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Comment by callahad | Hacker News Reader

If you want to try this out, download release.xpi from the repo and drag it into Firefox.

Link: https://github.com/darrinhenein/VerticalTabs/raw/master/rele...

Is there a reason this isn't on the firefox addons site? I think it's bad practice to recommend people run arbitrary code from the internet when there's a simple alternative.

OP isn't the primary addon developer and doesn't want to steal eyes/users from his friend?

There are lots of addons that are, at least in part, distributed as blobs from github

Ahh - the OP should urge the primary developer to publish this on the addons site - it looks nice!

It sounds like they are, or at least they've submitted a pull request. Both the original dev and OP are on github (hence its eminently forkable) and work for Mozilla.

TIL: putting code on the firefox addons site makes it secure by pure magic.

Where "magic" is a review: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/policies/re...

...and reviews by others, and a process by which known bad extensions get taken down.

It's not watertight (as the recent abuses in the chrome web store illustrate), but it's better than nothing.

AFAIK, Chrome extensions don't go through a review process. SmoothGestures was just one extension that got a new developer and then started submitting every visited url to their servers.

Well, there's certainly some central control even if it's not formal review. Of course, review wouldn't catch everything anyway (I think the ability to identify and block bad actors is more important than the a priori review).

It gives a clear path to revocation of bad actors as well as future updates.

It also gives a ton of power to a few large organisations at the expense of small dev shops and advanced users.

Firefox doesn't prevent you from installing code directly. I am stating what I find valuable in their add-on marketplace.

TIL: people too lazy to write three whole words are more interested in sarcasm than saying something sensible.

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