I'm curious about my mains:
- Classic theme restorer
- uBlock
- DownThemAll
- Markdown Here
As I'm already using electrolysis, I know Markdown Here basically doesn't work. How I can check whether things will break or not.
You can try yourself: either install https://nightly.mozilla.org/ and load it with your addons (it uses different profile) or use your stable one and look at about:support page for "Multiprocess Windows" cell if it states 1/1 and does not mention "(Disabled by add-ons)" you are covered. You can try some about:config alterations [0] to force it if you are adventurous. In this case, it might be nice to install "Add-on Compatibility Reporter" [1] for tracking and sharing your findings.
[0] http://superuser.com/questions/1096974/how-to-check-if-multi... [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compat...
As I understand it WebExtension is inherently multi-process compatible so (to answer question below) the only extensions we know today will work next year from arewee10syet.com are those marked as "compatible-webextension".
[0] Most of extensions I'm used to alters chrome visually or functionally: calls external applications, changes hotkeys, so almost none of them are XUL-free. But I still hope / believe Mozilla is not that insane and will achieve consensus keeping the most important features for extensions authors available in the end.
The guy seems to be confusing things here, too.
But while this doesn't confirm it, it neither confirms the opposite. So, it is very much still possible thst Tab Mix Plus gets ported to WebExtensions before the old add-ons get shut off, i.e. you might very well be able to use it still then, there's just currently no way to know yet.
And as far as I can tell, the developer seems to have accepted porting it to WebExtensions and will most likely do it: http://tabmixplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19282
The DownThemAll devs have been very vocal about "WebExtensions being the likely end of DownThemAll", although I don't know if due to understandable unwillingness to redo a lot of their work or actual technical limitations.
Classic theme restorer probably relies on XUL/features unlikely to be re-implemented, see dev response to this review https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/classicthemerest....
Ironically the long-term ideas of having a HTML based GUI could enable heavy modification again, at least in modified "distributions" of FF? Doesn't solve the now/next year though :/
To elaborate: If you're doing "web stuff", toolbar buttons, and request stuff (adblocking etc), you'll probably be fine. If you're lucky enough that you only need a few additional new things and your name is e.g. Giorgio of NoScript, you also will be probably fine.
If your add-on does not have a sizable user base, and you do fancy things like modding the browser UI itself, or doing something else not entirely "webby", your outlook is a lot less rosy.
But yeah, I'd just like to say that in case you did not do your best to maybe get to a solution with the Mozilla devs, that I'd appreciate it, if you could try again.
I don't personally use your add-on, but I know that a lot of people do and I think that this initial discourse to get some of the APIs sorted out is rather important.
Even if you don't end up writing the extension, it'd be good to have reasonable APIs at least drafted. So that maybe someone can offer a half-assed Down Them All, which maybe is already good enough for some people, and then maybe that add-on's developer can continue working with Mozilla to get a proper API fully sorted.
You should also consider that Mozilla started out with this "webby" state from Chrome. Anything modifying the UI and so on still needs to be defined. Once they have some of the other UI-APIs worked out, it'll be easier for Mozilla to fit new libraries into there and then it'll also be easier for Mozilla to work with your API needs.
I'd really like to share your optimism here, but really, knowing what I know, I just cannot.
I think the real issue is that innovation in the extension space is effectively over - the Firefox extension system is so vibrant because anything was possible. Now Mozilla is reducing the possibility space to that which is provided by the much more limited WebExtensions and adding in support for existing popular extensions. But new extensions, doing things yet undreamed of, will no longer be possible.
I'm not sure what the distinguishing features of Firefox will be moving into the future. More and more, I think it's becoming Just Another Browser, with a better ideology behind it. Well, that's not a winning formula. I'm really disappointed and I don't know what to do other than stay on old versions of Firefox as long as I can.
I communicated to the mozilla people who got in touch with me that there will not be a crippled DownThemAll!, at least not from me.
"Just to clarify: We did not port it to the WebExtensions API, nor do we think it is possible to port it in any significant manner to the WebExtensions API..."
https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/downthemall/r...
http://www.downthemall.net/downthemall-3-0-5/
“After a rather long long time, with many new things to address such as Australis, e10s, limited time we could spend on the project, a little lack of motivation after mozilla required mostly pointless signatures and announced to kill XUL add-ons…” - Nils, September 2016
FYI, uBlock is abandonware[2].
[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases (search for "webext")
[2] https://github.com/chrisaljoudi/uBlock/releases ("released this on 31 May 2015")
For me, if DownThemAll isn't one of them, I'll either stay with the last compatible version of firefox or, more likely switch to one of the alternatives that does support it and the others that have become such an integral part of my browsing behaviour.
I've been burned so often by the changes made in recent years, so much so that I have next to zero loyalty to them anymore. And I've been using firefox since the browser was still part of the Mozilla suite.