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Mozilla to Remove Legacy Firefox Add-Ons From Add-On Portal in Early October (bleepingcomputer.com)

Posted by msmash on from the another-thing-bites-the-dust dept.

Mozilla announced today plans to remove all Firefox legacy add-ons from the official Mozilla add-ons portal in early October. From a report: The move comes after Mozilla updated the Firefox core to use a new add-ons system based on the Chrome-compatible WebExtensions API. This new add-ons API replaced Firefox's old XUL-based add-ons API in November 2017, with the release of Firefox 57. All Firefox legacy add-ons stopped working in Firefox 57, but Mozilla continued to support them in the Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) 52 branch. Support for Firefox ESR 52 will end on September 5, in two weeks, meaning there won't be any official Firefox version that supports legacy add-ons anymore.

4 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. That's OK; techies to remove new Firefox by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Informative

    Joking aside, is it REALLY that much a of a problem to keep Legacy extensions, sorry, "Add-Ons" on a different "space" of the website??? Are they afraid people will get "confused" and try to install them on the new version? Mozilla is losing out on the ability to see WHAT is popular and WHY it is popular. If they were smart they would provide alternative URLs for extensions that work in the new version. Too bad this "telemetry" data doesn't have any value for them.

    I get it that they want to push everyone onto the latest shiny. Unfortunately, the harder they push, the more backlash there will be and people just go "Fuck it. I'll just use Pale Moon, etc." where their extensions continue to work.

    Guess it is just another sign of Mozilla continuing to jump the shark / nuke the fridge / etc. on slowly becoming irrelevant and losing touch with what people want in a browser.

  2. Alternatives by slickwillie · · Score: 3, Informative

    WaterFox and PaleMoon are FF alternatives that support the old add-ons. I wonder if the add-ons will be available somewhere else?

    1. Re:Alternatives by mi · · Score: 5, Informative

      WaterFox and PaleMoon are FF alternatives

      Yep. I symlinked ~/.mozilla/firefox as ~/.waterfox and the Waterfox-browser started right up. Things "just work" — the add-ons, which Firefox has earlier declared "obsolete", started to work again, etc.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  3. Better on Desktop by PineHall · · Score: 4, Informative

    Those numbers include Mobile and Tablets. Firefox does not have a presence on phones or tablets. Firefox has 11% market share on the Desktop. It does have a declining market share but it is not as bad as that 5% number.