Why I finally dumped Internet Explorer

[mobrien_12]

  Yeh but see the problem with that is directx is a all in one so in programming you just need to know direct x. Open gl is the graphics core audio is the audio etc. but that isn't all in one so you need to know each indiviual thing.

You really don't know what directx is, do you?

DirectX is a name for a collection of Microsoft's proprietary API's.  A collection.  That includes API's for sound (directsound) API's for 3d sound (directsound3d), APIs for game controllers (directinput, including the mouse and the keyboard), API's for 2D graphics (DirectDraw), and multiple API's for dealing with 3d video (Direct3D 3,4,6,7,8,9 and soon 10).  

There's no "all in one" about it, except that they are all distributed together and they are all owned by Microsoft.  
Knowing one of these API's (directinput, for example) doesn't mean you know another one (directsound, for example).  Knowing Direct3D 6 certainly doesn't mean you know Direct3d 9, even though they come together in the same package!

There is nothing more difficult about using OpenGL in place of Direct3D and continuing to use Directinput and Directsound.

If Apple could make OpenGL proprietary, there would be nothing to prevent them from calling OpenGL + Core Audio + other crap something like iPlay.

[mobrien_12]

I could have sworn that the older macs used a different signaling system with the AGP port or something, so x86 compatible cards couldnt work

I believe the older Mac AGP cards needed a different video BIOS.  I remember reading about how to flash 3dfx board's video BIOS so it would work on a Mac and that was the only difference between the Mac version and the PC version.

[davidnix71]

If you are switching to Mac, get Lil'Snitch software firewall. You'll need it. OS X is chatty and some of the apps will call home unless you change the OS defaults. I use it to block Quicktime and Real Player, except when I specifically want to let them out.

Virtual PC with Win98SE or XP works fine for programs that don't involve sound or motion pictures. VPC 6 works on G4's but VPC 7 is necessary if you get a G5.

I have TMPGEnc Plus running under Virtual 98SE on my eMac to recode Windows media player files if necessary into something that will play in VLC. VLC will recode audio mp3's into mp4's if you need to drop and drag a movie with mp3 audio into Toast Titanium. Toast is a must. Version 6 can be had for less than $50. Don't waste your money ($100 extra) for the Jam license, unless you need it for legal reasons.

VLC media player, Wiretap (the free version) Firefox, Audacity, MPlayer, Hexedit and Hexedit Fat, iGetter download manager (not free), OpenOffice for Mac 2.0 (doesn't need a startup script anymore), SiteSucker, MacGimp, AbiWord, SnapNDrag (screen capture) are all very useful programs for OS X.

You won't miss IE or Windows.

[toadlife]

...Finally I got out p-explorer and found some POS dll running under iexplore.exe.  It was a plug-in.  Imagine my surprise.  It turns out that one can mark plug-ins so that they won't display in the IE interface (as with most other plug-in venues: VB, Office, etc.)...

Sounds like you were browsing the net as root.

[Annorax]

I just committed the ultimate sin... and installed IE 6.0sp1 on Crossover Office. I'm so pissed... why do poker clients require fucking IE to work properly?

On a lighter note, that fixed my Partypoker problems from the other thread. Thankfully, IE doesn't know how to set itself as the Linux default browser.

Can someone PM me quickie instructions on making Opera set itself as Debian's/KDE's default browser? I'm getting a little angry about links from IMs opening in Konqueror when I've got a perfectly good Opera window already open.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Can someone PM me quickie instructions on making Opera set itself as Debian's/KDE's default browser?

Why PM, is there any reason why this can't be discussed here, is it aginst the rules?

[Annorax]

Why PM, is there any reason why this can't be discussed here, is it aginst the rules?

I didn't want to clutter the thread with more unrelated garbage.

[Refalm]

I didn't want to clutter the thread with more unrelated garbage.

I'm having the exact same problem, so it's okay by me

[H_TeXMeX_H]

I just committed the ultimate sin... and installed IE 6.0sp1 on Crossover Office. I'm so pissed... why do poker clients require fucking IE to work properly?

On a lighter note, that fixed my Partypoker problems from the other thread. Thankfully, IE doesn't know how to set itself as the Linux default browser.

Hmmm ... why would party poker require IE ? Technically Opera can identify itself as IE, so it should work ... that's strange.

[davidnix71]

Party Poker loads ActiveX. If I want to listen to Yahoo online music, I have the same problem (on a Mac). Either I use IE or run VPC Win98. If you are on a pc, Firefox now has a replacement for ActiveX, so in theory you can do the plugin, fake your user agent string and go anywhere IE is 'required'.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Making Firefox use ActiveX ... I dunno about that ... but it would be better than running IE on Linux ... a mortal sin for sure

[mobrien_12]

Making Firefox use ActiveX ... I dunno about that ... but it would be better than running IE on Linux ... a mortal sin for sure

Making FF use ActiveX would be opening it up to all the ActiveX vulnerabilities of MSIE.  ActiveX blows.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Of course it does ... but if you wanna play pocker it beats actually using IE.

[Jack2000]

duh
"would be opening it up to all the ActiveX vulnerabilities of MSIE."
do not think so ...
FF does not manage BHO's and other stuff the same way as MSIE...

[Aloone_Jonez]

I would hope Firefox implements ActiveX proberly and runs the controls in a proper little sand box totally isolatied from the system otherwise it's just as shit as IE.