Posted on 10/23/2017 3:03:26 PM PDT by CedarDave
On November 14 Mozilla will take the biggest gamble in its long history when the organization will ship Firefox 57, the first version of its browser that will stop supporting legacy Firefox add-ons.
This means that starting with Firefox 57 the browser will support only new add-ons written on top of the newer WebExtensions SDK.
All legacy Firefox add-ons written on the old XUL-based Add-Ons SDK will stop working.
In a blog post last week, Mozilla said it will continue to allow developers to upload and list legacy Firefox add-ons on its add-ons portal (AMO), but they'll only show up for users with older browsers and buried in search results under newer WebExtensions-compatible add-ons.
Changes are already being rolled out to AMO and Firefox 57 (currently Firefox's Nightly edition).
The release of Firefox 57 is the end of a two-year-long project that started in August 2015 when Mozilla announced the new WebExtensions API that would eventually replace the older Add-Ons SDK.
The new WebExtensions SDK is also compatible with the universal WebExtensions SDK implemented in Chromium and related browsers such as Brave, Chrome, Opera, and Vivaldi.
Firefox's large collection of legacy add-ons has always been one of Firefox's strongest points and one of the primary reasons the browser has been popular so many years.
When Mozilla announced the new WebExtensions SDK and the death of the old legacy add-ons system, many feared most add-on developers wouldn't bother to migrate their add-ons for the newer WebExtensions API and Firefox would lose most of its add-ons, and its strongest attraction point.
In April 2017, the Mozilla Add-ons Portal listed 18,814 add-ons, but only 2,273 add-ons were WebExtensions-compatible. Currently, this number is at 3,633, which is about 19.3% of all Firefox add-ons.
Okay, bookmarked. Will have a guy I know check it out for me. Thanks.
Yep, tell me about it.
I'll probably end up with Chrome, it's cross-platform and well-supported, and it's the best at doing Hangouts which is my company's vid-conf tool of choice. Unfortunately I'll also have to update my venerable CentOS 6 main workstation, because its GLIBC is 2.12, and Chrome requires min. 2.14. I'm not going to attempt an in-place upgrade from 6 to 7, and certainly not an in-place upgrade of GLIBC, so I'll just get a fresh SSD, install CentOS 7, and migrate everything. I'd install Ubuntu because that's what we mainly use at work, but it's at an awkward stage -- 14 was great but going out of support, 16 is current but sucks, and 18 looks like a winner, but it's not coming out until spring. OTOH CentOS 7 is a little weirder than I prefer, too. *sigh*
Firefox: your options to run legacy add-ons
Firefox users who rely on specific legacy add-ons have a couple of options to retain their functionality. The following options are available:
Switch to Firefox ESR (until June 26, 2018)
Firefox ESR, [https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/faq/] Extended Support Release, will support legacy add-ons until June 26, 2018. This special version of Firefox is maintained specifically for organizations that require more stability and less change when it comes to software.
Firefox ESR gets all the security updates that Firefox Stable gets, but none of the functionality changes. The current version of Firefox ESR, 52.x, is based on Firefox 52.0. This means that it won’t incorporate any changes made in Firefox 53, 57 or even 60.
It is no longer supported after the release of Firefox ESR 52.8.0 which is released next to Firefox 60....
Block further updates (unlimited, but insecure)...
Pale Moon (not all add-ons are compatible)
Pale Moon, which shares a lot of code with Firefox, may be an option of the add-ons that you want to use work in the browser.
Not all Firefox add-ons are compatible with Pale Moon on the other hand, so you best verify this before you migrate to the browser. https://www.ghacks.net/2017/08/08/firefox-your-options-to-run-legacy-add-ons/
Then there is
What is Basilisk?
Basilisk is a web browser building on the Unified XUL Platform (UXP), an application platform currently in development, a true fork of Mozilla’s pre-servo platform code and using a new iteration of Goanna as a layout and rendering engine, that will allow customizable, cross-platform applications to be built using the XUL markup language. The web browser is both a vessel to facilitate development and testing of UXP, and a direct replacement for Firefox with full add-on capabilities (both NPAPI plugins and all types of extensions). http://www.basilisk-browser.org/preview/index.shtml
Also,
ok all- what browsers does adblock plus work with? That’s all i wanna know (and which ones can play youtube videos)
Bookmark
Please report back what he thinks of CID. I'm thinking of going to Firefox ESR until it dies next June. Maybe by then we'll have some answers as to which browser gives us what we will lose when the Firefox we like self-destructs in a couple of weeks.
No problem ;^)
The one I listed up-thread works (using framework from FF 52).
#52 Thanks. I just installed it. Loads websites faster.
It imported all my add-ons including “classic theme restorer” which makes it look like older version of Firefox and “Tab Mix Plus” and “Theme Font & Size Changer”, “NoSquint Plus” plus a few others to download youtube videos.
BFLR
Bkmk
Bkmk
I did a Firefox upgrade last week and it is bleeding out into my memory terribly!!! I.e. using up massive amounts of memory!
I don’t know if I am doing something wrong, but I am considering uninstalling it completely as it is so frustrating that I have to keep checking the Task Manager to see how much it is gobbling up and close it down several times daily. For me it is almost unusable.
Good information in your #84. The gHacks.net link has good information too, including a way to check if your add-ons are updated for FF57+.
does palemoon run adblock plus? That’s the only one i care about- plus playing youtube vids with no problems-
i forgot to mention that i run linux os- not sure if that one works with linux?
Here is a list of browsers as an alternative to firefox- I don’t know hardly anything about any of them- and you’ll have to note if they work with linux or not- if you use linux of course-
You’ll also have to research each to see if they can utilize plugins like adblock plus no script etc-
https://alternativeto.net/software/firefox/
I don’t know Bob, for I do not use Ad-Block but use (slightly edited) Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File - MVPS HOSTS file
But see post 84. You can install Firefox ESR, [https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/faq/] Extended Support Release, will support legacy add-ons until June 26, 2018. This special version of Firefox is maintained specifically for organizations that require more stability and less change when it comes to software.
Firefox ESR gets all the security updates that Firefox Stable gets, but none of the functionality changes. The current version of Firefox ESR, 52.x, is based on Firefox 52.0. This means that it won’t incorporate any changes made in Firefox 53, 57 or even 60.
The 64 bit English lang. file is here: https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-52.4.1esr-SSL&os=win64&lang=en-US
Memory Restart https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/memory-restart/ Shows how much ram FF is using, and enables easy restart to flush memory.
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