Various add-on related questions, comments

[Austin+Healey]

It seems to me that many of the extensions in Pale Moon's add-on site can't be downloaded in the usual fashion. Instead there's a message along the lines of "this can't be downloaded because the origin can't be verified." Most recent example that I ran across was Expose Noisy Tabs.
The workaround of saving the download link as an xpi file, then opening with PM, usually gets the job done. And the extensions installed that way usually work, too. But it's kind of inconvenient, and confusing to newbies. Why bother having a dedicated site for compatible extensions if you can't download them?
A related issue, though not PM's fault, is that Firefox extensions -- even older versions -- increasingly are labeled "download only with Firefox," and it's not possible to download the xpi files. Even going to the developer's site usually usually only reveals similar Firefox-only links. Does anyone know why Firefox is doing this, and if there's a workaround?
Also the collection of FF legacy extensions -- many of which will work with PM -- appears to have disappeared (or is offline -- checked on Dec. 13 2019).
As reviewers and users have commented (extensively) the primary advantage of FF and its cousins is the ability to customize the browser. If too many FF extensions don't have a Pale Moon counterpart, or there isn't an older FF version that will work, it makes PM users more likely to migrate back to FF. (And, of course, the less customizable FF becomes, the more likely users migrate to Chrome.)
All that said, I'd like to thank all the developers who help create and maintain PM. I don't understand understand why Chrome makes it difficult/impossible for users to customize its (appallingly unfriendly) interface, but I'm thankful there are still alternatives -- Pale Moon being the best, IMO.

[Isengrim]

A related issue, though not PM's fault, is that Firefox extensions -- even older versions -- increasingly are labeled "download only with Firefox," and it's not possible to download the xpi files. Even going to the developer's site usually usually only reveals similar Firefox-only links. Does anyone know why Firefox is doing this, and if there's a workaround?

This is because all Firefox extensions are now WebExtensions, and UXP applications (such as Pale Moon) do not support WE. Only way to make those work is rewrite them in XUL.

Also the collection of FF legacy extensions -- many of which will work with PM -- appears to have disappeared (or is offline -- checked on Dec. 13 2019).

The maintainer of that repository has since taken it offline. Use Classic Add-on Archive to search for legacy Firefox extensions.

[Lootyhoof]

It seems to me that many of the extensions in Pale Moon's add-on site can't be downloaded in the usual fashion. Instead there's a message along the lines of "this can't be downloaded because the origin can't be verified." Most recent example that I ran across was Expose Noisy Tabs.

What Pale Moon version are you using? Is it an official build or did you compile it yourself (not that this should change much, unless you made changes)?

There are no problems with the latest, official release.

[John connor]

Install the aforementioned Classic Add-ons Archive here: https://github.com/JustOff/ca-archive/b ... /README.md

I have the repository that was taken offline. All 15 GB of it backed up to two 2 TB hard drives. I will also burn it to Blu-ray. I can't find the damn torrent now for the life of me and it looks the post here about it is gone.

Read here on why he shut down: https://archive.org/details/Firefox_Leg ... ector_Dump

[Moonchild]

The message about origin verification is a security measure in the extension installer. This was needed because malware was being installed through hijacking navigation resulting in malicious extensions being sent to the browser to be installed instead of the intended extension.

This error message will be triggered if you break the navigation chain, i.e. if you send an xpi to the browser's extension installer that doesn't have expected reference data attached to the web response.

If you are trying to install it with a ctrl+click for example, it will clear the originating site data (origin) and the installer will refuse.
Some extensions may also have this effect if they strip data or somehow break the navigation request.

[Anaemic star]

Is there a XUL version of HTTPS Everywhere that is still working on Pale Moon?

[New Tobin Paradigm]

I don't know? Is there?

[Anaemic star]

Thanks. I am using that.