it’s the service that drives the Windows user interface of your computer (the start menu and such). You disable that and you don’t have many options for doing much of anything whether it’s using a web browser or any other application.
Thanks to both of you for your responses.
I agree with your information, but...
It is , then, Windows Explorer that has the 'bug', and it is common to all Windows XP users. MS is even releasing a 'fix' to Windows XP for the problem.
My description of Firefox sitting on top of or being a mask for IE may be a clumsy way to describe it, but it would still seem that Windows itself is the problem.
I don't understand how the base engines of IE and FIREFOX can be any different, as they both must use the same commands to access the internet.
Yes, windows has a lot of vulnerabilities. Historically, there releases were always particularly unpleasant, differing from pre-release versions, etc. IMHO, its was a low quality that was intentional, as users having difficulties motivated them to always want the next upgrade.
Regarding differences in Firefox/IE, the network interface is similar. Fundamentally, it’s open a network socket, read, write, close, in some fashion or another.
But then the HTML pages that are read in have to be “rendered”, i.e., displayed in your browswer window.
The browser is just an application, a .exe, an executable program, like any other, it opens up a window (what you see when it runs) and displays things in that window.
Both operating systems need window management services that keep programs confined to displaying only in their own window, call the application to redisplay when a window is uncovered by another window, etc.
Those displays on Linux call XWindows libraries which communicate with an XServer running on top of the operating system per se. It’s historically typical for servers running in data centers to not have X running or even installed. User PCs, of course, come with X starting up by default.
Those displays on Windows call Windows system libraries.
There are libraries/toolsets available that have been ported to (have a version for) both OSs, so, in theory, the application programmer writes only one version of his app using the toolset, just recompiling on each platform. Of course, then you’re tied in to how THAT library works, and you need to adapt your code to IT’S upgrades.
I don’t even know what Firefox and IE do for display/rendering; it’s far too much for me to keep track of !
Both windowing systems basically do the same thing, e.g., open a window, display bits and bytes, etc., but it’s like Ford/Chevy, they have their own programming interface.
The application programmer, in this case of Firefox, to be efficient, tries to keep the logic that’s common to both platforms identifiable/separate, and the logic that’s specific to each platform also identifiable/separate.
The big thing that’s the same in this case, of course, is interpreting the HTML. They have the same input data to deal with, well, other than MS HTML extensions that have yet to be accepted by the non-MS world.
In the old days, platform specifics were largely isolated into separate source code files; this is still true/possible with a lot of caveats, depending on how one designs.
With all respect, FRiend and fellow FReeper, it seems your understanding of how browsers and such work is fairly limited. There's no reason whatsoever for ANY commonality in the code that makes up IE and Firefox, or any other browser, for that matter.
Think automobiles. They all have to drive down the same roads, make the same turns, etc. But does that mean that they have to use the same type of components? Sure they have to have engines, tires, gas tanks, etc. but they're not at all the same. A manufacturing flaw in a Toyota brake system doesn't affect a Ford, and vice versa.
Same thing with browsers. Just because they have to use the same protocols over the internet, doesn't mean they have to be the same under the hood.
This flaw was in Internet Explorer browser code, not any of the base operating system code of Windows.