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by _frog 3240 days ago
> If I wanted voice search, file sharing and/or note taking I would find the appropriate piece of software for that task and install it separately.

The good thing is that these are all separate browser extensions, none of which are bundled by default. So that's exactly the case.
1 comments
jacquesm 3240 days ago
For now. And then because not enough people install them they will be bundled by default. This has happened over and over, for instance with sync, pocket and so on.

The whole idea behind test pilot stuff is to trial stuff intended for future inclusion in the main distribution, getting it force-fed to be able to claim a large installed base is the logical next step.

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thristian 3240 days ago
You say that, but I've heard nothing about Tab Center (the Test Pilot vertical-tab sidebar) being folded into newer versions of Firefox. Luckily, a community member forked the old code and ported it to be a WebExtension so it still works with Firefox Nightly, but it really needs to be built-in to the browser for maximum polish.
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jacquesm 3240 days ago
There is the perfectly functional tree style tab extension. That's another waste of resources.

Really, Mozilla resource allocation is a mystery to me.

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482794793792894 3240 days ago
They are trying to move away from the old extension API (because maintaining that ate up a crap ton of resources, so don't come up with that move being a waste of resources) and Tree-Style Tabs is not yet compatible with this new API.

The Vertical Tabs test pilot thing was them demonstrating that it could be done (including to themselves, they need to test these APIs) and giving the community something to work with, should no other tree tab extensions crop up before the deprecation of the old API.

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noisem4ker 3240 days ago
>The Vertical Tabs test pilot thing was [...] to test these APIs

Except that Tab Center wasn't a way for them to test the new WebExt APIs, as it was still based on XUL. See here: https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/whats-all-this-abo...

>maintaining [the old extension API] ate up a crap ton of resources, so don't come up with that move being a waste of resources

Arguably not a waste if that meant preserving the most powerful extension environment out there, and also one of the very few reasons for people to stay with Firefox.

Signed: a Firefox user

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addicted 3240 days ago
The old extensions were not compatible with e10s.

If the Firefox team wanted to improve speed/security/modularity, etc. they had to ditch the old extension model.

It sucks, but necessary.

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jameskegel 3240 days ago
EXACTLY. This is just like that little IM Client 'ello' or whatever that came bundled in the last version. I used it for a few days and said exactly what you did as I uninstalled and went back to a different browser.
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