mightyglydd wrote:Frank, FWIW I've been offered -signed Tiger and Graphite updates, 'updated' a couple of times, but on restart the unsigned version remains and I'm offered the update again..and again..and.. @About 12 extensions 'signed' OK ?
As far as Firefox themes and extensions on AMO are concerned, as some of mine are, the important point is this - users are being offered exactly the same themes and extension versions (as far as the dev is concerned) as they would have been offered the last time the dev themselves updated them.
I'm also betting that AMO hasn't yet cottoned onto the fact that multi-package-install addons (a system that was their idea) will require a more complex signing procedure, i.e. each part will require signing, not just the outside shell or the main .jar/.xpi. This many will recognise as the 'Whoa! I didn't see that one coming!' approach that we all know and love from Mozilla.
In other words, from a practical point of view, users neither gain nothing or lose nothing. Yes, it will be a minor irritation to witness AMO **** this up over and over again to no effect, but it makes no substantial difference. When the dust settles, you just have the same theme and extension versions as you would have done last week, except that, eventually, the version numbers will be suffixed with the word 'signed'. A non-event.
Where I suspect users will feel a proper impact from this *insert your own term* is later on when the non-AMO addon signing is supposed to take place and the reason why requires a small explanation - to the casual observer, addons on AMO seem much the same as they have always done, plenty of them and doing different things, etc. Unfortunately, close inspection reveals that many of the present day addons are actually total crap, churned out by vested/commercial interests and that many of the 'old school' addons, i.e. ones that actually do something useful, are now hosted elsewhere.
The reasons for this vary from a simple desire for independence, right through to a deep seated loathing of the 'behind the scenes' behaviour over the years by the AMO people or even of Mozilla themselves. It is to the credit of the latter sector that they still hold dear their values and self-imposed responsibilities to their users and still maintain their stuff to the same high standards of old. Standards that always did spring from the moral values and responsibility of the theme and extension writers themselves, however much AMO kids itself that it has somehow played a part. Well, unless allowing utter crap to be hosted there by less ethical interests constitutes playing a part.
Time will tell, but I do know that many of those self hosting authors would rather eat worms than submit their stuff to AMO for vetting/signing. Which, I suspect, will result in the vanishing of many, extremely good and useful addons and that, of course, would have an impact of users. Although, in fairness, users of social media addons would be totally unaffected.
Then again, that group seem to be unaffected by very little, apart from just how quickly they can upload a photo of the meal that they are about to consume or someone else being run over by a bus, etc.
