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Mozilla To Ditch Firefox Extensions?
An anonymous reader writes "Although some have raised concerns about how sane switching to Jetpack is, it seems that Mozilla's new gadget is bound to replace the powerful extension mechanism we know. Maybe Mozilla wants to replace all the great add-ons we use daily with gadgets that add an entry to the Tools menu, or maybe they just want to draw thousands of inexperienced developers into putting together a bunch of HTML and CSS that won't integrate in the UI. It seems to me that in light of recent decisions we've discussed before, Mozilla isn't going in the right direction. What do you think ?"
useful add-ons (e.g. Flashblock)
Seriously? WTF? Why not just remove or not install flash? I have gone for YEARS without flash. If a website 'requires' me to use flash, I will find a different website. Why in the name of Justin Timberlake would I install an add-on to block another add-on I installed?
You've just described the whole of FOSS.
They are stupid morons, Firefox is only popular because of the extensions it has accumalted and third party developers have worked on improving, its really only been since last year that its come into being the best, fuck with that, and Mozilla can fuck off back to insignificant existence.
Without the powerful extensibility Firefox has to allow others to sort out and fix the defaulty shit provided, it really has nothing to offer. And looking at future Firefox jetpack (more like shitpack) same with shity personas.. its just pathetic theming for retards, when what they should have done was improved Firefox ability to change full theme styles without a fucking RESTART! As for the new Firefox 4.0 gui and layout retardation.. I think it says one thing.. Mozilla are infested with fucking retards. Where are the real feature improvements!?!?? tab splitting dual screen browsing modes, and other power features.. not dumb down retard shit and removing features! They FUCKING REMOVE features like the [element properties] dialog, what fucking morons are working at Mozilla!?!?!
The majority of extensions are the only reason I use Firefox over another browser, some of them are bare essentials, without them I wouldn't even touch shitfox:
Enabled Extensions: [81]
* Adblock Plus 1.1.3
* Add to Search Bar 1.8
* All-in-One Sidebar 0.7.10
* Auto Close Folder In Library 1.0
* Auto Context 1.5.0.3
* AutoAuth 1.3
* Autoclose Bookmark&History Folders 0.5.6.3
* BetterCache 1.24
* BetterPrivacy 1.45
* BlockSite 0.7.1
* Bookmark Previews 0.8.0
* CacheViewer 0.6.2
* CheckPlaces 1.6.4
* Clear Form History 0.2
* Console 0.5
* Cookie Whitelist, With Buttons 1.0.3
* CookieCuller 1.4
* CookiePie 1.0.4
* CuteMenus Classic 0.7.5
* DOM Inspector 2.0.4
* Download Manager Tweak 0.9.0beta
* DownloadHelper 4.6.5
* Easy DragToGo 1.1.2.4
* Favicon Picker 3 0.5
* FfChrome 1.7
* Find Toolbar Tweaks 2.1.0
* FindList 0.8
* Firebug 1.5.0b9
* Firefox Throttle 1.1
* FireGestures 1.5.5.1
* Firesizer 1.0
* Fission 1.0.9
* FlashGot 1.2.1.09
* FlickrFox 1.3.0
* Form History Control 1.1.4
* Get File 1.3.1
* Get Mail Plus 3.2
* Glazoom (formerly known as Zoom It!) 0.4
* Greasefire 1.0.4
* Greasemonkey 0.8.20091209.4
* gui:config 0.4.4
* HttpFox 0.8.4
* Image Zoom 0.4.2
* IMDb Preview 0.6
* InspectorWidget 2.11.20090429
* Intelligent Middle Clickums 0.0.1
* JSView 2.0.5
* keyconfig 20080929
* Lazarus: Form Recovery 2.0.5
* Link And Forminfo 1.0.6
*
MSNBC regularly criticizes democrats and liberals, as well as republicans and fascists. Fox only critizes the democrats and liberals.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
They're bound to specific versions because Firefox doesn't provide any guidance on how to future proof them. They've stopped freezing interfaces (as in IDL - contracts to how to use their components) because they found it "too hard", and now they wonder why people keep using things that break. If you're unfortunate enough to be using C++ because you're doing way advanced stuff, you pretty much have to re-compile every version because the interface ID changed to add a method you don't care about. The UI is also a complete mess - there are no guarantees whatsoever; that's why they needed JetPack in the first place - because they can't be arsed to actually decide on places people are hook into and keep to their promises.
Personas is about the same - they can't bother to actually have a frozen set of things you are allowed to do, so they try to shunt you off to a crippled set. If anybody brings up the easier to write and no restart thing, ask about using the default theme as fallback and dynamic skin switching - features they can't be bothered to finish writing, even though it's already in the app in a half-assed way. DSS existed back before Mike Connor started working on Firefox, which is before he went off to do Firefox Mobile.
Extensions also happen to break every release because the official addons site has a strict policy of not allowing you to declare compatibility for unreleased versions of Firefox, and the app comes with a check that specifically disables extensions not known to work. Turns out that if you force things one way, you get all the results of that.
Posting AC because I am an extension developer and not stupid enough to want them to hate me more.