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As others point out, they want to combat malware. But they've botched the process and particularly the timeframe quite badly; they should have started by 1. Fi
by semi-extrinsic 11y ago
As others point out, they want to combat malware. But they've botched the process and particularly the timeframe quite badly; they should have started by
1. Fixing the extension "code review" process, which is a mess. Make it be actually automatic 99% of the time and not a big hassle.
2. Implementing non-mandatory signing a long time ago and let that run for at least a year before making it mandatory. (The initial announcement that extension signing was going to happen was Feb 10 2015.)
3. Waiting for at least half a year after making signing mandatory to start even announcing "we will change the API and severely break all non-trivial extensions in the near future".
Right now, I think Firefox has set themselves up to decimate the number of extensions, by telling extension devs they have a mountain of work ahead of them for very little benefit. I can't imagine it will do anything but further reduce the number of users. Not sure what will come off it in the end. As a pentadactyl addict, I'm worried that I'll be on the next LTS release (without signing) for years to come. Either that, or we'll see a fork.
- listic 11y agoWon't the next LTS release require signing, as well as the regular version? And by LTS here you mean the ESR version, right?
- semi-extrinsic 11y agoYes, they call it ESR, but did we really need Yet Another TLA? As for requiring signing, from the moz wiki: "The current plan is to have ESR 45 work like 40-42, with a preference that can turn off [signing] enforcement." Edit: source: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing
- tired_man 11y agoI have more faith in the AV package I use than in Mozilla's part-time coders. The people producing my AV package do just that, 8 hours a day, all year long. How much time does Mozilla's AV coders have? How much practical experience? IMHO, Mozilla's FireFox team should concentrate on making the browser work fast and smooth. Period. FireFox has been slowly deteriorating for years while they've diddled with cutesy GUI crap. Too many spoons in the pot.
- wodenokoto 11y agoFull time coders
- Nadya 11y ago>1. Fixing the extension "code review" process, which is a mess. Make it be actually automatic 99% of the time and not a big hassle Also read as "doing the literally impossible (but not really)". http://danstillman.com/2015/11/23/firefox-extension-scanning-is-security-theater http://danstillman.com/2015/11/23/firefox-extension-scanning...
- semi-extrinsic 11y agoFrom the blog post you linked, a quote which goes to show just how stupid Firefox devs are being over this: """ It’s been a maddening discussion, with Mozilla folks repeatedly suggesting that Zotero — a leading research tool put out by a large public research university as a non-profit open-source project and recommended by nearly every university worldwide — will either turn rogue or become an attack vector if we’re allowed to continue releasing it unimpeded as we have for nine years. """
- vocatus_gate 11y agoI've switched to Pale Moon, a fork that respects my ability to make my own decisions about whether something is dangerous or not. I hope they get all this stuff sorted out, FF used to be my favorite browser.