[OT] Free software versus software idea patents

Chris Angelico rosuav at gmail.com
Thu Apr 14 10:11:03 EDT 2011


On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 12:02 AM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> Now, if only we could convince web users that having your browser execute
> untrusted code downloaded from the Internet is not such a good idea,
> supposed sandbox or not. What the world needs is a virus that silently
> removes Javascript and Flash from browsers...

We don't need a virus. All we need is a few good blog posts and some
viable alternatives. Flash may very well start dying as HTML5 takes
over; it'll be relegated to in-browser games (some of which are very
good, as it happens), and people will use it only if they play those
games. Javascript/ECMAScript though is here to stay... I very much
doubt anyone's going to abolish or replace it. Sure, executing code
downloaded from the internet can be risky; but scripting is a lot less
risky than downloading plugins, and there's a LOT of people who will
just go "Oh, I need to download something to make this work? Okay.
*click*" - now THAT is the real risk. They don't know (or care)
whether they're getting Adobe Flash Player version 123, or Acrobat
Reader 234, or Java Applet Engine By Bob's Dodgy Coders 345, and if
that doesn't scare sysadmins, nothing will.

Chris Angelico



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