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I was really excited for Quantum, but it appears the switch to WebExtensions is going to gut most of my favourite addons, and completely kill the rest. About h

I was really excited for Quantum, but it appears the switch to WebExtensions is going to gut most of my favourite addons, and completely kill the rest. About half of the addons I use have been updated to be compatible with Firefox 57, so the rest will stop working as soon as I update. Of the ones that have updated, most are missing significant features. The most significant example is Lastpass, which can no longer fill in http authentication boxes, and can't even copy usernames and passwords to the clipboard anymore. (The Chrome version has never been able to do the former, but can at least do the latter.) Lastpass fills many auth modals for me every day, so losing that feature is going to be a huge annoyance. NzbFox is gone. Hilarious webcomic manager gone. Foxyproxy missing features. This just sucks. I understand the logic behind this move, but addons were one of Firefox's strengths. Now it appears they will be a sort of poor cousin to their Chrome counterparts. I would happily sacrifice speed to not completely hamstring the capabilities of addons. Obviously it's too late for this, but the could have added the WebExtension system to provide greater stability, security, and developer ease for new addons (and those that wished to migrate), while maintaining the more powerful system for major things that required those capabilities. Yes, in theory it means a bad addon could compromise security, but that's true of any program I choose to install on my computer. I certainly wouldn't trade my general purpose PC for some locked down app store box regardless!

stesch 9y ago
You don't know before the update if an extension is supported or not. Firefox 56 doesn't support all of the new features of web extensions so some add-ons (and versions) are only available for Firefox 57. Too bad Mozilla changed the Add-On website a few days ago. You don't see any indication of supported Firefox version anymore. You only see the extensions that work in your current browser, not the extensions for the next version. (Unless you switch to the old layout in an link hidden in the footer.) Some extensions will be delayed because the deadline (2 years?) wasn't long enough. Some extensions need additional features and may only be available with Firefox 58 or later. Some never. And you need to invest some time to research this. One starting point is https://arewewebextensionsyet.com/ https://arewewebextensionsyet.com/
- tempestn 9y ago
  Actually every addon indicates on the addon site whether it is compatible with quantum or not. In some cases, there are indeed addons that are only compatible with 57+ (also indicated there), but the ones I described were accurate; I'm already using the updated versions, but they are seriously hamstrung. I agree that things are likely to slowly improve as the WebExtension APIs are extended and addons go through more updates. Still very difficult to lose so much functionality overnight. I may switch to v52 (ESR) for now, then decide next year whether to stick with Firefox.
  - stesch 9y ago
    > Actually every addon indicates on the addon site whether it is compatible with quantum or not. Not on the new site and not if you are using Firefox 56. You need to click on "View classic desktop site" in the footer. Then you see a "Compatible with Firefox 57+" tag/badge right from the version number of the extension.
    - stesch 9y ago
      Oops. They added the feature that indicates that an extension isn't ready for quantum. My bad.

stesch 9y ago

You don't know before the update if an extension is supported or not. Firefox 56 doesn't support all of the new features of web extensions so some add-ons (and versions) are only available for Firefox 57. Too bad Mozilla changed the Add-On website a few days ago. You don't see any indication of supported Firefox version anymore. You only see the extensions that work in your current browser, not the extensions for the next version. (Unless you switch to the old layout in an link hidden in the footer.) Some extensions will be delayed because the deadline (2 years?) wasn't long enough. Some extensions need additional features and may only be available with Firefox 58 or later. Some never. And you need to invest some time to research this. One starting point is https://arewewebextensionsyet.com/ https://arewewebextensionsyet.com/

tempestn 9y ago
Actually every addon indicates on the addon site whether it is compatible with quantum or not. In some cases, there are indeed addons that are only compatible with 57+ (also indicated there), but the ones I described were accurate; I'm already using the updated versions, but they are seriously hamstrung. I agree that things are likely to slowly improve as the WebExtension APIs are extended and addons go through more updates. Still very difficult to lose so much functionality overnight. I may switch to v52 (ESR) for now, then decide next year whether to stick with Firefox.
- stesch 9y ago
  > Actually every addon indicates on the addon site whether it is compatible with quantum or not. Not on the new site and not if you are using Firefox 56. You need to click on "View classic desktop site" in the footer. Then you see a "Compatible with Firefox 57+" tag/badge right from the version number of the extension.
  - stesch 9y ago
    Oops. They added the feature that indicates that an extension isn't ready for quantum. My bad.