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powerful add-ons again

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Hi,

I'm really frustrated that Firefox became the least customizable browser by removing access to existing APIs to extensions. The idea is to make browsing faster, more reliable and secure but this is: 1. not really the case [*] 2. at the price to not have any options (which was my primary feature of Firefox)

After the upgrade a lot of useful addons stopped working. A lot of bugzilla feature requests to add APIs to Firefox are present but they are moving very slow as well apparently not all add-on authors have the nerves to go through the process. In the past requests for web extension APIs have been rejected with the rational that internal APIs can still be used. Now this is not anymore the case but the long-requested APIs have not been implemented.

Basically I feel screwed by a lot of functionality being removed without robust path forward and no backward compatibility period.

I might be just expressing my frustration that Firefox is becoming just another browser for the average user with decisions taken to screw advanced users.

My request is to seriously reconsider Firefox development strategy by keeping the major advantages of Firefox over competitors. This forum is the only place I see fit to send out such a broad request. And I do this only because I still care about Firefox and am a loyal Firefox user since early days. And I would like to see improvements in it, not mimicking inferior designs.

[*] I say not really the case, because I was using RightToClick in the past and it worked brilliantly. Had to switch to Enable Right click and select extension. And it took me a week to figure out that it breaks usual browsing experience in a very annoying way. So how did it help that extension is using new APIs? It didn't. Thus I conclude restricting APIs can't prevent bad user experience.

Hi, I'm really frustrated that Firefox became the least customizable browser by removing access to existing APIs to extensions. The idea is to make browsing faster, more reliable and secure but this is: 1. not really the case [*] 2. at the price to not have any options (which was my primary feature of Firefox) After the upgrade a lot of useful addons stopped working. A lot of bugzilla feature requests to add APIs to Firefox are present but they are moving very slow as well apparently not all add-on authors have the nerves to go through the process. In the past requests for web extension APIs have been rejected with the rational that internal APIs can still be used. Now this is not anymore the case but the long-requested APIs have not been implemented. Basically I feel screwed by a lot of functionality being removed without robust path forward and no backward compatibility period. I might be just expressing my frustration that Firefox is becoming just another browser for the average user with decisions taken to screw advanced users. My request is to seriously reconsider Firefox development strategy by keeping the major advantages of Firefox over competitors. This forum is the only place I see fit to send out such a broad request. And I do this only because I still care about Firefox and am a loyal Firefox user since early days. And I would like to see improvements in it, not mimicking inferior designs. [*] I say not really the case, because I was using RightToClick in the past and it worked brilliantly. Had to switch to Enable Right click and select extension. And it took me a week to figure out that it breaks usual browsing experience in a very annoying way. So how did it help that extension is using new APIs? It didn't. Thus I conclude restricting APIs can't prevent bad user experience.

All Replies (1)

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Hi,

The people who answer questions here, for the most part, are other Firefox users volunteering their time (like me), not Mozilla employees or Firefox developers.

If you want to leave feedback for Firefox developers, you can go to the Firefox Help menu and select Submit Feedback... or use this link. Your feedback gets collected by a team of people who read it and gather data about the most common issues.