[sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

[Bert Freudenberg]

Am 08.07.2008 um 06:35 schrieb Mikus Grinbergs:

> 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.

It is.

> [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".


And with Bitfrost the user does not *have to have an idea*. A browser  
plugin can *only* do what the browse activity can do. Nothing more -  
which is in stark contrast to what a plugin on a regular machine can  
do (namely, everything the user can do).

- Bert -