Win Mobile 8 - "Plug-In Free" (HA!)

From time-to-time I have a gander at the Windows 8 blog - just to see what's happening in the world of "me-too." In one of the recent posts - Dean Hachamovitch (IE Team Leader) wrote about the fact that IE 10 will come in two flavors - one for mobile and one for desktop.

Why?

Seems that Microsoft has decided that Steve Jobs truly is an oracle of the future - and that HTML5 is awesome and the way to go:

For the web to move forward and for consumers to get the most out of touch-first browsing, the Metro style browser in Windows 8 is as HTML5-only as possible, and plug-in free. The experience that plug-ins provide today is not a good match with Metro style browsing and the modern HTML5 web.

Ummmm... what the? Huh. But it gets even better:

On Windows 8, consumer sites and “line of business” applications that require legacy ActiveX controls will continue to run in the desktop browser, and people can tap “Use Desktop View” in Metro style IE for these sites. For what these sites do, the power of HTML5 makes more sense, especially in Windows 8 apps.

I'm sorry - did I miss the part where he basically says that Silverlight (a browser plug-in) will NOT run on their own mobile operating system? And what about all those legacy Active-X controls? What are the thousands of Corporate American companies going to do when all their vendors who wrote their web-based intranet applications specifically for IE suddenly don't work on their CEO's new Windows 8 tablet?

I get the part about not wanting to run Flash (no one does - apparently) - but there is something even more subtle thrown in to the text:

 In Windows 8, IE 10 is available as a Metro style app and as a desktop app. The desktop app continues to fully support all plug-ins and extensions. The HTML5 and script engines are identical and you can easily switch between the different frame windows if you’d like.

Did you notice the word "extensions" in there? So, apparently, IE 10 Metro will not even support browser extensions!

Wow.

That's really, really good news for Apple. Because if you can't run Flash, and you can't run Silverlight, and you can't run Active-X controls - then you might as well get the tablet all the "cool kids" have - the iPad.