South Korea warns against willy nilly Vista upgrades

So, you've saved up your won for one of those overpriced Vista Ultimate upgrades, or maybe even scraped together enough change to grab yourself a spankin' new Vista-based box come January 31st, but the South Korean government doesn't recommend you pull the trigger just yet. See, South Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication, Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, and Financial Supervisory Service have all come out against widespread Vista upgrades, advising Joe Consumer -- er, Kim Consumer -- to hold off on upgrading until ActiveX compatibility issues can be worked out. Apparently banks, portals, online games and online shops have relied a bit too heavily on the sometimes insecure ActiveX controls, and are scrambling to make their sites compatible with Windows Vista's new approach to ActiveX. Microsoft has been working with banking services and others to promote compatibility, but the changes are taking longer than it expected, and its not delaying the OS further to appease the stragglers. So the best the South Korean institutions can do is issue said warnings and hope for the best when the 31st rolls around.

[Via The Inquirer]

[Adam @ Jan 24th 2007 3:20PM]

Whoa, considering that ActiveX controls are an active part of what most teenagers and young adults do on the internet in America (not to mention virtually all online banking and shopping), maybe America should come out with the same advisories. But that will never happen. You know why? Microsoft Lobbyists.

[Das @ Jan 24th 2007 3:27PM]

Really? Cause I wouldn't touch activeX controls with a 10ft stick.

[Pedro @ Jan 24th 2007 3:51PM]

"considering that ActiveX controls are an active part of what most teenagers and young adults do on the internet"

Age: 15
Browser: Mozilla 1.7.12 [Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; Gecko/20050915]
ActiveX delivered: 0%.

Obviously I must be missing out on something, because apparently ActiveX is imortant. The only use I can think of for an ActiveX control is malware distribution.

[josh @ Jan 24th 2007 5:20PM]

same here, I don't use any ActiveX sites...

[Jason @ Jan 24th 2007 3:33PM]

Uh - so we need to just keep using the insecure Active X controls from those sites? And they won't work with Vista because the Active X security in Vista is "too strict" for them? No thanks. If my BANK doesn't get with the time security wise, I'll find a new bank.

[Brandon West @ Jan 24th 2007 3:46PM]

If your bank is using ActiveX controls at all, it's time to look for a new bank.

[Chris @ Jan 24th 2007 3:50PM]

I haven't "needed" activex in couple years. oh, and Kim would be their last name, hosers.

[disciple83 @ Jan 24th 2007 4:13PM]

when the reference to teenagers is brought up as being involved in regular ActiveX use, they are referring to those who do online blogging like in Myspace pages with online media feeds, Facebook uploads, livejournal applications, and all those godforsaken Yahoo! games. I can't honestly remember what I was reading when I was 15, but I can guarantee you it had very little to do with tech blogs, or at that time, monthly magazines about theoretical tech developments. Hell, when I was 15, BASEketball was the closest representation of this period in time. My suggestion would be that if you want to truly avoid unwanted activeX controls getting into your machine, try getting some sunlight at simply not using your computer. A Wii would also be an acceptable substitute, as it at least gets you off your bum.

[Abbot @ Jan 24th 2007 4:10PM]

Glad to see somebody's government is at work... SOTU FTW!

[Brian @ Jan 24th 2007 4:16PM]

I like how developing nations have the balls to say NO to big corporations.

[eugene @ Jan 24th 2007 4:16PM]

So to make a joking analog to "Joe Consumer" you use "Kim Consumer"? Are South Koreans women? Kim, while a popular name in Korea, is a SURNAME. Maybe you could've gone with an actual given name (I can't even think of an uber popular male Korean name... think Chung something or other). Though I could understand how using correct naming conventions might crap your joke.

[JR @ Jan 25th 2007 3:56AM]

Clearly, eugene, you have no idea what you're talking about. First, you call people in South Korea "South Koreans," and that's basically the most ignorant thing I've ever read. They're called Koreans. Koreans from North Korea are also called Koreans. Second, Chung is a Chinese and Korean surname, not a first name. So you're wrong again.

[aural @ Jan 24th 2007 5:16PM]

Isn't the release date January 30th?

[diulei @ Jan 24th 2007 5:33PM]

@Eugene

I'm thinking Eugene would have worked, haha.

[eugene @ Jan 24th 2007 5:44PM]

HAHAHAHA... Yes, I considered that.... (=

[Tom @ Jan 24th 2007 6:40PM]

This is a good opportunity for those banks to re-engineer their websites to not depend on Active X. As an added bonus they'll be multi-browser and multi-platform compatible. The majority of banking sites do not not depend on Active X. Why lock the customer into Internet Explorer on Windows?

[geehal @ Jan 24th 2007 7:22PM]

Min-soo would be the Korean equivalent of Joe.

[greg @ Jan 24th 2007 7:20PM]

I think this a great thing vista is doing. The more people that have vista the faster these companies will change their site.

[David H @ Jan 24th 2007 7:29PM]

Well, this is what Corea gets for putting all their eggs in one ActiveX basket. While they may have mobilized quickly with the web by relying solely on the MS/IE platform and the dynamics of a highly homogenized Confucian society, this is where having a diversified tech strategy would avoid the IMF equivalent of tech harikiri.

[HJKim @ Jan 24th 2007 11:08PM]

For god sakes... I've been trying to tell all Korean websites to get something other than ActiveX for a few years, mainly for my selfish reasons.

I don't know how ActiveX works (I don't even want to know about it) but most websites that I've emailed told me that the reason things don't work on my Mac is because they only do ActiveX.

How is it possible from a country that calls itself the most advanced in IT don't know to support both Macs and PCs?

Citibank does it. Bank of America does it. But internet banking in Korea? Nooooooo. No support for Macs because they love their ActiveX

There's no compatibility for Macs in Korea. Guess what.. Now your trusted ActiveX will just gave you the finger.

[daliminator2000 @ Jan 24th 2007 11:26PM]

Uh...David H...please shut up. That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

[eugene @ Jan 24th 2007 5:48PM]

Oh and one more thing JR. I used South Koreans in my original comment because the post is about South Korea.

[mishalang @ Jan 25th 2007 1:22PM]

kim jong il? kim being the first name. dont you dare bring the whole north lorea south korea thing in this....there was a place called korea:P

[precise2282 @ Jan 25th 2007 4:44PM]

@mishalang

Sorry to burst your bubble but Jong Il is his name. Kim is his surname. In korea the surname comes first. If you put it in the american format then Kim would be his last name and Jung Il would be his first. I don't know why Kim Jong Il is the only korean whose name is put in that order in the west. If you follow western formats for names then it should technically be Jong Il Kim.

[alfredo @ Jan 26th 2007 12:22AM]

Brian, SK is certainly not a developing country.