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Google Dropping Netscape Plugin API Support In Chrome/Blink

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wither-portability dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Google today announced it is dropping Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface support in Chrome. The company will be phasing out support over the coming year, starting with blocking webpage-instantiated plugins in January 2014. Google has looked at anonymous Chrome usage data and estimates that just six NPAPI plug-ins were used by more than 5 percent of users in the last month. To 'avoid disruption' (read: attempt to minimize the confusion) for users, Google will temporarily whitelist the most popular NPAPI plugins: Silverlight, Unity, Google Earth, Google Talk, and Facebook Video." Google offers NaCl as an alternative, and "Moving forward, our goal is to evolve the standards-based web platform to cover the use cases once served by NPAPI."

2 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. If not NaCl or JS, then what? by tepples · · Score: 1, Troll

    NaCl is "running software in the browser". JavaScript is likewise "running software in the browser", so it appears you'd be against that too. Would you rather require every developer of an Internet-connected application to develop an app for Windows, develop an app for Windows RT, develop an app for OS X, develop an app for GNU/Linux, develop an app for iOS, develop an app for Android, develop an app for Windows Phone, develop an app for Wii U, develop an app for Nintendo 3DS, develop an app for PlayStation 3, develop an app for PlayStation Vita, and develop an app for Xbox 360?

    1. Re:If not NaCl or JS, then what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      LOL... You were going along fine until you said "develop an app for GNU/Linux". Yeah, right - like any web developer is going to create an app specially for that 1.3% market...