Mozilla Will Kill Legacy Firefox Add-Ons in Exactly Three Months

[mlnevese]

This email from the author of the DownThemAll extension is quite an interesting read...

 

[Fritz]

Thanks for the link @mlnevese, it really is an interesting read. I've been on the waggon since the Netscape days, it's sad to see where they're headed.

 

[Cohen]

Overall, I'm glad this change is happening. The change to Web Extensions over Legacy add-ons will make Firefox more secure and faster. Comparing Firefox moving to Web Extensions to Chrome is not a fair equivalent; the developer of uBlock Origin (gorhill) put this well:

• Chromium-based browsers do not support user styles
• Chromium-based browsers can’t block data: URI-based requests through the webRequest API.
• Chromium-based browsers are being “infested” by Instart Logic tech10.5k which works around blockers and worst, around browser privacy settings (they may start “infecting” Firefox eventually, but that is not happening now).
• I am not aware of any anti-fingerprinting initiative taken up with Chromium, unlike with Firefox2.8k.
• Etc.

There is much more I could list here. It baffles me that some people thinks Firefox is becoming a “Chrome clone”, it’s just not the case, it’s just plain silly to make such statement.

Here's a spreadsheet for Web Extension alternatives to some Legacy add-ons and also details on when/if add-ons will be moving to being a Web Extension.

 

[JHomes]

Firefox was my jam back in the mid-2000's but they haven't kept up with Chrome. I did a performance test on the two browsers and Firefox was much more resource intensive.