Microsoft Plugs IE Add-Ons With New Site

[peat moss]

Microsoft on Tuesday launched a site to promote Internet Explorer add-ons in an attempt to compete with Mozilla Corp.'s long-running site that specializes in extensions for the open-source Firefox browser.

The Add-Ons for Internet Explorer page hosts both free and for-a-fee add-ons to IE 6 and IE 7 Beta 2, and is organized in security, time saving, browsing, and entertainment categories. A search tool can be used to sift through the add-ons.

"We want to make it easier for users to find valuable add-ons, and to promote our partners who develop add-ons," said Tina Duff, an IE program managers, on the team's blog.

IE 7 Beta 2 users can access the site from the browser's Tools menu (Tools/Manage Add-Ons/Find More Add-ons).

Until Tuesday, IE add-ons, which include toolbars, download managers, pop-up blockers, and multimedia plug-ins, were spread throughout Microsoft's massive site, or if not there, on publishers' own Web sites.

:source: Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=186701315
:view: Homepage: http://www.ieaddons.com/default.aspx?cid=home&scid=0

[Busyman™]

Until Tuesday, IE add-ons, which include toolbars, download managers, pop-up blockers, and multimedia plug-ins, were spread throughout Microsoft's massive site, or if not there, on publishers' own Web sites.
Not true.

M$ had an add-on website awhile ago. Most of the add-ons either sucked or cost money, however.

This is not news.

[peat moss]

News to me , I did n't know that IE had add ons thought it was worth a post . Gets pretty boring posting all the wonders of Firefox . :)

[Busyman™]

News to me , I did n't know that IE had add ons thought it was worth a post . Gets pretty boring posting all the wonders of Firefox . :)
Yeah M$ has had it for awhile. Much of it is third party "pay for me" shit. I imagine that'll change though.

FF has great features but I just a stable browser that doesn't crash.

I was using Opera but I upgraded one time and it started fucking up so I chucked it.

I just want the browser to pull-up my web pages without endless tweaking. I tried IE7 (beta 2) but it too started getting slow so I chucked that too. (it worked for awhile)

Now I'm back on IE6 with Webtabs. I have a browser that doesn't crash with tabs. I'm just hoping M$ doesn't screw up the final IE7.

I have a separate computer that I use for my music that I don't dare connect to the net. There's just too much shit out there that'll slow your computer down and whatnot so I keep it a closed system.

[Fromagepas]

It's just a pity IE isn't an add-on itself. Then I could have fuck all to do with it right from the start.

[peat moss]

To be honest Ive never really used IE a lot , a friend set up my first computer era win 95 and installed Netscape .He told me to use both then decide but to be careful about setting a default browser .

I saw what he meant and never liked the MS experience of crushing the competition, that was about the time of Netscape's demise . I'll try IE 7 when its complete . I dumped Opera too, Busyman for reasons I can't remember now . :huh:


@ Fromagepas , What I meant but takes me two paragraphs to spell out . :pinch:

[Busyman™]

To be honest Ive never really used IE a lot , a friend set up my first computer era win 95 and installed Netscape .He told me to use both then decide but to be careful about setting a default browser .

I saw what he meant and never liked the MS experience of crushing the competition, that was about the time of Netscape's demise . I'll try IE 7 when its complete . I dumped Opera too, Busyman for reasons I can't remember now . :huh:


@ Fromagepas , What I meant but takes me two paragraphs to spell out . :pinch:
I don't understand what that means, "I saw what he meant and never liked the MS experience of crushing the competition".

The first I heard I of M$ harming me the consumer was a Justice Department probe.

Netscape was the first browser of note and had basically all the marketshare. M$ comes in and now the browser is free.

Was I, the consumer, supposed to get pissed 'cause now the browser is free?

The fact is that Netscape was pissed, not the consumer.

If M$ Office ends up being free with Windows, is M$ kicking me in the ass? Fuck no.

Even the EU made M$ unbundle WMP with Windows buy putting out an N version. Big fucking difference.

I heard it's selling lot cakes.:O

You hear of people not using M$ products 'cause of hating and fanboyism. Fuck that.

Use what's best at the time whther it be a game console, mp3 player, whateverthefuck and fuck the bullshit.

[peat moss]

I did n't care for an O/S locking me in with it's default browser , at the time I didn't know how to change it back .

Hey I'm all for choice , makes the world go round .

And ya if thats EI 7 , FF or even Opera kool ! I'll just use the best one for "Me"

[4play]

I don't understand what that means, "I saw what he meant and never liked the MS experience of crushing the competition".

The first I heard I of M$ harming me the consumer was a Justice Department probe.

Netscape was the first browser of note and had basically all the marketshare. M$ comes in and now the browser is free.

Was I, the consumer, supposed to get pissed 'cause now the browser is free?

The fact is that Netscape was pissed, not the consumer.


you do realise there are laws against using your dominat market postion to kill all the competition. microsoft got to the point where you either use there software or you could not really communicate with other people.

want to share word processed documents with people you have to use office otherwise people will have no idea what to do with a rtf file.

want to design a website, it has to render properly in internet explorer screw the w3 standards and all the other niche browsers.

the doj and eu did us a favour and punished them for completly monopolising these markets recently and look what has sprung up. We have firefox and opera gaining market share. Office is going to open up their file formats so other word processors can render these documents properly.

sooner or later microsoft are gonna have to start droping prices to stay competitive and the consumers wins.

[Busyman™]

I don't understand what that means, "I saw what he meant and never liked the MS experience of crushing the competition".

The first I heard I of M$ harming me the consumer was a Justice Department probe.

Netscape was the first browser of note and had basically all the marketshare. M$ comes in and now the browser is free.

Was I, the consumer, supposed to get pissed 'cause now the browser is free?

The fact is that Netscape was pissed, not the consumer.


you do realise there are laws against using your dominat market postion to kill all the competition. microsoft got to the point where you either use there software or you could not really communicate with other people.

want to share word processed documents with people you have to use office otherwise people will have no idea what to do with a rtf file.

want to design a website, it has to render properly in internet explorer screw the w3 standards and all the other niche browsers.

the doj and eu did us a favour and punished them for completly monopolising these markets recently and look what has sprung up. We have firefox and opera gaining market share. Office is going to open up their file formats so other word processors can render these documents properly.

sooner or later microsoft are gonna have to start droping prices to stay competitive and the consumers wins.
I'm sorry. How were YOU harmed?

M$ tried to make their formats standard. No surprise.

You brought up Office. Why can't you use WordPerfect? It came with the computer I'm typing on and it worked fine (I have deleted it since, however).

The EU did you a favor by fining M$ and making them remove WMP. The consumer has been rewarded.:stars:

[4play]

I was harmed since microsoft effectively killed off the competition in the browser market stifling inovation. Do you think we would be stuck with the piece of shit that ie6 is if they still had some competition.

The reason i have to use office is that all my uni lecture notes are in doc format. How else do i access them? I have asked the lecturer about why he uses the doc and he says that all the students have office so he has to provide them in that format.

m$ did make this format standard and let no one else use it for a reason and that is to lock them in to using office. This is my document not microsofts why should i not have access to all of it at will.
Thank god people saw sense and ruled that goverment documents that where to be accessable to everyone had to be in an open format forcing microsoft to open their format up.

maybe the wmp ruling was a bit over the top but the networking and api documentation that they are demanding will be a massive help to anyone wanting to communicate with windows boxes.

[Busyman™]

I was harmed since microsoft effectively killed off the competition in the browser market stifling inovation. Do you think we would be stuck with the piece of shit that ie6 is if they still had some competition.

Don't quote what the government says. How were YOU harmed? There have been tons of browsers since IE. You haven't been "stuck" with IE let alone IE6. I heard shit all about consumers being hurt by M$ until the DOJ said so.

The reason i have to use office is that all my uni lecture notes are in doc format. How else do i access them? I have asked the lecturer about why he uses the doc and he says that all the students have office so he has to provide them in that format.

Ok. So far that seems to be the standard.

m$ did make this format standard and let no one else use it for a reason and that is to lock them in to using office. This is my document not microsofts why should i not have access to all of it at will.

Dude you've just made a complaint as to why M$ documents are not open. Most programs didn't use have open formats. Are you now blaming M$ for not making Office documents open when other companies didn't do the same 'cause it's M$? I sure didn't hear this complaint when WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 were out. Also, last I heard, M$ Office wasn't free. It seems a lot of people actually decided to use it by paying for it. I remember when WordPerfect was the standard word processor about 13 years ago.

Thank god people saw sense and ruled that goverment documents that where to be accessable to everyone had to be in an open format forcing microsoft to open their format up.

I can't disagree with that. M$ would have to change to fit the marketplace. However, the government shouldn't force M$ to open up. Just threaten them with switching to another Office suite which would hit M$ in the pocket.

maybe the wmp ruling was a bit over the top but the networking and api documentation that they are demanding will be a massive help to anyone wanting to communicate with windows boxes.
I agree with your last as long as M$ doesn't have give up their core code. There is nothing wrong with a company making a format proprietary. Some proponents of open formats are that way 'cause it's either free (consumer)and/or they are not the market leader (business).

[peat moss]

Well we could argue all nite , the EU situation is a joke tho give us your source code and delete winplayer . No its not selling well at all is it ? Terrible waste of money eh .

Fucking lawyers are dancing in the streets ! :dry:

[Busyman™]

Well we could argue all nite , the EU situation is a joke tho give us your source code and delete winplayer . No its not selling well at all is it ? Terrible waste of money eh .

Fucking lawyers are dancing in the streets ! :dry:
There was a huge fine, petey. I think 600 million. Not a joke at all.

The only joke was the WMP. Giving up the source code was a horrible ruling.

[4play]

The only joke was the WMP. Giving up the source code was a horrible ruling.

The source code and decent api documentation for the networking side of things is all thats been asked for and is good news for everyone.

The wmp ruling on the other hand is to benefit real but everyone hates their products now since it comes preloaded with spyware.

[fkdup74]

Enough with the damned squabbling already. Proprietary formats are gay, period.
Forcing a business to buy a specific application,
as opposed to an open source or alternative program for free or a fraction of the cost is just hurtful to the business.
How can anyone deny that?

"Hey, Smith...check out that offer we got from that prospect over in Boston."
"Can't boss."
"Why not?"
"They're in .pdf format. We don't have Adobe Acrobat. It's $449 for a single license. We can't squeeze that into the budget at the moment."
"Why not?"
"Well, sir....for our marketing department to collaborate on this, we'll need at least 5 licenses. That's $2250, roughly."
"....Shit....."

we have the Adobe Reader, which helps, but doesn't quite solve the dilemna


"Hey, Smith...check out that offer we got from that prospect over in Boston."
"Can't boss."
"Why not?"
"They're in .xls format. We don't have Microsoft Office. It's $499 for a single license. We can't squeeze that into the budget at the moment."
"Why not?"
"Well, sir....for our marketing department to collaborate on this, we'll need at least 5 licenses. That's $2500, roughly."
"....Shit....."

I do believe there's a free Excel viewer now, but again, it doesn't quite fix the situation


It's even worse on the home user, as they don't have the resources of even a small business, generally.


Busyman Disclaimer:

The businesses used in these examples are fictitious.
Any similarities to actual or real life persons or foundations is purely unintentional.
The examples used here are in no way reflective of actual pricing/availability of said applications/productivity suites.

No animals were harmed during the writing of this post.

[Busyman™]

The only joke was the WMP. Giving up the source code was a horrible ruling.

The source code and decent api documentation for the networking side of things is all thats been asked for and is good news for everyone.

The wmp ruling on the other hand is to benefit real but everyone hates their products now since it comes preloaded with spyware.
But of course, whether Real's products were good wasn't the point.

Apparently the consumer was harmed.

[Busyman™]

Enough with the damned squabbling already. Proprietary formats are gay, period.
Forcing a business to buy a specific application,
as opposed to an open source or alternative program for free or a fraction of the cost is just hurtful to the business.
How can anyone deny that?
Forcing a business to open their format 'cause it costs money to use it is hurtful to business.

What you propose is a software business model that's not a business at all. Free shit is great. I wish my home was open source. However, I had to pay for it.

The solution to proprietary formats is to simply move to an open source one, not complain about the proprietary one being....well....proprietary.

I can't blame business for moving to Linux, for instance. It's a solution to their problem and that business didn't just fuck about complaining about paying for M$ products.

[fkdup74]

Enough with the damned squabbling already. Proprietary formats are gay, period.
Forcing a business to buy a specific application,
as opposed to an open source or alternative program for free or a fraction of the cost is just hurtful to the business.
How can anyone deny that?
Forcing a business to open their format 'cause it costs money to use it is hurtful to business.

What you propose is a software business model that's not a business at all. Free shit is great. I wish my home was open source. However, I had to pay for it.

The solution to proprietary formats is to simply move to an open source one, not complain about the proprietary one being....well....proprietary.

I can't blame business for moving to Linux, for instance. It's a solution to their problem and that business didn't just fuck about complaining about paying for M$ products.


I never mentioned free "shit".
I said propietary formats were stupid and hurtful to business.
Actually I called them gay, but oh well.

Funny thing about your house, glad you mentioned it, good analogy.
No, it isn't free, nor should it be, but....
If you need to improve your home, you can go to Home Depot, Lowe's, just about any local harware store to get parts, advice, etc.
Why? Because of standards.

[Busyman™]

Forcing a business to open their format 'cause it costs money to use it is hurtful to business.

What you propose is a software business model that's not a business at all. Free shit is great. I wish my home was open source. However, I had to pay for it.

The solution to proprietary formats is to simply move to an open source one, not complain about the proprietary one being....well....proprietary.

I can't blame business for moving to Linux, for instance. It's a solution to their problem and that business didn't just fuck about complaining about paying for M$ products.

I never mentioned free "shit".
I said propietary formats were stupid and hurtful to business.
Actually I called them gay, but oh well.

Funny thing about your house, glad you mentioned it, good analogy.
No, it isn't free, nor should it be, but....
If you need to improve your home, you can go to Home Depot, Lowe's, just about any local harware store to get parts, advice, etc.
Why? Because of standards.

As I said and as many have done, businesses can move to a non-proprietary format and STFU then.

I don't know what standard you elude to, however. Although they are open-source, Linux is not a standard, nor is Firefox. What's considered standard changes with the market.

[Busyman™]

Forcing a business to open their format 'cause it costs money to use it is hurtful to business.

What you propose is a software business model that's not a business at all. Free shit is great. I wish my home was open source. However, I had to pay for it.

The solution to proprietary formats is to simply move to an open source one, not complain about the proprietary one being....well....proprietary.

I can't blame business for moving to Linux, for instance. It's a solution to their problem and that business didn't just fuck about complaining about paying for M$ products.

I never mentioned free "shit".
I said propietary formats were stupid and hurtful to business.
Actually I called them gay, but oh well.

Funny thing about your house, glad you mentioned it, good analogy.
No, it isn't free, nor should it be, but....
If you need to improve your home, you can go to Home Depot, Lowe's, just about any local harware store to get parts, advice, etc.
Why? Because of standards.

As I said and as many have done, businesses can move to a non-proprietary format and STFU then.

I don't know what standard you elude to, however. Although they are open-source, Linux is not a standard, nor is Firefox. What's considered standard changes with the market.

[fkdup74]

I don't know what standard you elude to, however.

I know you don't. That's what makes this so fun. :happy:

[clocker]

Shouldn't that be "allude to"?

Yes, I'm pretty sure it should.

I'll check with manker.

[Busyman™]

Shouldn't that be "allude to"?

Yes, I'm pretty sure it should.

I'll check with manker.
No, read it is as written.