Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Anything to do with the Pale Moon add-ons website. (addons.palemoon.org)
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fatboy
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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by fatboy » 2018-02-13, 11:06

Thanks for sharing this and being so transparent.
I always enjoy reading these kind of posts.

Anyway, I love all the Pale Moon add-ons and most of them cover my needs. I hope the discontinuation of AMO will inspire other devs to create more extensions for Pale Moon and Basilisk :) I love these browsers. Keep up the good work!

Random Question: Can one request for the development of a particular add-on? Or is the development of an add-on more a DIY approach?
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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by Smokey20 » 2018-02-13, 13:52

New Tobin Paradigm wrote:Basilisk was never Firefox 55.. We just CALLED it Firefox 55 for legacy mozilla reasons.
I didn't say it was Fx 55. I said it was forked off of it or so I thought. If it was forked off of an earlier version of Fx like 52, then how come we can use WE extensions? (I far prefer XUL extensions but the ones most NECESSARY the devs have left and torpedoed their extensions so they don't work. So, I got WE extensions that are POOR substitutes...but they are something at least).

My main concern is that no browser now has something like No Squint or No Squint Plus (which I used to make fonts smaller as websites apparently code now only for cell phones and tablets and have zero idea about coding for a 24" widescreen monitor. I take that back...Chrome works properly and so does IE 11 but I'd rather have no internet than have to use one of them on a regular basis.

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by SpockFan02 » 2018-02-13, 22:16

Off-topic:
fatboy wrote:...

Random Question: Can one request for the development of a particular add-on? Or is the development of an add-on more a DIY approach?
You can request the development of an add-on—I don't think anyone will stop you. However, you might be more likely to get what you want if you learn to do it yourself. You're probably also more likely to receive help with making an add-on than you are for someone to just make one for you.

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by anarchotaoist » 2018-02-19, 11:14

:sick: Nooo! I had to move to Palemoon from firefox in order to use my most critical addon which Firefox no longer supports.
This was very fortunate because I love Palemoon! Fast with great custom-ability.
If the Mozilla addons go, this means I will have to go to Chromium. :thumbdown: Please no!
Cannot Palemoon aquire the Mozilla repository or clone it? Not sure how it works.

Is it possible to install Chrome extensions in Palemoon? Can I change the crx to an xpi in order to maintain (and add to) my current extensions??
Palemoon rocks but if I loose my password manager I will have to hop browsers. :|

Thanks!

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by SpockFan02 » 2018-02-19, 19:15

You won't be able to search AMO from Pale Moon and AMO-hosted add-ons will stop automatically updating, but you will still be able to use the add-ons you have now. The Mozilla add-ons are only "go"ing because Mozilla plans to remove them from AMO, and it will consequently be useless to Pale Moon users. The add-ons that work with Pale Moon will continue to. As for acquiring/cloning the repository, I know that Tobin has copies of every add-on that was hosted on AMO a couple of years ago, and I think he's working on preserving the ones currently there. In the meantime, you can use JustOff's Classic Add-ons Archive to search for and download Mozilla add-ons (since AMO has made them a little hard to find).

Can you change the file extension of a Chrome extension and install it in Pale Moon? No. Or, if you do, it will certainly not function. That's just not how it works.

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by Isengrim » 2018-02-19, 23:41

anarchotaoist wrote::sick: Nooo! I had to move to Palemoon from firefox in order to use my most critical addon which Firefox no longer supports.
This was very fortunate because I love Palemoon! Fast with great custom-ability.
If the Mozilla addons go, this means I will have to go to Chromium. :thumbdown: Please no!
Cannot Palemoon aquire the Mozilla repository or clone it? Not sure how it works.

Is it possible to install Chrome extensions in Palemoon? Can I change the crx to an xpi in order to maintain (and add to) my current extensions??
Palemoon rocks but if I loose my password manager I will have to hop browsers. :|

Thanks!
The ability to search AMO is what's going away. Any add-ons you have installed from AMO will stay installed on your browser, and will continue to function as normal.
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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by anarchotaoist » 2018-02-20, 05:26

Thanks for the reply SpockMan02 & Isengrim! Your answers provide some comfort.
What if at some future point I upgrade Palemoon - will that affect my addons?
Also, in a few months I wish to move from mac to a linux distro on a new laptop.
Will I be able to manually install my old addons if they cannot be downloaded?

New Tobin Paradigm

Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by New Tobin Paradigm » 2018-02-20, 06:55

Guys let me tl;dr this for you because you have all gone off the deep end.

On May 8th the following will happen.

1. Pale Moon 26.5 and older will not be able to get automatic updates for add-ons except for those add-ons with an em:updateURL tag in install.rdf. Searching for add-ons in the Add-ons Manager will return zero results.

Period.

2. Pale Moon 27 and newer will not be able to get automatic updates for add-ons from addons.mozilla.org but WILL get updates for add-ons hosted on addons.palemoon.org or as defined in an em:updateURL tag in install.rdf. Searching for add-ons in the Add-ons Manager will show results for hosted add-ons on addons.palemoon.org, assuming Phoebus 2.0 lands before then, instead of addons.mozilla.org.

Nothing else changes on May 8th as far as we are concerned.

You will still keep your add-ons already installed and you can still install add-ons from anywhere you bloody well like.. It has nothing to do with this. So stop freaking out or over complicating things.
Last edited by New Tobin Paradigm on 2018-02-20, 07:34, edited 7 times in total.

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by fatboy » 2018-02-20, 11:04

Thanks for clearing up the confusion. I love my pale moon add ons found on the home page, nothing else needed, really.
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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by Isengrim » 2018-02-20, 12:15

anarchotaoist wrote:Also, in a few months I wish to move from mac to a linux distro on a new laptop.
Will I be able to manually install my old addons if they cannot be downloaded?
Yes, you can copy your add-on XPI files from profile to profile, similar to how it can be done in Firefox.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1056140
Some folks have also recommended FEBE, but I haven't used it myself.
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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by SpockFan02 » 2018-02-20, 22:27

anarchotaoist wrote:Thanks for the reply SpockMan02 & Isengrim! Your answers provide some comfort.
What if at some future point I upgrade Palemoon - will that affect my addons?
Maybe, but probably not. That would depend on whether the new version of Pale Moon changes something that your add-ons interact with. This thread isn't about something like that, though.
anarchotaoist wrote:Also, in a few months I wish to move from mac to a linux distro on a new laptop.
Will I be able to manually install my old addons if they cannot be downloaded?
Isengrim answered this. :D

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by BKelley56 » 2018-02-24, 00:38

It's because of things like this that I always download and save older versions of web browsers and the plugins that work with them. Could they compromised? Yeah, but I don't use them for financial transactions, just for fun. I'll use the newer more secure browsers for the important stuff. That's why I still have the Palemoon 26.5 Portable and all of the plugins. The most current version of Palemoon has no video downloader that I can use within Youtube so I have to keep it around. Same principle here.

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by Moonraker » 2018-02-24, 01:06

The most current version of Palemoon has no video downloader that I can use within Youtube so I have to keep it around. Same principle here.
Have you tried this.?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefo ... downloade/
Last edited by Moonraker on 2018-02-24, 01:06, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by SpockFan02 » 2018-02-24, 02:01

Off-topic:
BKelley56 wrote:... I always download and save older versions of web browsers and the plugins that work with them....
This is unlikely, but by any chance do you have Snake/Hiss-zilla 3.0.0? I lost my copy, and the mozdev download link is broken, so I emailed the devs, but got a bounce from one because the address doesn't exist anymore and the other just hasn't responded.

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by New Tobin Paradigm » 2018-02-24, 03:42

Please stay on-topic.

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by satrow » 2018-03-03, 10:34

New Tobin Paradigm wrote:Please stay on-topic.
As above, ignore this again and official sanctions will follow.

Thank you.

JujuMe66

Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by JujuMe66 » 2018-04-21, 21:59

I am confused. I am not a techy kind of person. I play pogo and java isnt compatible with chrome, so I went looking for another browser and found you. Oh holy day!!! Everything worked great for about a week and this morning it is showing I am using Firefox 52 as my browser, even though on the top of the page it says Pale Moon and I cant play java games anymore. Over night!! Is there nothing I can do until May?

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by Lootyhoof » 2018-04-27, 19:37

JujuMe66 wrote:I am confused. I am not a techy kind of person. I play pogo and java isnt compatible with chrome, so I went looking for another browser and found you. Oh holy day!!! Everything worked great for about a week and this morning it is showing I am using Firefox 52 as my browser, even though on the top of the page it says Pale Moon and I cant play java games anymore. Over night!! Is there nothing I can do until May?
This is nothing to do with plug-ins, such as Java. This is related to extensions hosted on Mozilla's add-ons site, addons.mozilla.org. The change in May will not affect how the browser uses either plug-ins or extensions.

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by dapgo » 2018-09-06, 13:47

As I am a Basilisk users, I haven't realized until today about this PM limitation. :cry:
As I have many extensions installed in my PM, the possible impact of requiring a new addon in quite limited.

However, supposing a new PM user who need an addons for certain daily tasks. If he is very lucky they will have it on PM addons, but there is a huge probability that this addon that they need is not on PM addons repository.
On the other hand, if he is an advanced users maybe he will find manually on AMO webpage/versions (as far as Mozilla has not removed already)
Otherwise this potential new user will not find what is looking for and maybe he will move away of PM.

Lootyhoof wrote:
JujuMe66 wrote:I am confused. I am not a techy kind of person. I play pogo and java isnt compatible with chrome, so I went looking for another browser and found you. Oh holy day!!! Everything worked great for about a week and this morning it is showing I am using Firefox 52 as my browser, even though on the top of the page it says Pale Moon and I cant play java games anymore. Over night!! Is there nothing I can do until May?
This is nothing to do with plug-ins, such as Java. This is related to extensions hosted on Mozilla's add-ons site, addons.mozilla.org. The change in May will not affect how the browser uses either plug-ins or extensions.

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Re: Planned Removal of Mozilla Add-ons Service and Old Browser Versions

Unread post by Lootyhoof » 2018-09-06, 15:04

If anyone is to blame here for this, it's Mozilla for removing these add-ons, not us. If the service were to have remained live without any obvious notice of removal we would have been able to continue using it, with the obvious notice being that the majority of the add-ons on that service don't even directly support us.

With that said though. Now that this has happened we are able to focus more on extensions that actually do support us, and developers are able to bring those extensions to the forefront much more easily than when on a service aimed primarily at Firefox than us. There have been many changes in the extension front in Pale Moon over time, such that many Firefox extensions would need to be adjusted accordingly, too. Using our site aims to reduce this confusion as much as possible. Of course, it's certainly possible that some extensions may end up being lost to time as a result, however if a particular extension or functionality is desired it's certainly possible another developer could come forward and work on either a fork of said extension, or another extension that gives a similar result. This of course doesn't take into account any sort of add-ons archives that may or may not be planned by the community, where such extensions could still be installed.

The date of this implementation (2018-05-08) has long passed and, as noted initially, we will not change our decision on this (especially given that they are soon to remove these add-ons entirely anyway). As such, locking this.
Last edited by Lootyhoof on 2018-09-06, 15:05, edited 1 time in total.

Locked