Friday, September 06, 2002

Will WinForms be the Downfall of .NET? Keith Brown posed this question on DOTNET-CLR last night. I believe that using a MSI file to alter policy in order to run mobile code is a restrictive but necessary reality. However, I cannot see a way around the issues dealing with their application in a corporate network; end users tend not to have the permissions necessary to alter policy. Despite the fact that I love the Windows Installer technology, I believe that mobile code does not bode well for these people. The realities of the corporate world prevent MSIs from being broadly used; it is very hard to convince your network administrator(s) to apply them. Perhaps, this is a good thing. Unforunately, security is all about restricting what a user/machine can and cannot do with the caveat of limiting usability. (Sometimes greatly.) 8:46:03 AM    comment []