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which new portable browser?

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ottosykora
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which new portable browser?

As Firefox is ending support for extensions very soon, it looks like it will become rather useless then.
Which browser will still be able to use some extensions after Nov 17?
Which browser is recomended replacement?
Chrome based once are not really an alternative, as they can not be made portable really, so what will remain?

Ken Herbert
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Extensions aren't going

Extensions aren't going anywhere.

They are just blocking support for the old extensions API as of 57, so only extensions that support the new WebExtensions API will work.

Nightly will continue to support legacy extensions (default is to block them, but a preference change will re-enable them) although eventually they may break due changes within Firefox itself.

This means that old extensions that are no longer developed will go away, but actively developed, and new, extensions will continue to be made available from 57 onwards.

ottosykora
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looks negative

it looks like that 99% of all extensions will be gone as they can not be replaced by the new system. Contacted some devs, they say the mozilla did actively disable any way most extensions could be updated to the new system.

Currently it is just hand full extensions which are replaced, anything serious seems to have no way to be replaced.

It looks like any mozilla will become useless next month, portable browser alternatives are not many, looks very bad.
Using ESR is not a big option, as this browser is meanwhile rejected by many sites

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

Ken Herbert
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While a lot of extensions are

While a lot of extensions are affected, it is not 99%.

The actual figure is somewhere around 80%, and most of those are no longer actively developed anyway and have been slowly dropping out of compatibility due to small changes in Firefox as time passes.

John T. Haller
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Web Extensions

The old extensions system is the major reason for Firefox crashes. It's insecure as extensions get complete access to all your stuff and can easily do nefarious things. And needing to maintain the XUL UI for older extensions is holding back development. So, Web Extensions, a cross-browser extensions system, is replacing it. Firefox's version is going to be a bit broader than Chrome's as Mozilla is actively adding pieces to it to enable certain extension types to be supported that didn't used to be (tree style tabs, for instance).

It's important to note that the vast majority of users will be unaffected by this change. Most users use either no extensions or ad-blockers. If you're part of the group of users that use highly customized extensions for Firefox, things that change the whole UI interaction to mimic VI for instance, these extensions will likely never be ported to the new system.

If you wish to continue using your existing extensions, you can switch to the Firefox ESR branch which will continue to support them and receive security updates through June. It's highly likely that the extensions of old that are getting Web Extensions abilities as Mozilla continues to enhance it will be working by then. There are also third party options like Pale Moon, but many Firefox extensions may not fully work with it and it will run a bit slower than Firefox (it also lacks some content controls and all accessibility options).

Some people have state they will switch to Chrome, which is a bit silly. To me it reads as: Firefox is less customizable than before, so I'm going to switch to a browser that's even less customizable than the new version of Firefox.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

ottosykora
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it is so sad

but users do not count today anything..
ESR may be temporary solution for something, but as I do not know a single banking site accepting it, not very useful.
Banking here is possible only with Crome based things in most cases.
The abt 15 Extensions I was using for many years, will not survive, as devs say migration not possible. All my extensions are now marked as not compatible.
Only compatible seems to be skype call, which is and always was switched off from my side.
So by mozilla

So we will probably go back to the preinstalled IE and forget all alternative browsers.
Hope mozilla will still find 3-4 people who will use firefox for nostalgy purpose.

Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland

Browncoat
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Its early days yet....

In fact the ESR and 57 being portable was easier to change the AllowMultipleInstances= from false to true because it is easier to locate files and folders within the suite, to run them side by side. True, the choice of extensions right now sucks, but that should change over time and with Aris's scripts posted for Classic Theme Restorer, you can get 57 the way you want with a little work, copy & paste.
http://i68.tinypic.com/24v642w.jpg
https://github.com/Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx/issues/2

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