[jraph]

"Fenix MVP will not replace Fennec" (MVP meaning "Minimum Viable Product").

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/662#issuecomm...

I'm sure Fennec users will not be migrated to Fenix until extensions are supported. This would be a big fuck up and Mozilla is aware of this.

Linked bugs about the user agent seem irrelevant to this issue.

Everything will be okay. You can sleep on both ears.

[hu3]

Sorry but this seems conflicting with what callahad replied above https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20394503 when answering "Will Preview be guaranteed to support extensions before Firefox for Android goes EOL?":

> I can't make any specific commitment, but there's a lot of time between now and Firefox for Android going EOL (and we haven't committed to specific timing for that, either.)

> However, we do have concrete plans for supporting adblocking as a built-in feature in the near future (https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/96), which should make Preview more palatable to folks who rely on add-ons for that, even if only as a stopgap.

> More fundamentally, when considering major features like add-on support, we want to take the time to ensure that we're getting our design right at all relevant levels: Firefox Preview, the underlying GeckoView library, and the Gecko engine itself. And though development on Preview moves quickly, there's still a lot of design and development work yet to be done.

My understanding is that there's a good chance that Firefox 68, which supports extensions, will reach EOL before 69+ gets support for extensions.

[jraph]

I am reading this differently: it seems likely that Fenix supports extension before Firefox 68 goes EOL, but they don't want to make any announcement yet (maybe, because they don't really know what is going to happen).

I agree with you however. We don't have any guarantee at this point.

Please, Mozilla: don't EOL Fennec before supporting extensions on Fenix. This would be a huge mistake. Extensions are useful beyond adblocking. Chrome not supporting extensions on mobile is not a good reason to consider that Fenix would be good enough without support of extensions. Chrome is not good enough. If Fenix is not ready early enough, please consider releasing a version 69 of Fennec and then later versions until Fenix supports extensions.

[wtallis]

> Linked bugs about the user agent seem irrelevant to this issue.

They're relevant because that's what suggests that they aren't planning for a Fennec 69: addons.mozilla.org is currently interpreting version 69 to mean Fenix, so if Fennec gets updated to 69 they'll have broken extension support anyways. If Mozilla is abandoning Fennec at version 68 before Fenix is even close to having extension support, they probably can't be trusted to not push out Fenix to users prior to implementing extension support. Their messy transition to WebExtensions certainly provides precedent for Mozilla making this kind of fuck-up.

[callahad]

Fennec is moving to an Extended Support Release model so we can focus on Preview. This means that the engine will remain at major version 68 for the next year, but it will still receive security updates and bugfixes. And it will continue to support add-ons.

[wtallis]

Why hasn't Mozilla put out a clear statement that Fennec is EOL'd and that the replacement definitely won't be pushed out until it's ready (including support for extensions)? It would go a long way with users if Mozilla could just clearly state that Firefox for Android will be skipping versions 69 through at least ~73 due to Fenix not being ready for public consumption. Stating that extension support is not part of the MVP and failing to set a clear deadline for getting that feature back is not reassuring.

[callahad]

We did make a statement mostly to that effect on the dev-platform list back in April: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.platform...

It got picked up by a handful of news outlets, but there's just a lot of news these days, so it's easy to miss things.

[feanaro]

Honestly, it seems a bit weird to say that, on the one hand, you've made a statement to mostly that effect but then in another comment say that Mozilla can't commit to anything.

Plainly speaking, is it a possibility that Firefox on Android will lose extension support for some time in the future?

[callahad]

Support for add-ons will not be removed from Firefox for Android ("Fennec"). However, Fennec will eventually get discontinued (but not in the next year), because its code is honestly a mess.

So the question is whether or not Fennec's replacement will support add-ons when Fennec finally hits End of Life. And I know this sucks as an answer, but we're not yet ready to make public commitments on that front. That's not because we have bad news hidden up our sleeves, it's just... we're still working and designing and figuring this stuff out.

If you want to know more about the architectural mess we got ourselves into, and how we're extricating ourselves from it, I highly recommend reading through this internal presentation on the topic: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MzU9q2wCwojC0kb1eVfm...

[kevin_b_er]

I would like to point out you've not mentioned the state of Preview aka Fenix at all, only that the soon-to-be-ESR-only Fennec will continue to support add-ons.