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Yeah, it's so surprising that Microsoft didn't implement the "Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface" (which was just for web browses) or other inter
by WorldWideWayne 11y ago
Yeah, it's so surprising that Microsoft didn't implement the "Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface" (which was just for web browses) or other interfaces that weren't build for Windows.
- throwawaykf05 11y agoNot only was NPAPI developed by a rival company, it was specific to browsers. ActiveX allowed features from any (Windows) application to be embedded into any other (Windows) application, not just browsers. It was a strictly more general framework and thus a better option for Microsoft. What really screwed things up was, security was not one of the foremost considerations when designing ActiveX because it was conceived for the desktop world. So it was horribly insecure when applied to arbitrary content downloaded over the web.