> And what business does a browser have with a .pdf file anyway, where does that end? excel sheets? word documents? proprietary format 'x'? Web browsers should stick to web browsing or at least have a mode where they will stick to just web browsing.
Displaying arbitrary media content is web browsing; the web is an interconnected network of servers providing hypermedia content that is self-describing as to content type so that clients (like browsers) can appropriately choose how to handle content based on its type.
Its true that early web browsers only handled HTML, plain text, and a few image formats internally, and relied on external software to handle all other media -- but all of that, including the parts for which they relied on external software -- is part of "web browsing".
Sure, and if I install some plug-in to deal with a proprietary format that's my own doing and risk. But by default a browser should stick to a sensible subset otherwise we might as well author our web-pages in .pdf format instead of HTML.
Anyway, I've already been called grumpy and being told to sell my laptop and go live in a cave so I'll give HN a miss for the next couple of days or so.
Displaying arbitrary media content is web browsing; the web is an interconnected network of servers providing hypermedia content that is self-describing as to content type so that clients (like browsers) can appropriately choose how to handle content based on its type.
Its true that early web browsers only handled HTML, plain text, and a few image formats internally, and relied on external software to handle all other media -- but all of that, including the parts for which they relied on external software -- is part of "web browsing".