how to disable built-in personas on firefox 3.6 completely?

[RobertJ]

Yeah, fine. I don't want it. Can it be shut down/disabled/removed in any way or form, yes or no?

I answered that above; but, let's try again. NO

[Omega X]

The personas "feature" is whitelisted to Mozilla sites only. I don't know if this could be exploited anywhere else.

[RobertJ]

Yeah, fine. I don't want it. Can it be shut down/disabled/removed in any way or form, yes or no?

I answered that above; but, let's try again. NO

Depending on exactly what you mean by "shut down/disabled/" you can use NoScript to block JavaScript on http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/

You could also make sure that getpersonas.com is not listed as an exception in

Tools -> Options -> Security -> Warn me when sites try to install add-ons

I'm noting this since "shut down/disabled/" is open to interpretation; however, I don't think this is the answer being sought. Thanks to Frank L for the suggestion.

[Grist]

For those that have the userChrome.js extension, the following will disable personas:

Code: Select all

LightWeightThemeWebInstaller = null;

Edit: Just a minor, non-functional change.

[RobertJ]

For those that have the userChrome.js extension, the following will disable personas:

Code: Select all

LightWeightThemeWebInstaller = function() { return false; }

Thanks. Learn something new here every day.

[Grist]

I don't really know that much about the inner workings of personas, but the property LightWeightThemeWebInstaller seems to contain the bulk- if not all- the related functions.

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/19/personasi.jpg

I don't know if there are other bits lurking around, most likely there are, but redefining that property seems to do the trick.

[Bluefang]

For those that have the userChrome.js extension, the following will disable personas:

Code: Select all

LightWeightThemeWebInstaller = function() { return false; }

Yeah, you can disable it, but why bother? If you're not using a persona, the code is just sitting there doing nothing. Disabling it doesn't remove it either. So there's no benefit to going through the effort.

[Grist]

I personally don't care. Just offering a solution for the grumblers.

[RobertJ]

Just offering a solution for the grumblers.

[Scorzonera]

Yeah, fine. I don't want it. Can it be shut down/disabled/removed in any way or form, yes or no?

I answered that above; but, let's try again. NO

Yeah, like I said in my previous post:

[Edit]
Just saw your reply to 57I7 on this question. So, it's NO.

Thanks for that second attempt, anyway.

[Scorzonera]

Yeah, you can disable it, but why bother? If you're not using a persona, the code is just sitting there doing nothing. Disabling it doesn't remove it either. So there's no benefit to going through the effort.

There's my personal benefit not wanting this crap in any way or form, and I don't care what others feel, think or value (about) that BTW. So, there's nothing better around and it's not much of an effort and I'll be using this workaround after I installed 3.6. Thanks, Grist.

[SlimShady]

You know they are called features for a reason. Chrome and Opera have their features too. You could say 'if you don't like it, don't use it'.

[Frank Lion]

You know they are called features for a reason. Chrome and Opera have their features too. You could say 'if you don't like it, don't use it'.

You could also say how about we continue to help people to hide/disable/remove features that they don't like, as we have been doing for 5+ years now?

Did people start to bully others when they didn't want the New Tab button on the tabbar in 3.5? No, we gave them userChrome.css snippets and extensions. I'm sure a search here will show the other 500+ fixes 'we' have done over the years.

So, guys, how about you all play nice on this one, hmm?

[Scorzonera]

You know they are called features for a reason. Chrome and Opera have their features too. You could say 'if you don't like it, don't use it'.

And that's exactly why I don't use chrome or Opera!

If I wanted a browser with all kinds of 'features' already built in, those are the ones (IE included) I would probably use. Heck, in the browser world, that's all you gonna get, except for Firefox!

That's why Firefox has extensions. That's why extensions are popular. That's why no Firefox installation ends up the same. And that's what I like about Firefox.
Well, that's what I liked about Firefox, I think. I'm not so sure anymore.

[Bluefang]

Did people start to bully others when they didn't want the New Tab button on the tabbar in 3.5? No, we gave them userChrome.css snippets and extensions. I'm sure a search here will show the other 500+ fixes 'we' have done over the years.

IMHO there's a difference between a UI change and a feature that has no visibility unless it's actually used.

There's my personal benefit not wanting this crap in any way or form, and I don't care what others feel, think or value (about) that BTW. So, there's nothing better around and it's not much of an effort and I'll be using this workaround after I installed 3.6. Thanks, Grist.

Then it's entirely psychological, because there is no other net benefit in doing so. That's why I don't understand.

If someone were to come along an secretly remove that UserChrome rule, you probably wouldn't even notice. It would have no affect on either Firefox's UI or functional behavior.