|
Technology
Info, Tips, FAQs Plug
In FAQs
What are Plug-ins? Plug-ins are separate pieces of software that you install on your computer and that work in conjunction with your browser and extend its capabilities. They let you see animations, tune into audio and video broadcasts, or move around in virtual 3-D worlds. Many plug-ins have a history as helper applications: separate and independent programs that can be automatically launched by your browser to do things that the browser isn't equipped to do by itself. The majority of programs that were originally helper applications have now been re-issued as plug-ins for easy and seamless use right within your browser. Unlike helper applications, plug-ins can't do anything by themselves, but they enable your browser to play animations or sounds, display graphs and maps, and do other complicated things that used to be handled by separate helper applications. There are over 100 plug-ins currently in development and on the market. For now, most of them are free for the downloading.
When your browser starts, it checks your computer for installed plug-ins. When you move around the Web, your browser will come across various file extensions embedded in the pages you load (for example, .dcr is a Shockwave animation file, .mov is a Quicktime movie). While a page loads, your browser opens up the plug-in that can support that type of file extension.
All you do is fill out a form online, download the installation program, and run it on your computer. Almost every plug-in site includes simple installation instructions. Make sure you choose the right plug-in for your computer and operating system (e.g. Macintosh, Windows 3, or Windows 95/98). Some plug-ins require more memory (RAM) than others; some will only work with newer browser versions.
With Netscape Communicator, click the Help menu, then click About Plug-ins. With Netscape Navigator, type about:plugins into the Location field and press Enter. You will see information on all the plug-ins that are installed in that copy of Netscape software. (An example is the Real Player plug-in) You only have to be concerned with the bold heading. If you see the plug-in listed, then it is installed. Under the Enabled column, it will sometimes say No. This means that the plug-in is disabled for that particular file type, because another installed plug-in is handling that file type. There is no way of specifying which plug-ins should handle which file types.
The latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator both support most available plug-ins, and can actually use each other's plug-ins. For instance, if you install Internet Explorer 4.0 it can automatically import your Netscape bookmarks and plug-ins. The latest versions of both browsers can handle common multimedia content, like standard Windows and Mac video and audio formats such as .avi or .au files, without plug-ins. Microsoft has put a tremendous effort into developing ActiveX, technology that is used as an alternative to plug-ins. Both browsers use different implementations of Dynamic HTML, which allows features such as moving text and animated images, without any plug-ins or additional applications. With ActiveX and Dynamic HTML we see special effects comparable to those produced by Shockwave, including buttons that light up and user-activated animations. Both Microsoft and Netscape have examples and documentation on their versions of Dynamic HTML on their sites.
What does the future hold? A plug-in in every pot? Well, no; at least not according to Jim Carroll, author of the Canadian Internet Handbook. Carroll splits plug-ins into two categories: those that give us multimedia capabilities and those that have more targeted functions. Multimedia plug-ins, he says, have a future - but not as stand-alone software. Carroll says the development path of browsers and their plug-ins will follow the Microsoft Windows pattern. Microsoft Windows started out as a basic graphical interface. Separate programs were needed to check for viruses, do disk compression and manage memory. Over time these programs were added to Windows and many of the stand-alone programs disappeared. Carroll sees a parallel future for browsers and plug-ins. "I think a lot of plug-ins will become a seamless part of the browser. They won't run as stand-alone programs." Indeed, the latest versions of the leading browsers come with support for multimedia effects such as video and animation. Plug-ins with more targeted functions - like creating presentation documents, spreadsheets, or maps - will disappear. "These were products that already existed, and people just changed them into plug-ins because the Internet is hot", says Carroll. These functions will eventually be handled by the applications themselves, which will go out on the Internet automatically, bypassing the browser altogether. For instance, if you're using an accounting program, and you want to add data from your bank account, you'll simply click a button that says something like "get update from my bank". The application will do the rest: dial into the Internet, log on, provide your user ID and password, grab the data you want, and hang up. Carroll contends that desktop applications of the future will be more Web-aware - office suites are already taking a big step in that direction. But for the moment, competition between Netscape and Microsoft will ensure lots of free functionality in the next generation of browsers. Furthermore, today's lack of Web-ready software means that plug-ins should still be with us for some time to come.
Streaming is a technology that allows a continuous flow of information into your computer. A few years ago, files delivered to your browser from World Wide Web servers (HTML documents, image files, video files, etc.) had to be downloaded in full before the browser could start displaying them or a plug-in could play them. Streaming technologies changed that. Streaming will let you listen to music over the Internet without having to wait for the complete music file to reach your system. The technology has been optimized for what is called real-time delivery. After only five or ten percent of the file has reached your computer, the plug-in can begin playing it and you can enjoy it while your browser continues to download the rest of the file. Streaming is used by many plug-ins, such as RealPlayer, as well as by standalone products like PointCast Canada.
It may seem strange that so much Internet-related software is given away free to the public. Why is this? Is the software still in the experimental stage? Was it created for fun by non-profit hobbyists? Does it do so little that they don't think people will pay for it? Originally, yes. Traditionally, much of the shareware and freeware available on the Internet was amateur work. The programs have often had small bugs in them or amateurish interfaces. And they have frequently been designed to do small and specific chores by playful, anti-capitalist hackers. With the popularity of the World Wide Wide, however, much of today's free software is part of a determined corporate struggle for control of the new market. There are a variety of business reasons why most plug-ins come free today. By giving you the plug-in for free, the company gets you hooked on the product so you'll pay for it later. This is the whole idea behind shareware, and also the philosophy that explains demo versions of big-name software. Another reason has to do with the fact that plug-ins are nothing without content on the Web for them to display. Most of the plug-in makers also produce content development tools which are not free. For instance, the Shockwave plug-in is free, but Macromedia's Director program suite, which is used to create Shockwave material, is not. There are also some plug-ins that won't work well or at all without the addition of server software on the Web site. For example, the RealAudio plug-in is free, but for true audio streaming a Web site has to be running the RealAudio server, which must be purchased. By popularizing free plug-ins, the plug-in makers can sell the software needed to make the content.
It's hard to say. As The Future of browser plug-ins explains, support for audio, video, 3D effects, and VRML will most likely be a part of all standard browser packages in the future, and applications that handle things like spreadsheets and word processor documents will probably be capable of accessing the Web themselves, without an intermediary browser. What is a free plug-in today could thus become a feature of an application in the future, whose cost would be worked into that of the overall product. The plug-ins that already exist, however, stand a good chance of remaining available for downloading for the foreseeable future.
It depends on the plug-in. The average size of a plug-in installation package is probably around 1 megabyte (1 MB), which should take less than ten minutes to download with a 28.8 kbps modem connection. However, some plug-ins, such as Shockwave and Acrobat, are between 2 and 5 MB. During busy times (such as evenings), and with slow or popular download sites, the download time for a large plug-in can be longer. See our Help pages for instructions on downloading. Do they take up a lot of disk space? Adding a plug-in to your browser will typically use up between 1 and 3 MB of hard disk space. However, it depends on the plug-in. If space on your hard drive is an issue, you can save space by deleting the original installation files you downloaded from the Web.
Will they slow down my system, or will my system or my connection be too slow to use them? While content is downloading and plug-ins are being launched by your browser, you may find it hard to do anything else, depending on your operating system, the amount of system memory (RAM) you have, and how fast your processor is. You need at least a 28.8 kbps modem connection to get the most out of the average plug-in. RealPlayer has a plug-in optimized for 14.4, and many plug-in manufacturers claim that their products work at 14.4, but the truth is that the wait for plug-in content is often frustrating at that speed, and sometimes even at 28.8. Streaming media such as audio and video can also be unsatisfying over modem connections, and the slower the connection the more likely the signal is to be rough. In general, the faster your connection, the more you'll enjoy using plug-ins. A fast processor (the speed of your computer, in megahertz) with lots of RAM will also improve your enjoyment of plug-in material.
The risk of doing any permanent damage to your system by installing and using one of the major plug-ins we profile is minimal. Plug-ins can, however, cause their share of frustration. Once the plug-in is installed, things sometimes go awry. Sometimes the browser will not know where to find the plug-in on your hard drive. People who have multiple versions of browsers installed on their computers may be prone to this problem, but it sometimes happens to others as well. Fortunately, you can easily find out what plug-ins you have installed for your browser. If the browser doesn't find the plug-in it will usually let you browse for it on your hard drive, so it's a good idea to keep track of where the installation program put it. Often exiting your browser and starting it again, or restarting your computer will solve the problem. Depending on the size of the plug-in content, the time of day, the robustness of the site, and the speed of your connection, it can take 5 to 15 minutes, or longer, for the plug-in to start playing the content. The more RAM your system has the more likely it is that the content will be played smoothly once it has been downloaded. You may be told that your browser has performed an illegal action, or in Windows 3.1 you may get a "General Protection Fault." In the worst case, a plug-in could crash your computer, making it unusable until you reboot, and causing you to lose any data you were working on in other open programs. Proceed with caution after you install a plug-in. Close any programs except for your browser and test a few different sites with the kind of content your new plug-in was designed for. If all seems to go well, you can probably relax and go back to browsing the Web in your usual manner, but if the plug-in consistently causes problems you may decide to uninstall it or just avoid content that was designed for that plug-in. Some people have wondered whether they can feel secure using plug-ins. They worry that plug-ins may pose a greater threat to security and privacy than a browser on its own does. A plug-in designed by a malicious person could conceivably erase your hard drive or send information about you and your computer over the Internet. However, that is true of any software. Plug-ins made by the companies we have profiled here have a reputation for being virtually risk-free from that point of view.
Are they worth all the wait and trouble? As always, it depends on the plug-in. Except in the case of the most popular plug-ins, a lot of the material created for plug-ins has been created just to show that it can be done, and the audience for any given plug-in is limited. If you think it would be fun to listen to Seattle's classical music station over the Internet, if you'd like to watch a really short clip from a new video, then plug-ins - or at least a careful selection of them - are probably for you. On the other hand, if you're the kind of person who turns off images in your browser because you don't want to wait all that time just to get to the solid information you're after, plug-ins may seem to be a waste of time and bandwidth to you.
|
|
|
back to Technology Content Index
Events
Calendar What's
New
|