Channy Yun, a Korean web veteran at Daum, recently discovered he has a 100 Active X's installed on his PC.

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Photo from Channy's blog


Well, if a wary web expert has 100 Active X's installed, guess how many average users would have.

Many Korean web sites, ranging from internet banking sites to TV livecasting sites, mandate users to install Active X components (a small bit of extension program used by Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser) to use the service. Which means if you are a Firefox user in Korea, there are many websites that are quite integral to your life that you simply can't use.

For example, you cannot print public documents by accessing government websites on Firefox. Or, for that matter, you cannot even buy a Mac on a Mac - as the credit card transaction requires the installation of a security program that only exists as an Active X control for Internet Explorer. Want to buy a Mac from their online store? Get a PC.

As a Mac/Firefox user, I suffer from this every day - one (good) side effect is that I tend to buy less stuff on the internet. That is except for when I IM my wife to buy something for me using our Toshiba PC at home.
TAG , , Internet Explorer