Mozilla News: Less Microsoft, No Persona, More Mono, and Less Intrusive Addons
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-18 16:58:13 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-18 16:58:13 UTC
Microsoft
Just days before it was due to be included in Firefox's stable version, Mozilla has announced that its Metro-mode shell for Firefox has been cancelled.
It's been a couple of years since Microsoft delivered Windows 8 and we have never seen the touch-capable "Metro" version of the Firefox browser, designed for Windows 8, that Mozilla had talked up so frequently. Google Chrome, on the other hand, has been available in a Windows 8 Metro version since 2012.
Persona
Over the years Google has started and then abandoned so mamy projects that some people like to say that the company "throws spaghetti at the wall to see what will stick." Now, as Mozilla is shifting its entire company strategy toward mobile technology and focusing on its Firefox OS platform, it may be heading in a similar direction. After touting and actively testing its Persona authentication and sign-on system, the company is stepping down its participation in the project, citing low adoption.
Mono
Mozilla and Epic Games have been working together for some time now, but it looks like they are set to take their partnership to the next level. Last year, the two companies demonstrated Unreal Engine 3, the basis for many games, running in the Firefox browser via the WebGL 3D graphics API and some offshoots of JavaScript. Now, Epic and Mozilla have announced that they are porting Unreal Engine 4 to the web.
Extensions
-
Sony recently submitted an enhancement which allows widget like functionality on Firefox OS. Dubbed gadget, it is supposed to allow easy interaction with applications from homescreen and lockscreen. Currently the implementation is being reviewed on bugzilla by the Mozilla team.
-
Early last year, I posted a piece on Mozilla radically changing its approach to plugins in the Firefox browser. Plugins and extensions are, of course, part of the reason why many of us chose to use Firefox in the first place. There is a huge ecosystem of useful ones. However, especially since Firefox moved to a rapid release cycle, extensions have cause many performance problems. For that reason, Mozilla has been steadily overhauling its process of handling extensions in Firefox, especially when it comes to extensions that are automatically enabled.
-
Mozilla announced back in January 2013 that it planned to eventually require all plugins to be ‘Click to Play’ by default, meaning that users will need to click on plugins in-page in order to enable them and view their content.
JPEG
-
Mozilla has announced a new open-source JPEG encoding library, which it says could significantly reduce the amount of network traffic used by the web.
Misc.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Why Would Anybody be Afraid of Talking to Richard Stallman?
- We need to get rid of the baseless stigma
- EPO on Strike
- organisation operating outside the Rule of Law
- Affirming What We Already Know: Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is Profoundly Incompetent
- "SRA ordered to pay solicitor £50k in costs after failed prosecution"
-
- Gemini Links 30/01/2026: Love and Cultivation, Gemtext Anchors
- Links for the day
- Will Jim Zemlin Also Sell His Daughter or Only the "Linux" Brand (and Linux Foundation) to Bill Epsteingate?
- Torvalds "ate a bug"
- The Epstein Files Don't Say the Ages of Those "Russian Girls" Bill Epsteingate Exploited
- This E-mail was sent around the time an arrest was made for pedophilia
- Only One in 33 EPO Staff Voting on the Strike Opposed It
- Kudos to all those who participated in the strike
- Still Hoping for "Slop Zero" in 2026
- We've also noticed that linuxiac.com shows a glimmer of hope this week
- Links 30/01/2026: Waymo Crashing Into 'Small People' (Children), Microsoft at Risk Due to Slop Debt
- Links for the day
- Amutable’s Management and Founders Are 100% Microsoft!
- It'll be focused on promoting Microsoft's agenda in everything it does
- IBM Tries to Get Rid of Workers Without Paying Them (and It Appears to be Working)
- be sure to speak to people who actually work there
- He Has No Money, But He Has Power, He Has a Voice
- That's why they envy and attack him
- Free Software in Swiss Media This Week
- RMS is still going places with his Migros bag (Swiss retail giant)
- TV Programs Disseminate False Numbers of Microsoft Layoffs (About 31,000 Laid Off Last Year, Not Including PIPs, Contractors and so on)
- large-scale layoffs are inevitable, no matter how long Microsoft delays or procrastinates
- Links 30/01/2026: Microsoft's "OpenAI Is Headed For Bankruptcy" and Bitcoin Crashes
- Links for the day
- Amutable is a Microsoft Proxy Like Xamarin, With Some IBM/Red Hat Staff Added for Good Measure
- Amutable chasing money and trying to impose TPM etc. on everybody
- The Letter Sent to the Ringleader of the Alicante Mafia This Week
- Call for industrial actions to stop the salary erosion of EPO staff
- Oracle's Debt Exploded by 22 Billion Dollars in 6 Months, the Ponzi Scheme With Scam Altman Was Classic 'Pump and Dump'
- The founder of Oracle now uses his wealth for right-wing ideological reasons, nothing else
- Facebook ('Meta') is Dead Meat, This GAFAM Company's Debt Exploded by Almost 33 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months (11 Billion Per Month)
- we can expect many sales/contracts to get canceled
- Australia's top nurse takes on Musk, Zuckerberg & rogue health influencers, birthkeepers
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- The "Alicante Mafia" - Part XVI - The Associates of Mr. Cocainegate Don't Want to Talk About Cocainegate (Right of Reply)
- Nobody wanted to talk about cocaine at the EPO
- The "Open Source" (Corporate Openwashing) Fake Community Rejects Democracy, Open Source Initiative is in Effect Dead
- This is basically the end of the OSI
- Cracks and Holes in Microsoft's Slop Bubble (Also, Windows is Declining)
- "More Bad News For Xbox As Microsoft Blames Gaming For An Annual Decline In Its PC Business"
- Microsoft's Debt Exploded by More Than 20 Billion Dollars This Past Year, Says Microsoft
- Expect more mass layoffs
- Strike at the EPO Today
- Next month we'll start a new EPO series
- State of the Slop and The Register MS Runs Ads as 'Articles'
- Yesterday we could not find much slop about "Linux"
- Gemini Links 30/01/2026: Announcing Crossyword and SYN Attack
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 29, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, January 29, 2026
- Gemini Links 29/01/2026: Naps, Letting Go, and Terribly Cold Weather
- Links for the day
- Links 29/01/2026: Kennedy Center Officials Resigning and Amazon to Cut 16,000 Jobs
- Links for the day
- Goodbyes to Red Hat and IBM
- PIPs let them do the same with less "wasted" on severance or with obscene narrative-shaping
- RMS Was Right 35 Years Ago
- Stallman’s viewpoints have remained the same
- The Need to Understand the Projection Tactics Against RMS
- There's an old and common saying (or "wisdom") about who's guilty when there's a fart in elevators (lifts)
- Links 29/01/2026: Neocities Is Blocked by Microsoft, “Intellectual Freedom Centers” as the New "Intelligent Design"
- Links for the day
- Microsoft XBox Dying Not Only as a Console, Reveals Microsoft
- Microsoft is trying to rebrand or repurpose the brand
- Don't be Mistaken, Microsoft Boasts About Money That Does Not Exist and Revenue (Buying From Oneself!) Is Not Income
- the company's debt grew
- Fedora is IBM and There's Hardly Any Community Left
- It's more like an onboarding mechanism for unpaid labour at (and for) IBM
- IBM's Financial Performance in IBM's Own Words: Money Down, Debt Up Sharply
- IBM isn't a healthy company
- In Dominica, GNU/Linux Has Risen to All-Time High in 2026
- a lot of America is moving to Free software this year
- The "Alicante Mafia" - Part XV - EPO is on Strike Tomorrow, Lots to be Angry About (Except Money)
- We'll soon finish the series
- Gemini Links 29/01/2026: "Lady Audley's Secret" and "The Value Of Our Fear" (Carney's Speech)
- Links for the day
- Emmanuel Macron on Europe's GAFAM Addiction/Dependence: "There is No Such Thing as Happy Vassalage"
- Microsoft has long worked to prevent commodification
- It's Official, Mass Layoffs at IBM Again (2026)
- In a matter of days we'll just see how much IBM's debt has grown
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, January 28, 2026
- Laos and Microsoft: About 10% Windows, 0% Bing
- There are many more nations like it
- EPO Technical Meetings Show no Breakthroughs, a Strike Goes Ahead This Friday
- Apparently there was another (fourth) meeting today [...] The industrial actions are working already
- Google News as the Sole Source of Slop About "Linux", a Feeder of Slopfarms or Serial Sloppers
- At least it's no longer hard to 'contain' the slop problem, knowing which domains are the culprits and seeing that Google is their main 'feeder'
- IBM to Announce 'Results' Shortly, Expect Lots of Chaff Like "Quantum" and "Hey Hi" (Nothing Material to Show)
- We're still seeing layoffs and an exodus
- Links 28/01/2026: ChatGPT Has Financial Problems, White House Sharing Fakes (or Deepfakes) in Official Accounts/Sites
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 28/01/2026: FlatCube NES Port Finished and "Why I Still Write on the Small Web in 2026"
- Links for the day
- Upcoming Techrights Series About the Public Appearances of Richard M. Stallman (RMS) in the United States
- we plan to drop all pretences about "Open Source" and instead focus on Software Freedom
- Upcoming Techrights Series About the Experiences of EPO Insiders
- We'll start the new series some time next week
- Links 28/01/2026: Microsoft Ordered to Stop Spying on School Children, Apple's Brand Tarnished by Its Complicity With Human Rights Abusers
- Links for the day
- Upcoming Techrights Series About the Failure of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to Stop Hired Guns Who Work for Americans That Abuse Women
- The SRA has demonstrated nothing but considerable incompetence at many levels
- The "Alicante Mafia" - Part XIV - The EPO Vice-President Steve Rowan and the Hidden Alicante Connection is a Big Deal
- We'll soon take a closer look at Ernst
- Gemini Links 28/01/2026: Particle and AirMIDI
- Links for the day
- Amandine Jambert (EDPB/CNIL/FSFE), motive for lying, trust in blockchain and encryption
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 27, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, January 27, 2026