Apple very rarely takes positions on technologies that we don't currently support. Here is a past comment conveying a personal opinion from a WebKit engineer though: https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/plugin-futures/2010-April...

Here's a comment from Maciej (Apple): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2057611

Microsoft never used NSAPI (API that Mozilla, Apple and Opera use) either. They always used ActiveX. After all, the 'N' in 'NSAPI' means 'Netscape'.

Not true. Internet Explorer used to work with both NSAPI and ActiveX plugins, until they pulled support for the former.

"""Netscape-style plug-ins are supported in Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and earlier, but are not supported in Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Internet Explorer 6.""" -- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306790

Thanks, I stand corrected.

I just remember, that there were two versions of Flash - ActiveX for IE and NPAPI for all the others.

Up until IE6, they did; after that, there was an ActiveX control that could load NPAPI plugins.

Apple wants people to write iOS applications. Microsoft wants people to write Windows 8 applications.

It's possible that Mozilla will come around, if Chrome gives them a big enough kick in the pants. Then again, it's equally possible that PNaCL / PPAPI will remain simply an app distribution mechanism for ChromeOS.