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Firefox lost me with the whole XUL fiasco. Breaking peoples workflows before they had a credible alternative lined up was highly unprofessional. I was an enthus

by dman 8y ago

Firefox lost me with the whole XUL fiasco. Breaking peoples workflows before they had a credible alternative lined up was highly unprofessional. I was an enthusiastic Firefox user until the XUL retirement.

scrollaway 8y ago
Dropping XUL was necessary and if anything, should have been done earlier. I disagree they didn't "have a credible alternative lined up". Are you upset over extensions breaking? There was a long, extremely long deprecation period and afaik Mozilla helped addon authors move over. They had to make the cut at some point, tbh.
- protomyth 8y ago
  Are you upset over extensions breaking? There was a long, extremely long deprecation period and afaik Mozilla helped addon authors move over. Which didn't include 100% replacement APIs. A long period doesn't help if the new thing doesn't actually replace the old thing.
- dman 8y ago
  I wrote some extensions myself over the years, all my time writing those extensions went down the drain.
  - scrollaway 8y ago
    I'm sorry you feel that way. I've written Firefox extensions as well. Also, I've written software using GTK2, Python 2.4, Django 0.9, a bazillion JS libraries that no longer exist. I've written code for games that have shut down. I've written code that I backed up on CD roms that are no longer readable. Hell I've written plenty of code that never even worked in the first place. I don't feel like any of this time went "down the drain". Why do you? Software doesn't usually last forever.
    - dman 8y ago
      I would not have minded at all if the replacement was equivalent but it is not. I believe Firefox with XUL was a completely different product (closer to Emacs in terms of viewing extensibility as a goal), Firefox with the new extensions is just much lesser ambitious.
  - DonHopkins 8y ago
    All my time writing Internet Explorer extensions and HTA desktop apps in C++ and JavaScript and HTML with ActiveX went down the drain, but those skills got me a job writing xulrunner desktop apps in C++ and JavaScript and XUL with XP/COM. And then all that work went down the drain too! Now I know how to write Electron apps, but before you know it, all that work is going to go down the drain, too! Get used to it. ;) Change is good, and each iteration gets better, and if you're not enthusiastic about learning new stuff all the time, you're in the wrong industry. I do NOT want to go back to ActiveX or XP/COM, thank you. Did you know that Mozilla actually invented words to describe the process of removing XP/COM: "DeCOMification" and "DeCOMtamination"? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12968830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12968830

by dman 8y ago

scrollaway 8y ago

Dropping XUL was necessary and if anything, should have been done earlier. I disagree they didn't "have a credible alternative lined up". Are you upset over extensions breaking? There was a long, extremely long deprecation period and afaik Mozilla helped addon authors move over. They had to make the cut at some point, tbh.

protomyth 8y ago
Are you upset over extensions breaking? There was a long, extremely long deprecation period and afaik Mozilla helped addon authors move over. Which didn't include 100% replacement APIs. A long period doesn't help if the new thing doesn't actually replace the old thing.
dman 8y ago
I wrote some extensions myself over the years, all my time writing those extensions went down the drain.
- scrollaway 8y ago
  I'm sorry you feel that way. I've written Firefox extensions as well. Also, I've written software using GTK2, Python 2.4, Django 0.9, a bazillion JS libraries that no longer exist. I've written code for games that have shut down. I've written code that I backed up on CD roms that are no longer readable. Hell I've written plenty of code that never even worked in the first place. I don't feel like any of this time went "down the drain". Why do you? Software doesn't usually last forever.
  - dman 8y ago
    I would not have minded at all if the replacement was equivalent but it is not. I believe Firefox with XUL was a completely different product (closer to Emacs in terms of viewing extensibility as a goal), Firefox with the new extensions is just much lesser ambitious.
- DonHopkins 8y ago
  All my time writing Internet Explorer extensions and HTA desktop apps in C++ and JavaScript and HTML with ActiveX went down the drain, but those skills got me a job writing xulrunner desktop apps in C++ and JavaScript and XUL with XP/COM. And then all that work went down the drain too! Now I know how to write Electron apps, but before you know it, all that work is going to go down the drain, too! Get used to it. ;) Change is good, and each iteration gets better, and if you're not enthusiastic about learning new stuff all the time, you're in the wrong industry. I do NOT want to go back to ActiveX or XP/COM, thank you. Did you know that Mozilla actually invented words to describe the process of removing XP/COM: "DeCOMification" and "DeCOMtamination"? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12968830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12968830