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posted by janrinok on Monday November 28 2016, @07:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the replacing-working-stuff-with-unfinished-technologies dept.

Martin Brinkmann reports via gHacks:

Mozilla announced a couple of days ago that it plans to make Firefox support only WebExtensions add-ons by the end of 2017.

While that seems far far away right now, it is almost certain that things won't be ready by then. What I mean by that is that WebExtensions capabilities won't match those of Firefox's current system. While popular add-ons like NoScript will likely be ported over thanks to Mozilla working with developers actively on implementing missing API features, the same cannot be said for other add-ons.

[...] A recent post by Aris, developer of Classic Theme Restorer (CTR) and several other popular add-ons such as Classic Toolbar Buttons, NewScrollbars, or GlassMyFox, suggests that Classic Theme Restorer may be dead by the end of 2017. While Aris seems to have interest in porting over his extensions to WebExtensions, he notes that this is not possible right now.

Now [it's] real. CTR as we know it (and all my other Firefox add-ons), will be discontinued by the end of 2017. We still have no way to change [the] Firefox UI using WebExtensions and all my add-ons are about UI modifications. Seems like [it's] almost time to get used to another browser.

The end of the popular browser extension would bring the Australis design of Firefox to all users who relied on Classic Theme Restorer up until that point.

This highlights one of the main concerns that the move to WebExtensions exclusivity raises: The APIs are not there yet. In fact, a whole category of add-ons--all that modify the browser UI--cannot be ported over because of missing APIs and the situation may be similar in other areas. What makes this even more problematic than it is is that [...] no one seems to know whether the capabilities that WebExtensions APIs will deliver, once they are made available, will be sufficient to port add-ons over.

[...] Mozilla could have waited with the move until APIs are ready for the most part, but the organization decided not to do so.


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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by zeigerpuppy on Tuesday November 29 2016, @01:27AM

    by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Tuesday November 29 2016, @01:27AM (#434301)

    When we first met, you promised freedom and were so open to, well, everything.
    We browsed through the fields, hand in mouse, happy at the Internet and its wonders.
    But as time went on, you seemed to shut me out more and more. Things we used to do just didn't work any more and your tabs would become unresponsive, wrecking the whole party. Still I stuck with you, because I loved the things we did, those tightly integrated plugins and our daring devotion to freedom.
    I'll admit, I'm ashamed that one day it just got too much. I know her parents were regressive bastards who cared nought for our principles, but her lean curves and snappy wit caught me by surprise. Before I knew it, chromium and I were running all over the place, even doing some of the things you and I used to do. It seems so long ago now that we talked, and I do still love you but there's only so much I could take,
    Goodbye dear Firefox.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 1) by DeVilla on Friday December 02 2016, @04:48AM

    by DeVilla (5354) on Friday December 02 2016, @04:48AM (#435808)

    Sounds like a new verse to Jackilyn Hyde