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I'm sorry, but this logic doesn't make much sense when you consider the fact that it's a third party service which may not be there next quarter or even next ye

I'm sorry, but this logic doesn't make much sense when you consider the fact that it's a third party service which may not be there next quarter or even next year. How about you just do the right thing and unbundle the extension? Make it an opt-in by default. Not an opt-out.

Forlien 11y ago
I'm confused by your argument that because the service's status may change, it shouldn't be bundled. Couldn't they update to remove Pocket if the service goes away? It's not like Firefox is going to stop development anytime soon.
- yeukhon 11y ago
  Pocket is not Facebook. Pocket can go out of business sooner than Facebook will ever go out of business. Including Pocket can actually promote Pocket to get more users, so to some Fx users they suspect there was some money-business deal involved. After all Firefox doesn't bundle Yahoo being the default search in the North America region without Yahoo paying at least what Google was paying.
norea-armozel 11y ago
I'd like to add that there's another issue with bundling third party services like Pocket with a browser. You can't audit the internal security of the service. So, if another security vulnerability is found in Pocket you can't be sure if it's just the extension code (this you can audit easily) or the service itself (this not so much). Instead of bundling it as baked in to Firefox why not just make it part of a "recommended extensions" section of the installer? Not only do you make the users that do use Pocket happy since it can be installed by default (just make us non-Pocket users uncheck the install extension(s) check box) but it gives users that don't want to use Pocket an option to not install it. And it gives developers a chance to vet extensions they feel may be good to add to Firefox to streamline the install experience such as suggesting password manager extensions like LastPass, Dashlane, or 1Password. Or any other highly useful extension (Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin). It just seems to me the whole idea of making Firefox a convenient browser has become the kitchen sink approach to the problem rather than focusing on what is the essential web (supporting HTML, CSS, and JS standards). The rest is literally optional to use the web.

Forlien 11y ago

I'm confused by your argument that because the service's status may change, it shouldn't be bundled. Couldn't they update to remove Pocket if the service goes away? It's not like Firefox is going to stop development anytime soon.

yeukhon 11y ago
Pocket is not Facebook. Pocket can go out of business sooner than Facebook will ever go out of business. Including Pocket can actually promote Pocket to get more users, so to some Fx users they suspect there was some money-business deal involved. After all Firefox doesn't bundle Yahoo being the default search in the North America region without Yahoo paying at least what Google was paying.

norea-armozel 11y ago

I'd like to add that there's another issue with bundling third party services like Pocket with a browser. You can't audit the internal security of the service. So, if another security vulnerability is found in Pocket you can't be sure if it's just the extension code (this you can audit easily) or the service itself (this not so much). Instead of bundling it as baked in to Firefox why not just make it part of a "recommended extensions" section of the installer? Not only do you make the users that do use Pocket happy since it can be installed by default (just make us non-Pocket users uncheck the install extension(s) check box) but it gives users that don't want to use Pocket an option to not install it. And it gives developers a chance to vet extensions they feel may be good to add to Firefox to streamline the install experience such as suggesting password manager extensions like LastPass, Dashlane, or 1Password. Or any other highly useful extension (Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin). It just seems to me the whole idea of making Firefox a convenient browser has become the kitchen sink approach to the problem rather than focusing on what is the essential web (supporting HTML, CSS, and JS standards). The rest is literally optional to use the web.