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Is Mozilla making a huge mistake by breaking add-ons so badly on Firefox 4?
I'm stoked about Firefox 4; I think many of us are. It's a beautiful browser, and with the addition of Tab Candy (now "Panorama"), it's even cooler.
Whenever Mozilla release a new version of Firefox, add-ons break. It's become routine, so nobody's overly worked up about it by now. The Mozilla add-ons site is littered with yesteryear's great extensions, including such crowd pleasers as Hit-a-Hint, which has not been updated since 2007.
Okay, ... so with every iteration, some add-ons get left behind, and some are updated by their creators and live on. That's just how the system works, right?
In the past, whenever a new Firefox version came out, the blogosphere was soon full of posts showing how to disable the add-on compatibility check. You just make Firefox stop checking for compatibility, and all of your add-ons work again. Great!
But with Firefox 4, something has changed: Mozilla has made bold, significant, lasting changes that may drastically impact the amount of work the average coder needs to put into their extension to make it compatible with Firefox again.
That's a gutsy move. I mean, when you see a blog post aimed at developers that includes language such as "The nsIExtensionManager interface is no more, along with its RDF backend," you can tell they're not taking any prisoners in their quest for modernizing the aging browser, which now seems kind of sluggish when compared to Chrome (and even Opera 10.61).
You can see it in the adoption rate, too. I have 22 add-ons on my own system, including massively popular ones like Read it Later, Greasemonkey, Adblock Plus, Delicious Bookmarks, ... you get the picture. Firefox is now in its 4th Beta, and none of these extensions are compatible yet (at least on my system.
That's definitely an indication, at least to me. And that's a change as compared to past release cycles, where add-on compatibility updates were much swifter (and easier).
Right now, Firefox 4 is kind of like Opera. It's very neat, very sexy, and completely lacking in add-ons. Chrome definitely has the upper hand on Firefox 4 right now in terms of "working extensions."
It seems like Mozilla is taking a large step back in hopes of taking an even bigger one forward. I hope this dance move works.
Comments
33
Subscribe to commentsChris StrosserSep 15th 2010 9:03PM
@johnny lately I think you are being a bit dramatic. You can essentially make Firefox 4 look exactly like Firefox 3.6. No need to jump ship.
dougAug 26th 2010 1:14AM
Try the addon compatibility reporter and your addons will magically work again.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/15003/
richrecruiterAug 26th 2010 9:26PM
that Add-On compatibility reporter is useless. I've got 14 add-ons and none of them work - with or without the Add-On compatibility reporter.
sandroAug 26th 2010 2:34AM
haha great! hope people will forget this piece of crap.
yeah i know i am troll :D
Gardiner WestboundAug 26th 2010 5:46AM
The solution is to turn off automatic updating until the problem is sorted out. Enable or disable this feature with these steps.
1. Click Tools > Options.
2. Click on the Advanced option along the top.
3. Click on the Update tab.
4. Uncheck the boxes under Automatically check for updates to: to disable the automatic updates. Check them if you wish for them to be enabled.
Alternately, select the "Ask me what I want to do" option under the When updates to Firefox are found: section.
DanAug 26th 2010 8:25AM
I had problems with lots of my addons not working when I switched to Beta, but with enough hunting, you can find versions that DO function. Some addons have Beta projects running alongside (FireGestures, for example), and while Greasemonkey isn't working, you can get a beta-compatible version at Bugzilla:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=581724#c10
Works like a charm for me :)
There's also a setting you can add to the about:config to force some addons to work, found on MyDigitalLife:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/07/14/how-to-install-or-force-enable-incompatible-add-ons-in-firefox-4-beta/
Doesn't magically make ALL the addons work, but it got a few going for me :)
HeinrichAug 26th 2010 11:03AM
@Zuckerman
I suggest the AddOn "Mouseless Browsing" as a replacement for "Hit-a-Hint"
It will probably work with FF v4 becouse it is still maintained well.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/879/
SilverWaveAug 26th 2010 1:54PM
Yeah I love repagination but it takes some work to get if up and running under 3.6 :-|
But its all in a good cause.
Stick with 3.6 for main browsing, 4.0 for a little testing.
SpeedGunAug 26th 2010 9:01PM
Apparently you have never participated in a Firefox beta before, addons always break, but it is a mostly simple fix to get your addons working again. Trust me, by the time Firefox 4 releases almost all the addons will be working again.
richrecruiterAug 26th 2010 10:30PM
This is much different.
I've used every Firefox beta since Firebird. Add-ons could previously be fixed with an about:config hack or hacking the .rdf file to change the max version.
That won't work this time around. A total rewrite of the extension is required.
SpeedGunAug 27th 2010 5:15AM
I wouldn't say a total rewrite, there are some code changes but not an extreme amount, it's not like they change the entire API.
Look at Firebug for example, they have not released a stable version that works with FF4 but they do have some beta versions that do. It is just that a lot of addon dev's are still testing their addons. I might also add that the addon compatibility reporter does wonders for a lot of addons (not all though)
osunickAug 30th 2010 8:43PM
Hi all,
I'm responsible for add-ons at Mozilla, and I thought you folks might like an update.
We're definitely aware of the pain that major updates cause, and we made some tough decisions with Firefox 4 to make it the best browser that we can make. Ultimately, we believe that a faster browser that crashes less is a better stage to highlight the add-ons that users find so indispensable.
Most add-on developers who are familiar with our new beta process have been waiting until feature freeze, which is now slated for September 10. The beta following that release (likely Beta 6) will have what we consider to be a final set of features, with no planned additional changes that affect add-on compatibility. Leading up to that beta, we'll be pushing out documentation and assistance to our add-on developers to help them in our push to compatibility.
We are also approaching beta of the Mozilla Add-on Builder SDK, also known as Jetpack. Jetpack is a parallel platform to the existing XUL platform, that uses the technologies of the web to create Firefox extensions that will not be subject to compatibility issues with future browser releases.
The tradeoff is the raw flexibility of the XUL platform, but the benefits include restartless installation, process isolation, and guaranteed compatibility. The intent is not to replace XUL, but to augment our existing platform with one that meets the needs of most of our existing add-on developers while welcoming new developers into the fold.
Everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion- as always, Firefox meetings are open to all:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Planning (weekly Firefox planning meeting)
I am limited to 3 URL's in this comment, so please look at the Planning wiki for a link to the Tuesday developer meeting, which covers the platform changes that affect add-on compatibility.
You can track progress on add-on compatibility via our dashboard:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/compatibility
As you can see, 44% of all Firefox extensions (by usage) are compatible with some beta of Firefox 4, and we would like to see this number go up. Once we are confident that updated add-ons are unlikely to be broken by future betas, we will step up our outreach, including posts on our Add-ons blog as well as on MDC. Our stalwart developer relations lead, Jorge Villalobos, keeps the community up to date via the Add-ons Blog:
http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/category/compatibility/
As always, we are listening and will do everything we can to help.
DabblerSep 1st 2010 7:46AM
Sadly I've moved on to Chrome, its faster than FF 3.6x and more stable. I do occasionally use FF when some javascript doesn't work in Chrome the way it should but for the most part I have the extensions I need available in Chrome now. Mozilla can't expect developers who come up with extensions for free to put their lives on hold to learn the new extension requirements and recode them. There should have been some proxy system, some HAL that extension developers hooked into protecting their extension from updates. Without extensions FF is just another Opera.