New Firefox Update Will Break a Ton of Add-Ons; Where to Find Alternatives
A new Firefox version is now available, and it's a quantum leap from past versions. Firefox Quantum is a huge leap from version 56 built on new technology and sporting a new design. The version jump may just have been too huge, though, that a ton of vital add-ons will have trouble catching up.
Mozilla has rolled out their big Firefox update on Tuesday, Nov. 14, and users have been impressed by the speed improvements. Internally known as Firefox 57, this update is also the final nail in the coffin for their XUL support, which is, unfortunately, the same language that a lot of Firefox extensions are made of.
Recent versions of the browser before Firefox 57 have supported both XUL extensions, the ones that were tagged as "Legacy" add-ons before this update, and the newer ones made from WebExtensions, the same stuff that Google's Chrome uses.
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It has been Mozilla's plan to drop XUL before 2017 ends, even way back two years ago, according to ZDNet. It's the price of bringing the storied browser to modern standards, though, and the company claims that it's for the good of the extension developers too.
"For our add-on development community, these changes will bring benefits, like greater cross-browser add-on compatibility," Kev Needham, Mozilla's Firefox desktop manager, explained at the time.
This could mean that developers will now need only write an extension once, and it could, on paper, work on both Firefox, Chrome, and other browsers as well.
For now, Firefox users who are caught unaware of the upgrade, which was also rolled out via automatic updates, can use a few online resources to find newer versions of their favorite add-ons. Are We WebExtensions Yet is one such site, and users looking for something very specific can always resort to the Reddit community.
The video below shows Firefox Quantum in action, which is rolling out for Windows, Mac or Linux starting Tuesday, Nov. 14. Android and iOS versions are also coming out in the next few days.
