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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
- 12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
- There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
- This New Determination on a Case Echoes the Modus Operandi of Microsoft's Serial Strangler vs Techrights (Its Online Decision/Judgment Says Truth and Public Interest Defend the Publisher)
- Noel Anthony Clarke hopefully has enough money left to pay his victims, which include the publishers
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- Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
- Vista 11 is going down rather than up
- Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
- Links for the day
- More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
- Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
- Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
- Links for the day
- Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
- The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
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- Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025
- Richard Stallman (RMS) Was Right About "Sideloading" in 1996
- We now have computers that treat booting GNU/Linux like an act of "Sideloading"
- Panama: Windows Down From 97% "Market Share" to Less Than 30%
- In 2009, Windows was measured at 97.24% (compared to 62.32% right now or less than 30% if one also counts Android)
- The UEFI 9/11 - Part I - Introduction to Impending Catastrophe (Microsoft Preventing People From Booting Non-Windows Systems)
- eight-part series
- Why Techrights is Slow Today (Bot Floods)
- We don't know if those bots are connected to LLMs (we have not checked), but that is a possibility
- Slopwatch: DDoS Slop, LinuxBSDos.com Spam, and Slopfarms in Google News, Including webpronews.com
- Among the news we also found fakes, albeit not so much today
- Links 26/08/2025: "Ballooning Debt" in France and "Transnational Repression in the UK"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 26/08/2025: Listening to Alcest and Google Doing Evil (Users Installing Software is "Sideloading" and Prohibited)
- Links for the day
- Links 26/08/2025: DNS Tampering and TikTok Layoffs
- Links for the day
- Microsoft's Windows "Market Share" Overestimated
- Microsoft's income sources are shrinking
- We Shall See...
- My wife and I are hardly the first victims of Brett Wilson LLP
- Going Offline
- There was life before the Net
- The Register MS Has Apparently Shut Down Its Office
- It is basically a fake address on the face of it
- There Are Also Expectations of IBM Layoffs Very Soon With "Narrative Control."
- Some of them mention Red Hat and how IBM failed to achieve anything substantial with that acquisition
- After at Least Two Rounds of Mass Layoffs in August Microsoft Said to Have "September Layoff Confirmed - Performance Based"
- Those "M5 level meetings" sound plausible
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 25, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, August 25, 2025
- Slopwatch: Slopfarms All Over Google News and Real News Sites Pushed Out of Visibility
- Google News is dying (as a tool of value)
- Gemini Links 25/08/2025: Numeric-only VM and Alhena 5.3.0
- Links for the day
- Links 25/08/2025: ‘Panama Playlists’ and Live Nation/Ticketmaster Suit Aims at Class Action
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 25/08/2025: Empathy Towards Autistic People and Old Gadgets
- Links for the day
- Links 25/08/2025: Datacentres Versus Water Supplies and "The IPv6 Divide"
- Links for the day
- Links 25/08/2025: Data Breaches, Politics, and Financial Strain
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Distros Ought to Replace Firefox (and Firefox ESR) With Something Like LibreWolf
- Perhaps it's come to replace Firefox
- Father of Julian Assange Said the US Government Was Trying to Bankrupt WikiLeaks, Now the Assange Family Promotes Fake Currencies
- Using the name for bad purposes?
- Bailing Out GAFAM, Giving Taxpayers' Money to Failing Companies, and Trying to Outlaw Lawsuits Against Them
- What would the late Lincoln have said?
- Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Inc. Lost 2 Million Dollars Last Year and Its Chief Took a Salary Increase of Almost $6,000
- Another year or two like this... and the SFC will be bankrupt [...] Hallmark of mismanagement
- The "New Techrights" Turns Two Very Soon
- Accomplishing something each year is what's important, not merely "finishing" another year
- Gulf Nations Leave Microsoft Behind
- How much lower will Microsoft stoop in an effort to raise money from oil-rich lenders?
- How to Combat IRC Trolls (in Our Experience)
- Today I want to share my experience (or knowledge) of how to deal with IRC trolls
- The Register MS Needs to Stop Participating in the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype, But It Gets Paid to Participate in This Hype
- the publisher (The Register MS) wants to have it both ways
- Gemini Links 24/08/2025: Living With Your Parents, Zürich Zoo, and Macondo
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 24, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, August 24, 2025