[sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

Mikus Grinbergs mikus at bga.com
Tue Jul 8 00:35:51 EDT 2008


A reference was made to Gears:
> My point was exactly that it is a plugin.
> There are other plugins that are educationally useful.

Security.  I believe that 'Browse' is restricted as to how much it 
is allowed to modify the operating system itself.  Such restrictions 
would apply to plugins as well.  That concept NEEDS to be enforced.

[War story:  When plugins first became available for Netscape, I 
installed one.  But Netscape started behaving differently from how I 
had thought I had set it up.  I investigated, and found out that 
"under the covers" the plugin had CHANGED (without telling me) some 
Netscape settings to the way *it* wanted them.  Got rid of it fast.]

My point is that a 'plugin' is typically a "binary blob" -- the 
person installing it on his computer has NO IDEA as to what that 
plugin might surreptitiously be doing "under the covers".

mikus



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