other times you have to spend an hour fiddling with some archaic settings, and most of the time you're just praying to your linux gods that it'll work, but of course they don't consider you l33t enough to help you out, so you're out of luck.
Nope, for anyone who enjoys gaming on PC, Linux is not even close to being a Windows replacement.
polobunny said 10:41AM on 10-18-2009
Yes yes, neophytes sure love to run virtual machines. It's about time you linux zealots realize Linux isn't the answer to everything nor is it possible for every user out there to use it. But go ahead, try and push Linux on everyone out there. We can clearly see it's been working so far...
Regarding your "you can only help people who want help"... if proposing Linux at every roadblock is helping them, my friend, I don't want you to help.
@_@