Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dblohm7 1459 days ago
No.

> that's why they've killed XUL

We couldn't deliver a multiprocess browser without doing it.

> about:config for the android version

I completely supported this and continue to do so. GeckoView on Android works completely differently than desktop Firefox, and about:config's semantics are not identical between the two. A few of us were interested in offering an alternative that gave users a way to make adjustments in a way that was "safe," but as you can imagine that has never been a management priority.
3 comments
Dylan16807 1459 days ago
> We couldn't deliver a multiprocess browser without doing it.

So uh. What was that whole thing about making all the extensions rewrite their code to support multiprocess?

Which many extensions did, putting in huge amounts of work, only to be told shortly after that XUL was going away.

https://web.archive.org/web/20191220054834/https://developer...

link
pseudalopex 1458 days ago
> We couldn't deliver a multiprocess browser without doing it.

But you did.[1]

[1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis#Add-ons_Schedule

link
throwaway0x7E6 1459 days ago
>We couldn't deliver a multiprocess browser without doing it.

even if the management understood that advanced extensions were a major factor for choosing Firefox over the alternatives and were willing to dedicate enough time/people/money to tackling the issue?

link
dblohm7 1459 days ago
Yes. It was an intractable problem.
link
throwaway0x7E6 1459 days ago
well, shit. I concede that particular point then.

my presumption of malice was primarily based on what followed - crippled android addons, forced addon signing on non-Nightly, upcoming adoption of manifest v3. put together, the poweruser experience we had in 2015 is better than the one we have now. and unlike XUL, the only explanation I see for all of these is either malice or stupidity.

link