When is TB moving to WE?

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lovemyfoxy
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When is TB moving to WE?

Post by lovemyfoxy »

I read an article in one of the computing magazines about TB readying to drop the XUL extensions, but I can't find it again. With which version will this happen?
2 Desktops--Win 7 Ult.SP1 x64/6GB RAM /Firefox 52.9ESR/Waterfox64 2022.11/Thunderbird 52.9ESR/BitWarden PW Manager/Verizon FIOS wired network
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DanRaisch
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Re: When is TB moving to WE?

Post by DanRaisch »

Moving to Thunderbird Support.
allande
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Re: When is TB moving to WE?

Post by allande »

The last few posts here give some outline of Thunderbird plans: https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/ That links to https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Add-ons_Guide_57 which says that webextensions support will be added, but does not list a time to end support for legacy or hybrid extensions. It does say that some extensions will need changes to account for missing interfaces.
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lovemyfoxy
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Re: When is TB moving to WE?

Post by lovemyfoxy »

Just found the article, quoted in my computer club newsletter:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... xtensions/

I'm not moving past 52.6, just turned off updates. My A-V provides enough security.
2 Desktops--Win 7 Ult.SP1 x64/6GB RAM /Firefox 52.9ESR/Waterfox64 2022.11/Thunderbird 52.9ESR/BitWarden PW Manager/Verizon FIOS wired network
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tanstaafl
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Re: When is TB moving to WE?

Post by tanstaafl »

The bleepingcomputer article got it wrong, based on what I've been reading on the tb-planning and engineering mailing lists, and the wiki. Thunderbird is doing things differently than Firefox.

"Despite the interface removals, Thunderbird 57-60 and beyond and Seamonkey will still support these as legacy add-ons if the appropriate modifications are done to the add-on to adapt to the changed interfaces. In addition, Thunderbird will be adding WebExtension support (bug 1396172) while maintaining "legacy" add-ons and hybrid add-ons"

The tb engineering council mailing list (maildev) has threads about volunteers making the minimal changes needed for a handful of the most popular legacy extensions such as ImportExportTools to continue working. They also appear to be planning on merging a few of the more useful extensions into Thunderbird. The problem is most of Thunderbird's add-ons seem to have been developed before version 5 and are no longer maintained. They will stop working. Its not that Thunderbird is dropping support for legacy add-ons, they're effectively dropping support for unmaintained add-ons due to repeated changes to the API's. The distinction is important. Firefox Quantum no longer supports legacy add-ons at all due to switching to the WebExtension API. Thunderbird will continue to support legacy add-ons, but requires changes to make them keep working because they have decided to keep using the latest Mozilla toolkit AND are also trying to get rid of "technical debt". It's the API changes to get rid of technical debt (poor decisions made in the past that make it harder to move forward due to the additional rework they require) that is causing the most havoc, not their adopting support for the WebExtension API.

Unfortunately, they're not doing any evangelism (look at the "on the spotlight" section of https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/index-en.html for example) and haven't updated the poor documentation on how to write an add-on. This creates a significant barrier to entry for anybody who is not used to developing Mozilla add-ons.

http://lists.thunderbird.net/pipermail/ ... hread.html
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lovemyfoxy
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Re: When is TB moving to WE?

Post by lovemyfoxy »

Thanks, tanstaafl. Still a good reason to stay where I am.
2 Desktops--Win 7 Ult.SP1 x64/6GB RAM /Firefox 52.9ESR/Waterfox64 2022.11/Thunderbird 52.9ESR/BitWarden PW Manager/Verizon FIOS wired network
wsmwk
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Re: When is TB moving to WE?

Post by wsmwk »

Perhaps you could inform your computer club newsletter buddies that bleepingcomputer got it bleeping-wrong.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... s/#cid8009
toolong
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Re: When is TB moving to WE?

Post by toolong »

wsmwk wrote:Perhaps you could inform your computer club newsletter buddies that bleepingcomputer got it bleeping-wrong.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... s/#cid8009

<SMILE>
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lovemyfoxy
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Re: When is TB moving to WE?

Post by lovemyfoxy »

wsmwk wrote:Perhaps you could inform your computer club newsletter buddies that bleepingcomputer got it bleeping-wrong.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... s/#cid8009
Thanks. I'll inform the newsletter editor.
2 Desktops--Win 7 Ult.SP1 x64/6GB RAM /Firefox 52.9ESR/Waterfox64 2022.11/Thunderbird 52.9ESR/BitWarden PW Manager/Verizon FIOS wired network
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