Pale Moon forum

Can i make a fork of pale moon to make the browser run chrome extensions?

I just will say: "good luck with that, huh".
And it is not because license and whatsnot.

Webextensions have completely different API and (worse)security model.
So in addition to need implementing that API, you have 2 options to dealing with completely different security models of UXP and webextension browsers:

• Wreck existing chrome(privileged)-content(restricted) separation.
• Painstakingly search for secure workarounds, which may not even be fully possible.

Picking first option will result in... Firefox.

In theory WebExtensions can be "emulated" (for a lack of a better word) using XPCOM.
You need to write a compatibility shim to translate WebExt APIs to XPCOM and doing that doesn't break the existing XUL-based model.

Of course, whether this is possible in practice is a different matter.

vannilla wrote: ↑

2023-03-01, 12:42

You need to write a compatibility shim to translate WebExt APIs to XPCOM and doing that doesn't break the existing XUL-based model.

Aside from that you need to make a secure environment to host html-based elements in inside XUL in the UI. This should be possible but may clash severely with our customizability and theming if not done carefully.
You may also run into issues with WEs assuming e10s specifics that are not present in UXP.

It's not going to be trivial to say the least, and you'd probably have an easier time with less work creating/updating/modifying extensions for our platform natively than trying to somehow force WEs into an incompatible host application.

tl;dr - don't waste your time screwing around with builds and just use Waterfox Classic, which claims to support both XUL and WebExtensions. Haven't seen it in a couple of years so unsure whether they still support both and to what extent the latter.

Waterfox Classic is no longer maintained. Its last release was in Ⅺ 22. SeaMonkey plans to support WebExtensions beside traditional extensions from v2·57 on, but does not yet. (Beside killing NPAPI support, this is one reason I have chosen Pale Moon over SeaMonkey.) I know of no actively maintained browser which supports both at this time.

Mæstro wrote: ↑

2023-03-07, 18:05

Waterfox Classic is no longer maintained. Its last release was in Ⅺ 22. SeaMonkey plans to support WebExtensions beside traditional extensions from v2·57 on, but does not yet. (Beside killing NPAPI support, this is one reason I have chosen Pale Moon over SeaMonkey.) I know of no actively maintained browser which supports both at this time.

where is this seamonkey roadmap or info about the this future support for XUL+WE?

The relevant statement is in the release notes for SeaMonkey 2·53·15, which I had linked:

SeaMonkey does not currently support the WebExtensions add-on api. Some popular add-ons like NoScript and uBlock Origin are no longer shown because of this on the SeaMonkey add-ons website. You can usually get compatible versions from the manufacturers site. WebExtensions support is a planned feature for 2.57.