iamlost - 11:03 pm on Jul 1, 2004 (gmt 0)

Ultimately, plug-in depends on trust and it has long been proven that you can't trust a plug-in.

"Plug-in" and "ActiveX" are not synonymous.

When Microsoft replaced the Netscape JVI (Java Runtime Interface) in IE 5.5 SP2 and IE 6.0 with the ActiveX Java/COM Interface (instead of the proposed Java Native Interface) security went the MS way (can you say "swiss cheese"?):

• advanced garbage collection algorithmns are (almost) impossible to include. (sounds like Windows clutter, doesn't it?)
  
• native code has access to public methods and fields.
  
• inability to access private fields.
  
• inability to raise general exceptions.
  
• unable to deal with overloaded methods.
  
• case insensitive in matching method names.
  
• all classes and all low-level native methods treated as software components.