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Mozilla reaffirms that Firefox will continue to support current content blockers - gHacks Tech News:
From next year onward, extensions for Google Chrome and most other Chromium-based browsers, will have to rely on a new extension manifest. Manifest V3 defines the boundaries in which extensions may operate.
Current Chromium extensions use Manifest V2 for the most part, even though the January 2023 deadline is looming over the heads of every extension developer.
[...] By June 2023, Chrome and most Chromium-based browsers won't support Manifest v2 extensions anymore. Those installed will be disabled automatically, because they are no longer compatible. Those offered on the Chrome Web Store will vanish, unless their developers published an update to make them compatible with the new Manifest v3.
[...] While Manifest v3 does not mean the end for content blocking on Chrome, Edge and other Chromium-based browsers, it may limit abilities under certain circumstances. Users who install a single content blocker and no other extension that relies on the same relevant API may not notice much of a change, but those who like to add custom filter lists or use multiple extensions that rely on the API, may run into artificial limits set by Google.
[...] Mozilla reaffirmed this week that its plan has not changed. In "These weeks in Firefox: issue 124", the organization confirms that it will support the WebRequst API of Manifest v2 alongside Manifest v3.
[...] That is good news for users of the web browser who use content blockers such as uBlock Origin. The extension, which its developer claims operates best under Firefox, is the most popular extension for Firefox based on the number of installations and ratings.
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Thursday September 29 2022, @06:09AM (5 children)
Chrome being run by an advertising company was always a conflict of interest.
And Firefox is run indirectly by an advertising company since it gets more or less all its money from Google, specifically. Baker has been making that dependency worse while also ensuring that the software gets worse, possibly on purpose, and sends market share over to Google, almost certainly on purpose.
Remember the Golden Rule [quoteinvestigator.com]. It follows then that Google calls the shots at Mozilla, and will eventually make a decision regarding their support of V2. Mozilla's resistance to Manifest V3 / continued support for Manifest V2 will last only as long as Google needs it to last. Right now there is the illusion of choice and that suits Google to a T.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday September 29 2022, @12:00PM (2 children)
There is a difference though: Because Firefox is open-source, it's entirely possible to fork it whenever enough people want to. Whether that be Seamonkey or some other variation. And any nefarious stuff Google tries to add to it can be removed by anyone who wants to put together a patch set and compile their own.
Whereas Chrome is however Google makes it, period, no opportunity for changes.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Informative) by GloomMower on Thursday September 29 2022, @02:22PM (1 child)
> Whereas Chrome is however Google makes it, period, no opportunity for changes.
What do you mean, it is just a build a Chromium.
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-projects/ [chromium.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2022, @02:51PM
He means that most people including large companies people work for use the Chrome version which has whatever crap Google puts into it.
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Thursday September 29 2022, @09:04PM (1 child)
It wouldn't be the first time Mozilla abandoned an extension API.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bobthecimmerian on Friday September 30 2022, @12:42AM
Mozilla had to abandon their previous extension API to go multi-process, and they had to go multi-process because they were losing browser performance wars to Google badly.
They're still losing, partly because Google throws more money at the problem than Mozilla can afford to match and partly because Baker appears to be an idiot and not make performance a bigger priority. But the performance gap is a fraction of what it was when Firefox had its old extension APIs.