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Firefox Will Run Chrome Extensions

Posted by Soulskill on from the mi-casa-es-su-casa dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Today Mozilla announced some big changes to its extension support. Their new addon API, WebExtensions, is mostly compatible with the extension model used by Chrome and Opera. In short, this means we'll soon see cross-platform browser extensions. They say, "For some time we've heard from add-on developers that our APIs could be better documented and easier to use. In addition, we've noticed that many Firefox add-on developers also maintain a Chrome, Safari, or Opera extension with similar functionality. We would like add-on development to be more like Web development: the same code should run in multiple browsers according to behavior set by standards, with comprehensive documentation available from multiple vendors."

8 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Never mind run Chrome extensions... by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... Firefox will be Chrome. Anyone who cared about extensive browser customization will simply abandon their addons. Why keep recoding them on Mozilla's whim?

    For anyone who still cares about this stuff, the time to jump is most certainly NOW. I don't even think SeaMonkey is good enough - Pale Moon is a totally clean break.

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    1. Re:Never mind run Chrome extensions... by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wow, a whole year. Sorry, where's the good news?

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    2. Re:Never mind run Chrome extensions... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you check out NoScript itself, you'll see that it's written using an XPCOM object. This update kills XPCOM, so, no, the new API will not allow NoScript. It can't block at the same level as NoScript, because Chrome offers no method to modify the DOM before the document finishes loading, which means scripts embedded in the document can't be blocked.

      So, yes, this absolutely kills NoScript in future versions of Firefox.

    3. Re:Never mind run Chrome extensions... by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      FF is a perfect example of a project going completely off the rails. I don't hear anyone saying good things about it anymore.

      It doesn't spy on you.

      Seriously, there was a time a few years back when many people (including me) switched away from Firefox because it had memory leaks, and didn't work very well. Now, it's a fine browser, and I don't understand why anyone would use Chrome over Firefox. Forget that spyware.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:Never mind run Chrome extensions... by mlts · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Another nice thing about FF is that it has its own FIPS compliant data stores for passwords as well as its own separate keystore. Chrome and IE use the system's keys on Windows.

      This is important, because if someone gets a bogus root CA into the Registry, Chrome and IE will happily honor it, while Firefox will stop and point it out.

      FF also provides password protection for the keystore data. This way, if FF is left unattended (and a timeout is set), an intruder can't just walk away with a user's password stash.

    5. Re:Never mind run Chrome extensions... by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Mozilla, for the love of god, stop breaking APIs, you morons.

      That is the goal. The reason the 'API' kept breaking is because there wasn't an API at all: extensions were able to access the internal firefox code. Every time an internal function changed, it caused problems for extensions. Obviously that is bad, there needs to be a clear interface (like a wall) between the outside and the inside.

      Firefox here is finally making a good interface. Their plan is to extend the Chrome API so it contains all the functionality needed for current Firefox add-ons.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:Never mind run Chrome extensions... by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

      in Chrome, I can do a shift-esc, and kill a lot of memory hogs per tab. No real way to do that in FF.

      about:memory estimates how much memory each tab is using. Close the hogs and then click "Minimize memory usage".

  2. Re:Fucking morons by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Informative

    The sole advantage of Firefox over Chrome these days is the fact that it's add-on SDK allows addons to modify just about any part of the browser. Chrome extensions are extremely limited in what they do.

    They are planning on extending the add-on API so it still has most of the functionality of the current add-ons. It will be much more sophisticated than what Chrome allows now.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."