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.
But Windows 8 will come with two versions of IE10. The Metro interface will be plug-in free, but the normal desktop version of IE10 will be a 64-bit version that will support plug-ins. Adobe has a beta version of Flash that will run on the developer preview of Windows 8 and IE10, so we haven't seen the end of Flash yet.
tangor
5:15 am on Sep 20, 2011 (gmt 0)
There's always a transitional stage... perhaps this is the first salvo? I do seek a trend to tighter control in browser apps in the future: too many avenues for bad actors STILL exist after 10 years of hardening applications and network infrastructure. Either/Or for a few years (or one OS Version) then Neither/Nor after that.
bill
8:28 am on Sep 21, 2011 (gmt 0)
Windows 8 is still almost a year off if we compare it to the Windows 7 launch schedule. A lot could change in the meanwhile.
One thing I heard in recent news was that MS was going to make all apps in the Metro UI go through some sort of MS App Store. That would mean they would all be vetted to some degree.
