Mozilla's Firefox upcoming changes will it affect Pale Moon?

[ElectroMan]

Just wondered how this will affect PaleMoon. I use PaleMoon exclusively and love it. I hate the way Firefox has been turned into a Chrome like clone.

Mozilla to introduce new API for Firefox to make it easier to port extensions from other browsers, to deprecate certain classes of add-ons 12-18 months from now
http://www.techmeme.com/150821/p10#a150821p10

Thanks for all the work done to keep PaleMoon a usable browser with the add-ons that I find very useful every day!

[Moonchild]

Unless specifically stated otherwise, what Mozilla does with Firefox will have absolutely no bearing on us.
We are a fork, not a clone.

[LimboSlam]

This sounds like a cool idea, but then again so did australis and now look at it. But really, why can't this be implemented, in the technical view at least?

I'm just curious and I mean no disrespect as I know "Pale Moon is not Firefox and will never be again."

[Keirnoth]

What will be done when some plugins update to this newer API and other plugins remain on the older API? Mozilla developing this gated garden model of plugins is rather troubling - they're going out of their way to be as Chrome-like as possible.

[SvenG]

I think they will affect Pale Moon in one way or another. At least it is another way to weaken the base for Firefox addons and it is likely that addon developers that now still keep compatibility with us will either drop that compatibility or drop development completely. Maybe we can convince a few of them to join the dark side... hey, guys, we have cookies

[LimboSlam]

Yep, it will bring more users our way.

[half-moon]

Yep, it will bring more users our way.

We'll be the guys that have used Pale Moon since before it was cool.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Well this is what the Add-ons Team will be doing about this.. viewtopic.php?f=26&t=8756&p=62097#p62097

[Go_To]

I read that the developer of DownloadThemAll is considering abandoning the addon when Mozilla yanks support, due to inherent limitations with the XUL alternative that Mozilla proposed.

I wouldn't be surprised if large amount of developers decide to throw in the towel instead of having to rewrite everything from scratch.


I do wonder if Pale Moon would ever go in a similar route to get Electrolysis after Mozilla shakes up the addon community? If not, should Pale Moon maintain forward compatibility with the new addons after Mozilla shakes up the addon community?

[_Poke_]

I do wonder if Pale Moon would ever go in a similar route to get Electrolysis after Mozilla shakes up the addon community? If not, should Pale Moon maintain forward compatibility with the new addons after Mozilla shakes up the addon community?

The new addon system would have to be coded from scratch, since Mozilla's rewritten so much of the browser. So much work to make these addons run when they're so limited in function sounds pointless to me - though if the system really is so limited, that might at least make it plausible to implement (though I doubt it, and attempting to spoof this compatibility sounds like it would cause too many problems).

Perhaps a conversion tool would work, though that arguably would cause more issues.

Nothing is definite until the new system is released but I think it's unlikely that PM will run these addons, and I don't think that's any loss.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Pale Moon has NO reason or desire to embrace their new cross-chrome add-ons support. Even in the event we did It would NOT mean the deprecation and removal of what can be considered a superior system that we all ready have and that has evolved for more than a decade.

Hell for all I know.. it might be entirely possible to implement this cross-chrome extension system as a transition layer in Pale Moon in the form of a foundational extension its self.. The nature of the legacy mozilla extension and xul/xpcom extensibility and support is as such that it is completely theoretically possible to implement such a framework in much the same way the Jetpack SDK is done..

In fact.. the Jetpack SDK doesn't even need to really be IN the browser and used to be included in extensions that use it with only a few minimal hooks and accommodations actually required in the browser its self. We simply have it because of our own Firefox Extension legacy requirements.

By pure circumstance it seems Pale Moon will end up being the sole heir of fundamental and core technologies that Mozilla has unwisely decided to abandon. Which of course goes far beyond tech but also ideals like user choice, customization, and all the things that Mozilla has forsaken.

The quote "Pale Moon is not Firefox and never will be again" holds more meaning than ever.. No we are not Firefox because Firefox is something completely different now and Mozilla isn't the non-profit foundation pushing for freedom on the internet anymore.

The motto/slogan/tagline "Your browser, Your Way" also holds more meaning as well. There isn't a browser on the market that I know of that allows the limitless choice, customization, and freedom to do whatever you want to your web browser than Pale Moon. We are not bound to a service or a mega company.. Our goals are NOT motivated by massive amounts of profit or marketshare or greed.. We don't push Pale Moon on users, lock them in, force them to do everything in a specific way. We hope that Pale Moon is useful and if it isn't for you we don't want you to be forced to use the browser. We want you to use what works best for you not what we say is best for you.

Also, we all are volunteers and users as well.. I for one don't get paid.. I work for the project and for the users because I believe in having a sane product I can make my own and can make better..

Since I seem to be moving from topic to topic albeit related ones I will end the "speech" here..

[Moonchild]

This sounds like a cool idea, but then again so did australis and now look at it. But really, why can't this be implemented, in the technical view at least?

I'm just curious and I mean no disrespect as I know "Pale Moon is not Firefox and will never be again."

What Mozilla does to Firefox will still have no bearing on us. The only effect there will be is for extensions which are third-party code, not Pale Moon code.
I'm also not sure what technical implementation you are expecting -- we already have an Add-on SDK available that is compatible with our core. We offer XUL, we offer bootstrapped, we offer Jetpack. "WebExtensions" as far as I understood is just a continuation of Jetpack under a different name?

[Moonchild]

Please direct further discussion to viewtopic.php?f=26&t=8756