The Linux web browsing situation is looking slightly less dire, now that
the KDE web browser
Konqueror
supports Windows ActiveX plug-ins. Well, some of them; Shockwave and
Flash run, but Windows Media Player doesn't. Mind you, such plug-ins get
full access to any filesystem WINE (the Windows-emulation layer) can see, which
means that your files may be at the tender mercies of the proliferation of
viruses, worms and spyware that infects the Windenburg world.
Perhaps someone should create a secure WINE library, which one can link to to
provide Windows DLL loading and such for one's applications, and a specifiable
subset of Windows API calls and access to the outside world (i.e., filesystems,
networks). If we've got the WINE sandbox, we may as well use it to keep Bad
Things from happening.
(via the Reg)