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  Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
Konqueror Posted by Dre on Monday 09/Jul/2001, @23:47
from the another-obstacle-bites-the-dust dept.
Konqueror has received another huge shot in the arm, this time by gaining the ability to embed MSIE ActiveX controls such as the popular Shockwave Player. KDE developers Nikolas Zimmermann and Malte Starostik today announced the initial release of reaktivate. While not perfect yet, work is ongoing to support other controls for which no native Linux/Unix solutions exist, such as Apple's QuickTime. Credit goes to the WINE developers for providing the ActiveX support. So now that Konqueror can embed MSIE ActiveX controls, Netscape Communicator plugins (for Linux), any X window (through X window parenting), Java applets and any KParts components, and does an excellent job at handling HTML, CSS and JavaScript natively, it seems to me Konqueror is fast becoming the best browser on any platform. Sweet. Read more for the full press release.

 

DATELINE JULY 9, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KDE Web Browser Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated

Konqueror Embraces ActiveX, Plays Shockwave Movies

July 9, 2001 (The INTERNET). Nikolas Zimmermann and Malte Starostik today announced the availability of reaktivate for Konqueror, KDE's web browser. Reaktivate enables Konqueror to embed ActiveX controls, such as the popular Shockwave movies, for which no native Linux/Unix solution exists. Reaktivate relies on the WINE libraries to load and run ActiveX controls.

With this addition, Konqueror now enables KDE users to take optimal advantage of sophisticated websites that make use of Microsoft Internet Explorer plugins, Netscape Communicator plugins for Linux and Java applets, as well as KDE plugins designed using KDE's KParts technology.

According to Malte, the reason he and Nikolas implemented reaktivate is rather simple: it broadens the spectrum of web sites accessible to Konqueror, and it was possible.

Successes and Limitations

Theoretically, Reaktivate can eventually be used to embed any ActiveX control into Konqueror. Currently, however, not all ActiveX controls are compatible with reaktivate. In particular, the Microsoft Windows Media Player cannot be installed using reaktivate (though it is not known if a player which is already installed will work with reaktivate). Thus it is likely there exist other ActiveX controls which will not yet work with reaktivate. Work is ongoing to increase compatability with other ActiveX controls, including the Apple QuickTime plugin.

So far, however, reaktivate has been successfully tested with the following ActiveX controls:

ControlStatus Test-URLScreenshots
Macromedia Shockwave Flash 5 No known problems. Click here [1], [2], [3], [4], and [5]
Macromedia Shockwave Player 8 Some files require the use of a native msvcrt.dll instead of the one provided by winelib. The post-installation dialog is functional but hard to decipher due to drawing problems. Some movies do not display properly (only black stripes and rects are shown) Click here [1]
LivePics Clicking the "info" button in the toolbar has no result, everything else works fine. Click here [1] and [2]

Note on Security

Install ActiveX controls only from sites that you trust. Microsoft's ActiveX technology has often been criticized for weak security. Those controls are dynamic libraries that are executed exactly like any other piece of code installed on the user's system. This means they have full access to the file system, the system registry etc. As a means to establish the users' trust in the controls a web site wishes to install, every ActiveX control is cryptographically signed and carries a certificate issued by an authority known to the web browser (like VeriSign). A control that has no signature or no certificate or if they are invalid will not be installed.

With reaktivate the situation is similar: the installed controls can call every WinAPI function provided by the WINE libraries and therefore have access to WINE's registry and all files visible to the WINE installation. The current implementation of reaktivate will ask the user for confirmation to install a new control, but it will not check the embedded certificate and signature. This is due to technical reasons as well as limited time. Therefore we strongly advise to install controls only from sites that you trust. To save your files from malicious controls, you might also consider using this feature only from a seperate user account that has no access to your main user's files. Reaktivate will not run from the root account.

Installing Reaktivate

Source code for reaktivate is freely available under a Free, Open Source license from the kdenonbeta module in KDE's CVS repository and its mirrors. See the KDE website for information about how to get a module from CVS. You only need the toplevel, admin and reaktivate directories from kdenonbeta. Before compiling, get the latest CVS version of WINE (a snapshot will likely not be new enough). Next, apply all patches from reaktivate/patches-for-wine/ against the WINE sources and build/install WINE. Finally, you can build and install reaktivate.

Disclaimer: reaktivate is not in any manner sponsored or endorsed by, affiliated with, or otherwise related to, Microsoft Corporation.

Thanks to Andreas "Dre" Pour and Navindra Umanee for assisting in drafting this release.

Trademarks Notices. KDE, K Desktop Environment and Konqueror are trademarks of KDE e.V. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Unix is a registered trademark of The Open Group. Microsoft, ActiveX, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Shockwave is a trademark or registered trademark of Macromedia, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Netscape and Netscape Communicator are trademarks or registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States and other countries and JavaScript is a trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation. Apple and Quicktime are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.


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Over 40 comments listed. Printing out index only.
Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by L.D. on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @00:07
That is really neat!

It's allmost like thumbing your nose at M$ and the companies that won't make plug-ins for Linux/Unix.

even the ideal would be native support...

I cannot wait to have a sorenson codec quicktime player for linux....
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by kde-fan on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @00:18
KDE developers have done it again. Just when you thought Konqueror couldn't get any better it makes a quantum leap like this. Shockwave is amazing, having this on the Linux platform is a real plus plus and I want my Quicktime!

KDE Team: Do you ever sleep?
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The world should know
by Amazed of London on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @00:30
Konqueror is, all-round, the best browser in the world. Nothing else even comes close to its truly staggering featureset, its configurability, and its excellent usability.

Well done KDE team! Lets keep the excellence (and releases) flowing and Konqueror will become truly world-changing.
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ActiveX vs (GNU Mono and DotGNU)
by n on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @00:40
It's amusing that while *other* projects talk about delivering Microsoft .NET *next year* and make a lot of noise about vaporware, KDE delivers code for ActiveX support *today*...

What a difference. Congratulations all.
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Justin on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @01:15
Wow, this would be really nice for streaming video plugins. Windows Media Player works under WINE already, so maybe the browser plugin does too? Can't wait to go home today and mess around!
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by craig on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @02:00
Geeze i'm becomeing more and more impressed with kde everyday. Much better than announceing what your going to do next year!!

Craig
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Neil Stevens on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @02:21

Andreas, Malte, Nikolas: Don't take this personally, but I just have to say this.

I find this article insulting.

  • (Assuming for a minute that this is a good thing to have) It insults our non-ia32 users. Wine is not portable. To say that this helps Konqueror, and makes Konqueror the best browser on any platform, when this will only run on a few select platforms of KDE, dismisses all those users. Does Wine even run on all of the ia32 OSes that KDE runs on?
  • It insults our memory and intelligence. For the longest time we've been told over and over how wonderful KParts are. From the KDE 2.0 press release:
    KDE 2: The K Desktop Environment. Konqueror is KDE 2's next-generation web browser, file manager and document viewer. Widely heralded as a technological break-through for the Linux desktop, the standards-compliant Konqueror has a component-based architecture which combines the features and functionality of Internet Explorer®/Netscape Communicator® and Windows Explorer®. Konqueror will support the full gamut of current Internet technologies, including JavaScript, Java®, HTML 4.0, CSS-1 and -2 (Cascading Style Sheets), SSL (Secure Socket Layer for secure communications) and Netscape Communicator® plug-ins (for playing FlashTM, RealAudioTM, RealVideoTM and similar technologies). The great bulk of this technology is already in place and functional for KDE 2.0.
    So back in October, we were led to believe that KParts are the "next generation," as they are what Konqueror is based on. What changed? Why is suddenly ActiveX a great "obstacle" removed, and a "shot in the arm" for the browser? Is ActiveX superior to KParts? What obstacles were in front of us before? And why couldn't they be removed in the KDE way - using our libraries, following our UI standards, and using Free Software licenses?
  • Lastly, this article attempts to speak for the reader in ways I think are unfounded. How can things like the Shockwave player be "popular," when there was no way to run them on Unix before now? Or is it implied that all KDE users are Windows users, or ex-Windows users?

I see nothing wrong a developer for writing what he needs, and then sharing the results. I myself have an app in KDE that relies upon AOL servers. What I do think is wrong is when an article under the name of the head of the KDE League, on a site in the kde.org domain, makes these kind of assertions and implications about KDE and its users. Not everyone likes Windows, uses Windows, needs Windows, can run Windows, or even knows what runs on Windows these days. To portray the KDE community, and KDE apps, as aspiring to be Windows, is insulting.
[ Reply To This | View ]
su nobody
by not me on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @02:26
To get rid of the security problems, why couldn't all ActiveX controls be run as a harmless user (such as the user nobody on most systems, who has no access to files)? It would seem pretty easy to implement. Does Shockwave really need disk access to function? Even if it does, it could be totally restricted to a single directory. You could even chroot it. Linux's security system is meant to prevent security fiascoes like ActiveX - we should use it!

P.S. I hate to be a wet blanket, but this is just one less reason for companies to make Linux native versions of their plugins. Oh well, if it helps Linux become more popular, I guess it'll be beneficial. If Linux becomes dominant, more plugins will become native anyway :-)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Nikolas Zimmermann on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @06:51
Wow you are taking this really too serious :)

Our goal isn't the dropping of KParts etc..
We just want to help companys, which migrate to Linux (_from Windows_), to be able to use their self-made ActiveX controls for the time they have no money to rewrite everything.
You may know that it costs _really_ much if you migrate to Linux for the first time. Companys relied on Microsoft's technologies (like ActiveX) and we want to help them.
Of course having everything native is the coolest thing.

Shockwave, Flash and Livepics are _JUST_ testing controls. I have no self-build activex control to test, that's why we take these ones.

So don't flame please, this is as always done for fun. (Imagine this cool stuff, we are mixing Qt and Windows stuff, throught winelib, in _one_ app). It's just cool stuff, not more.
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Daniel on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @07:02
Excuse my offtopic, but i dont know where i can post my opinion about one thing in KDE.

I really dont like the minimized KDE panel version. If we watch the Gnome panel or Windows panel minimized version (see the screenshots), we see that the KDE panel is less beautiful :-) than minimized gnome panel (or even Windows!).I think the problem are the small icons.

I like the standar KDE panel size, but i like a lot the minimized version, because we have more space to work with the apps, but the look of actual panel (small version) is horrible! :-)

And i want to say that KDE team are doing the best job i have ever seen! ...

byes! :-)

I hope this post will be readen by a KDE look coder team.
Click to download attachment comparation.jpg
35KB (35987 bytes)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Konqueror sucks
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @09:52
...it seems to me Konqueror is fast becoming the best browser on any platform.

Konqueror is too slow, too ugly, have too problems with strange html and definitively its not the best browser...
I think it will be good to suport Mozilla QT port... Mozilla renders all pages without problems, and now it's engine it's fast enought (try moz 0.9.2 & galeon 0.11.1).
There's another project, dillo, what is the fastest browser i've seen, and its growing a lot, everyday... GTK-only :(
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by garion911 on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @12:24
Awesome! Now if Konq could actaully work with my online banking...... (Note: I don't believe its Konq's problem... My online banking has a Java applet where the classes are suppose to be loaded by https, and I don't think the Java plugin supports loading of classes via https.. I have the same problem w/ mozilla..)...
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Harold on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @13:15
Well, I did think KDE's browser was a great thing..
But now I can kiss it good-by if its going to have Microsoft unsecurity to it and I won't use Gnome since it wants to copy the .NNNET crap too..

If you want to have Active X in the browser, go use windows..
[ Reply To This | View ]
Embedding KParts
by Tim Jansen on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @13:29
Does "embedding kparts" mean that it is possible to use the <object> tag to insert a KPart similar to a ActiveX control or a Netscape plugin (and if yes: where is this documented?) or does it only refer to the usual embedding of documents?
In the latter case the text is quite confusing. Embedding KParts in HTML could be very interresting though, especially for HTML-based administration tools and things like that.
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Matthias on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @13:37
There's a test of webbrowsers for linux in the German Linux-Magazin. Konqueror-2.1.2 comes off badly. It was tested with i-Bench 2.0 from Ziff Davis Media, Inc. Seven browsers (Beonex-0.6pre, Galeon-0.11.0, Konqueror-2.1.2, Mozilla-0.91, Netscape-4.77, Netscape-6, Opera-5.01) were tested, also IE-6.0Beta for comparison.

Results in short: IE-6.0Beta is the fastest and the best in compatibility with standards. Konqueror is not very compatible to standards. Only Netscpae-4.77 is less compatible to HTML-4.0 than Konqueror. Konqueror is also slowly. Only Netscape-6 and Beonex are slower than konqueror.

Conclusion: It should be done more for speed, stability and compatibility than adding new features!
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Choadzilla on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @16:01
>Konqueror has received another huge shot in the arm,

For implementing the security nightmare that is ActiveX controls in a web brower, you deserve a shot in the head, not the arm.
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by matthias on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @19:15
Although I'm reading this with Opera and will
soon switch to a Mac. (wine won't work),
I wan't congratulate the Konquerer developers.
You're doing a great job and keep up the work.
You are the guys that will prove that
Linux-Desktop lives more than ever.


THANX
[ Reply To This | View ]
embedding X windows
by cosmo on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @22:00
Speaking of embedding X windows, any idea whether Konqueror will ever be able to embed java applets/windows within itself on window managers other than kwin?
[ Reply To This | View ]
Microsoft.Net
by Chris (HUPER) Hughes on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @22:08
Hey everybody!

I can't understand why people are Kicking MS about their .NET services. It really is a solidly laid-out architecture. If you have been getting MSDN Cd's you would realize that it is a VERY powerful set of tools that run on a nicely integrated environment. I have been following XML for a while and have not seen ANY large scale support, I am glad to see that MS will push this standard into the mainstream.

Thanks
Chris
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Java and Flash first
by Alain on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @22:09
I am dubitative. Today Konqueror is installed without Flash and Java (by Mandrake 8.0 for instance).

You may say that it is possible to add such plugins, but it is complex... So Konqui don't know Flash and Java for many users.

About Shockwave I feel it will be more difficult, because there are Wine things and they are not easy to install.

So nothing will change. And it's not important, I don't worry, I don't like sites using Shockave or other ActiveX gadgets...

Yes, Shockwave is also unpopular...
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This is almost good, but...
by Eric Windisch on Tuesday 10/Jul/2001, @22:56
This will really please the x86 users of Linux, however this will still not make ActiveX available on non-x86 architectures. Great job, shame it is (and can) only satisfy a small percentage of users.

It would be really neat if there was a hack for Wine to run Windows applications compiled for x86 under non-x86 architectures without emulation.. of course that would be asking for a lot :)

--
Eric Windisch
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Timothy R. Butler on Wednesday 11/Jul/2001, @01:57
Thank-you a ton Nikolas and Malte! This is really an exciting and and amazing accomplishment! Now I just have to try reaktivate.

BTW, does anyone know if perhaps this will be integrated into the main CVS for KDE 2.3?

thanks,
Tim
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Konqulator on Wednesday 11/Jul/2001, @03:31
Followers, not leaders. Arguments for this are now people with Linux can do Linux and winblowz, and it costs less when users switch etc.... However, to beat your enemies, one shouldn't marry their daughter/son or marry into their family and hope to inherit your way to success. Therefore, do you think that people will stop using the supported activex junk? Or, they'll keep using it more and allowing micros~1 to set the standards? Looks like you are to follow micros~1 in standards, just like everyone else, not set them.

Why is it that micros~1 are able to charge for trash, while you can't even get enough users by giving away your work?

---
Call me a troll or what you wish, but you entitle my opinion, regardless.
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by <b><i>for a bloatless Desktop</i></b> on Wednesday 11/Jul/2001, @11:11
what's next, to port the BSOD and GPF's ?
[ Reply To This | View ]
Reduce the waiting period
by kde-user on Wednesday 11/Jul/2001, @12:57
One question about Konq.

Does Konq have the ability to pre-cache links on the page that you are visiting so that if you click on one of the links, that site has been giving some time to load already and you wait less.
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by stephan on Wednesday 11/Jul/2001, @12:59
It's fairly interesting. When something is done in sparetime and absolutely free others aren't allowed to critizise the work. Those who dare are said to be flamers and co. This is amusing. Where is the freedom you talk about all the time?!



regards

stephan
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Re: Konqueror Gets Activ(eX)ated
by Martin Seiler on Tuesday 17/Jul/2001, @15:18
Thanks, this is great.
We have been waiting a long time for
shockwave on linux.

regards M.Seiler
<A href="http://www.shocktime.de">http://www.shocktime.de</A>
[ Reply To This | View ]
Program Shockwave plugin from scratch?
by Dav on Friday 20/Jul/2001, @13:00
Which are the limitations which make that programmers didn't make linux-native shockwave plugin yet?
Are there legal limitations?
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Quit whining
by Scott on Saturday 06/Oct/2001, @10:51
This is good. Most of the security holes in activeX aren't applicable for linux anyway plus it's a PATCH. No one is forcing you to apply it! If you don't like activeX don't use it. Don't yell at the KDE League about progress. this isn't going to do the impossible, it's just a nifty hack. Don't whine about being insulted, wine NEVER ran on non x86 archs.
Jeeze.. some people.. can't appreciate anything. Just because you don't like activeX doesn't mean everyone else doesn't.
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Compileing reAktivate
by Roger on Sunday 14/Jul/2002, @17:10
I'm a newbye on linux and i'm trying to install reAktivate, I can't undestand why Macromedia doesn't make a Shockwave player for linux, but that's not the problem, the problem is, how can i compile reAktivate? You will be probably laughting a lot now, but i think the documentation(if you call this documentation) of how to install reAktivate is horrible. I installed wine with the patch, but now i don't know how to compile the reAktivate source, can anyone help me please?
I don't know if reAktivate works fine, but I think that the documentation have to be improved a lot, because not all the users that use linux are gurus.

Thank's a lot

[royger]
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Dead?
by Gando on Friday 22/Sep/2006, @08:07
Hi

is it dead, or is there a new project with the same goal?

If somebody hear me ... please tell me :=)

Thx
[ Reply To This | View ]
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