Mozilla exec goes off on Apple, Google, Microsoft over 'evil' Firefox plugins

Andre Yoskowitz
29 Nov 2010 19:50

Mozilla's senior exec Asa Dotzler has gone off on Google, Apple and Microsoft this week, ranting on the "evils" of their plugins which install in Firefox without asking the user permission.
Says Dotzler:

"Why do Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others think that it is an OK practice to add plug-ins to Firefox when I'm installing their software packages?"
"When I installed iTunes, in order to manage my music collection and sync to my iPod, why did Apple think it was OK to add the iTunes Application Detector plug-in to my Firefox web browser without asking me?"
"Why did Microsoft think it was OK to sneak its Windows Live Photo Gallery or Office Live Plug-in for Firefox into my browser (presumably) when I installed Microsoft Office?"
"What makes Google think it's reasonable behaviour for it to slip a Google Update plugin into Firefox when I installed Google Earth or Google Chrome (not sure which one caused this) without asking me first?"

The exec likens the plugins to Trojan horses, malicious codes that are installed on victim computers without consent.
Dotzler calls the way they are installed as "sneaky, underhanded, and wrong."
He concludes: "Microsoft, stop being evil. Apple, stop being evil. Google, stop being evil. It's really simple. Ask first!"