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Ask SoylentNews: Will You Stop Using Firefox If Firefox 57 Breaks Extension Compatibility?

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday August 13 2017, @12:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the firefox-loses-yet-more-users dept.

A Firefox User writes:

Firefox 57, which is slated for release on November 14, will "only run WebExtensions", according to Mozilla.

This is expected to break compatibility with many existing Firefox extensions, and in many cases there aren't WebExtensions-compatible alternatives available for these extensions.

During some recent discussion at Slashdot, it became clear that some users have nearly all of their extensions classified as "legacy", and susceptible to breakage.

Members of the SoylentNews community, if you use Firefox, how many of your extensions are set to no longer work with Firefox in the near future?

If Firefox 57 breaks compatibility with your existing extensions, will this finally be enough for you to discard Firefox and find an alternative browser to use?

Will this extension breakage, and subsequent loss of users, effectively end the viability of Firefox as a modern web browser?

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday August 13 2017, @08:47PM (3 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday August 13 2017, @08:47PM (#553357) Journal

    Firefox still gets the core job done and has some of the best extensions for security, privacy, and the removal of unwanted/distracting content,

    Which is by no means unique. Just about all leading browsers have these same extensions and plugins. So no points scored there.

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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday August 13 2017, @09:44PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday August 13 2017, @09:44PM (#553377) Journal

    No, the other browsers have no ability to support the same range of extensions as Firefox. For example, read about why Zotero stops providing its Firefox plugin and requires you to use its standalone application in the future (in connection with a much less able plugin to connect to the standalone application).

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  • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday August 13 2017, @10:48PM

    by zocalo (302) on Sunday August 13 2017, @10:48PM (#553389)
    True for many extensions, not so much for others. In my specific case, WebExtension versions of my preferred tools are at least in the works, but both those and their Chrome equivalents lack at least some - and in one case quite a bit - of the functionality of the current Firefox versions using XUL overlays. Whether that's going to change between now and November depends on how much more work their respective developers can do, but that's what's ultimately going to decide which way I go; if the missing features are mostly there come November, then great, v57 it is. If not, then I'll probably either stick on v56 until they are ready (barring any security issues) or just switch to Palemoon.
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  • (Score: 1) by Zal42 on Tuesday August 15 2017, @04:41PM

    by Zal42 (5435) on Tuesday August 15 2017, @04:41PM (#554312) Homepage

    I am unaware of any browser that has the functionality of NoScript (either built-in or available as an extension). I'd love to know which ones do!