Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox extensions..

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
PadaV4
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Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox extensions..

Post by PadaV4 »

Quicksaver whose addons are OmniSidebar, Tab Groups, Beyond Australis, FindBar Tweak, Puzzle Bars and Omnibar Plus
and
Geoff Lankow whose most popular addons are New Tab Tools, Open With and Shrunked Image Resizer.

announced dropping support for their addons.. https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/commen ... nymore_im/

Since Mozilla said no when the CTR developer Aris asked for an API to modify the UI, than CTR will probably be dead too once Mozilla allows only web extensions.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1328244

Than there is the DownThemAll developer who will jump ship once the WebExtensions switch is pulled.
https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/dev- ... 02367.html

So, yea.. looks like the future Firefox is gonna be fast, but with much less addons and customization than the Firefox of past.

Any thoughts, or predictions?

Edit: Greasemonkey developer has troubles rewriting his addon too. Looks like he will try at least. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic ... 6IyDUWnTQc
Last edited by PadaV4 on February 1st, 2017, 8:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mightyglydd
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by mightyglydd »

PadaV4 wrote: predictions?
Firefox 57 has landed..developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Image
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the-edmeister
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by the-edmeister »

It's not just that developers are abandoning their Firefox extensions, but the types of extensions that will be available for Firefox as Web Extensions will be very different that what we are accustomed to seeing for Firefox in the past.

I doubt if "Web Extensions" in Firefox will be much different than what's been available for Chrome and other WebKit-based browsers, a weak imitation of what has been available in Firefox. IMO, Mozilla is looking for "parity" with Chrome and in the process they are sacrificing what has been unique about Firefox since "day one".

Maybe Mozilla is on the right track with the changes over the last year or so, as Firefox usage has crept up over that last 8 or 9 months. And with Web Extensions Firefox users may have access to the same extensions that are available for Chrome, so it may be easier for users to migrate over to Firefox from Chrome.

But IMO with Firefox having the same capabilities (or limits based upon your viewpoint) as Chrome, other than minor "look and feel" how is Mozilla going to distinguish Firefox from all the WebKit / Blink browsers out there?
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GHM113
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by GHM113 »

I think you can add Tree Style Tab to the list:
https://billmccloskey.wordpress.com/201 ... omment-145
You mean that we can rebuild Tree Style Tab with the sidebar API. However, I think that you don’t find out what is the essence of TST.

I believe that TST’s unique value is a natural compatibility for other tab-related addons, and sidebar API based TST loses the value.

If I rebuild TST using such a sidebar API, it can probably provide tree-like GUI in a sandboxed frame, working instead of Firefox’s native tabs. But, probably other addons can’t cooperate with it, because most addons’ authors think about only their addons and Firefox’s native tabs. Even if new TST became available based on the sidebar API which can’t cooperate with other addons, it’s useless. Moreover, then I’ll receive more and more requests for the sidebared TST, like: Please add the feature provided by another something major tab-related addon, like “copy tab title”!
If addons based on new APIs can cooperate with others casually around Firefox’s native features like current TST, I passively agree to the decision of killing low level extensibility for legacy addons. Basically Firefox should be more safe and stable for non-power users – I think so. If new APIs truly can build addons which cooperate with others seamlessly with enough rich entry points, then I’ll have no reason to negate migration from legacy way to the new way – except that it is a hard work.
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Drumbrake
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by Drumbrake »

the-edmeister wrote:(...)
I doubt if "Web Extensions" in Firefox will be much different than what's been available for Chrome and other WebKit-based browsers, a weak imitation of what has been available in Firefox. IMO, Mozilla is looking for "parity" with Chrome and in the process they are sacrificing what has been unique about Firefox since "day one".
(...)
Parity with chrome?
Why not call that with its real name now, i.e. "selling out" ...

That's not just to insult them, because who in their right mind and with a modicum of respect for what Firefox is (was) ,would ever come out with a way of crippling it and make it as utterly useless as Chrome, throwing away capabilities that have always been unknown to all other browsers like it was nothing?

And the whole argument behind that, "security", doesn't really hold water: some rogue or questionable extensions will likely make their way in Firefox regardless, and if that wasn't enough already, why deny them some friendly help, like the case of WOT:
Current users who are okay with the risks can re-enable the add-on in the Add-ons Manager.
morat
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by morat »

People are assuming that many Chrome extensions will be available to Firefox 57 users.

What is Mozilla going to do if developers don't want to port their extensions?
Last edited by morat on February 17th, 2017, 5:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Frank Lion
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by Frank Lion »

morat wrote:What is Mozilla going to do if developers don't want to port their extensions?
Ride out the storm and go to the fallback position I mentioned here, I reckon - http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14727590

In the age of the Eloi that we are now in, I doubt that most will notice the difference.
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Virtual_ManPL
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by Virtual_ManPL »

It's more like Mozilla abandoning their loyal Firefox extension developers for Chrome ones... ](*,)
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Mouse5
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by Mouse5 »

isnt this the same kinda thread that i bought up awhile ago? Firefox 57 ?
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Frank Lion
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by Frank Lion »

-Arch- wrote:isnt this the same kinda thread that i bought up awhile ago? Firefox 57 ?
Yep - http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14722024

Even so, there'll still be 3 or 4 more identical threads on the same subject nearer Firefox 57.
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mightyglydd
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by mightyglydd »

^^ It's been discussed since waaaaay before then...
https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2015/08 ... x-add-ons/
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the-edmeister
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by the-edmeister »

Frank Lion wrote:
-Arch- wrote:isnt this the same kinda thread that i bought up awhile ago? Firefox 57 ?
Yep - http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14722024

Even so, there'll still be 3 or 4 more identical threads on the same subject nearer Firefox 57.
This subject is liable to be a topic of discussion for many years, as has happened with Australis.


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the-edmeister
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by the-edmeister »

Drumbrake wrote:
the-edmeister wrote:(...)
I doubt if "Web Extensions" in Firefox will be much different than what's been available for Chrome and other WebKit-based browsers, a weak imitation of what has been available in Firefox. IMO, Mozilla is looking for "parity" with Chrome and in the process they are sacrificing what has been unique about Firefox since "day one".
(...)
Parity with chrome?
Why not call that with its real name now, i.e. "selling out" ...
"Selling out" would be like Opera did by dumping Presto for WebKit. And similar to Vivaldi (a group of developers formerly with Opera, as I recall reading) creating yet another WebKit derived Blink browser and Brave building off Chromium / Blink.

At least Mozilla is leaving some "user choice" of rendering engines by developing Rust / Servo to have another than just WebKit / Blink / Chromium based browsers.

Some days I wonder if Brendan Eich was still around Mozilla if this Web Extensions crap would be happening or if a wider scope of "traditional" API'a would be made available.
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celtic_superhero
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by celtic_superhero »

Well, we should be "thankful" for Mozilla then for allowing us at least to have a Chrome flavored browser with a different engine. Oh wait, both variants are bad, no matter if it is Chrome flavored with a different UI or Chrome flavored with different engine.

There is already a Chrome flavored browser, and it's countless of bastard offsprings so why creating another one. Bad if a company runs out of own ideas or is losing believe in their own superior creations.

Selling out is indeed the correct term. Mozilla sells their customization and feature loving user base for the simple less educated mass of users who want a simple stupid browser without anything advanced inside.

What is even worse is the following: Mozilla gets the impression that it is "the right move" as now where power users have been bleeding out for quite a long time and the simplification of the browser is increasing speed, suddenly the market share is rising again. So, Mozilla will increase the process of dumbing down the browser to gain more market share.

Let's admit it: Firefox is dead. At least the one we respected and loved in the past.
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Re: Lots of developers abandoning their Firefox addons..

Post by Mouse5 »

celtic_superhero wrote:Well, we should be "thankful" for Mozilla then for allowing us at least to have a Chrome flavored browser with a different engine. Oh wait, both variants are bad, no matter if it is Chrome flavored with a different UI or Chrome flavored with different engine.

There is already a Chrome flavored browser, and it's countless of bastard offsprings so why creating another one. Bad if a company runs out of own ideas or is losing believe in their own superior creations.

Selling out is indeed the correct term. Mozilla sells their customization and feature loving user base for the simple less educated mass of users who want a simple stupid browser without anything advanced inside.

What is even worse is the following: Mozilla gets the impression that it is "the right move" as now where power users have been bleeding out for quite a long time and the simplification of the browser is increasing speed, suddenly the market share is rising again. So, Mozilla will increase the process of dumbing down the browser to gain more market share.

Let's admit it: Firefox is dead. At least the one we respected and loved in the past.
just look at a Open Source Browser such as ( Epiphany ) . its a simple Browser without Extensions or Themes. but people use it, i sure as hell dont. i think Mozilla an prolly other Vendor Browsers are doing the same to cut costs of it down
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