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
- Microsoft, Already Borrowing 3 Billion Dollars a Month, is Trying to Cause Many People to Resign
- MSN (i.e. Microsoft) and others openly admit it
- IBM is Obliterating Fedora
- "Fedora releases were shipping with an increasing number of bugs on launch day even while I was using it for a several year stretch."
- Red Hat Layoffs Expected in 5 Days (Monday)
- "They will announce and proceed with the cuts on 08/11."
- They Want You To Talk About Trump or 'The Other Bill' in Relation to Trafficking of Underage Girls for Sexual Exploitation
- Just something we wanted to say...
- How to Quadruple Your "Goodwill" Value and Grow Your (Wall) Street "Value" From $152B to $4000B Without Producing a Single Successful Product/Service
- The longer it goes on for, the bigger the implosion will be
-
- Slopfarms Are Typically Fake News
- Slopfarms typically relay falsehoods
- Gemini Links 06/08/2025: Replacing a Pocket Watch and Buying in Bulk
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 06, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, August 06, 2025
- August Hits Microsoft Hard: Dead Divisions, Dead Products, Layoffs Again (on Week 1)
- Microsoft's debt is soaring
- Slopwatch: Slow Day for LLM Slop, Serial Sloppers Still at It in Their Slopfarms
- The Web would be better off if those sites went offline
- Links 06/08/2025: Substack in Trouble, Slop Sceptic Shira Perlmutter Seeks Emergency Injunction Pending Appeal
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 06/08/2025: Pinephone, Reverse-Engineering, and More
- Links for the day
- Links 06/08/2025: Faked Values of Slop Companies and Government Bailouts
- Links for the day
- FOSSY 2025 Conference Safety
- The GAFAM-funded FOSSY 2025 is over
- Microsoft's Favourite Pay-to-Say 'Analyst' Firm Has Just Collapsed
- 'Analysts' that helped propel Microsoft to fictional values akin to Ponzi schemes
- Ask Google (Jeeves)
- What does Google "know", not know, or would rather forget (or embellish)?
- Staying Productive
- Two very reputable institutions recently told us they now reckon Microsoft is somehow funding those SLAPPs against us
- A Blow for Patent Ambitions of Bill Epsteingate
- It's about money
- 66 Countries Where More People Use iPhones (or iPads) Than Microsoft Windows, According to statCounter Data
- a list of countries where iOS now exceeds Windows
- Apple's iOS Bigger Than Microsoft Windows in Many Countries
- This ought to alarm Microsoft
- The Mainstream Media Talks About Spotify Share Price and Price Hikes, Not Its Debt Increasing by About 33% in Just 12 Months
- Spotify isn't a company in good shape
- New "US Editor for The Register" is 80% Microsoft and Windows
- they typically just treat Microsoft like the "Holy Grail" of "IT"
- Microsoft is Apparently Sending Gag Orders or NDAs to Staff That Got Laid Off (“We were told not to post on LinkedIn. Not to say anything.”)
- The main lies we keep seeing
- Richard M. Stallman Has Published AI Memos Since 1980 (45 Years Ago)
- Back when the term AI actually meant something
- Gemini Links 06/08/2025: BitTorrent and Feedly Bots
- Links for the day
- Windows All-Time Lows, Android All-Time Highs in Kuwait
- New lows for Windows can be found in many countries this month
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 05, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, August 05, 2025
- Openwashing Slop... Using Slop!
- So get ready for "open" "hey hi" with its proprietary models to engage in openwashing, helped by serial sloppers who use the LLMs to produce fake 'articles'.
- On "Tragedy of the Commons in the Production of Digital Artifacts"
- There's a better way to do things. None of that should involve GAFAM.
- Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Opel Zoo near Frankfurt and Alhena 5.2.5
- Links for the day
- The Inflammatory Influence of Social Control Media Giants
- CPC's ByteDance says it's cool
- Microsoft v Planet Earth
- Is Microsoft profitable?
- IRC Turns 37
- Internet Relay Chat (short: IRC), which started in 1988, turns 37 this month
- Shortly After a Microsofter Took Over The Register as Editor in Chief Microsoft Tim (Tim Anderson) is Back and It's Still Microsoft Propaganda, Sometimes Funded by Microsoft
- Notice his focus
- Stricter Enforcement of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act is Sorely Needed
- Who's keeping track anyway?
- Calling Plagiarism "Intelligence" is Pure Genius, Brilliance!
- One thing to "like" (or dislike) about LLMs is how they're falsely marketed using various buzzwords
- Geminispace Promises Simplicity But Also Provides a "bunch of forums that get flood-filled by agitation against the very essence of Gemini itself"
- claims of stagnation in Geminispace started because of a person who spent a long time agitating against GNU/Linux as well
- Zimbabweans Aren't Into Windows or Microsoft
- This cannot be good news for GAFAM
- Microsoft's Washington Layoffs Aren't Everything, They're Definitely Not Happening in Just One State in the US
- Washington is just more strict with WARN notices
- Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Lagrange v1.18.6, No Stagnation in Geminispace, and Fake Coding (Slop)
- Links for the day
- The Register's Editor in Chief (Who Left for Google) Told Me "AI" Was a Bubble, But Now The Register Gets Paid to Participate in Inflating This Bubble
- A lot of the online media is a scam
- The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
- I decided to check how they're doing as a business
- Some Cola Formulas Aren't Secret, But the Barrier is the Branding
- That's the power of the channel/distribution, marketing, and brand recognition (accomplished through endless marketing)
- Introducing Mission:Libre and FreeXR (and BreakXR)
- efforts that accompany the foundations put there by the Free Software Foundation in 1985
- Slopwatch: WebProNews, LinuxSecurity, and Some Success Stories
- Google News still has a slopfarm issue
- Links 05/08/2025: Hey Hi (AI) Passing Fads and GAFAM "Embracing the Military"
- Links for the day
- Links 05/08/2025: Samsung and Microsoft Layoffs
- Links for the day
- Rumours of Mass Layoffs at Red Hat Next Week (August 11th, 2025)
- The eleventh means next Monday
- IBM is Shutting Down (Piecewise)
- IBM is basically being liquidated
- The Debian Language Police Department (PD)
- "there has never been complaints about anyone that was offended by this -off package"
- Tesla's Debt More Than Doubled in 2 Years and the Company Will Operate in the Red (at a Loss) Quite Soon
- If your first-quarter net income is $409 million and you borrow billions from banks, plus interest to pay on those loans, then you're not far from returning to losses
- When The Register MS Says "Linux Backdoor" It Actually Talks About Malware
- The leading story in The Register US/MS this morning is Microsoft
- Microsoft Windows Fell to 19% "Market Share" in Montenegro
- Microsoft must be well aware of this trend
- Why We Also Include Gopher Links in Our Gemini (Protocol) Links
- There are still many people who use Gopher to relay their messages (like blog posts). They're mostly technical people.
- Shouting is an Indication of a Lack of Convincing Argument
- Beware what they are attempting to distract from
- Mongolia: Microsoft Windows at All-Time Low
- in 2009 when Windows was at 99.45% in Mongolia the company was "worth" less than 200 billion dollars
- About a Quarter of Today's "linux" News in Google News Came From One Domain and It's a Slopfarm
- Not kidding!
- Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Zombie Threat and Switching to NixOS
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 04, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, August 04, 2025
- ChatGPT in Trouble
- Watch out for the newer buzzwords
- The Register MS Links to the Wrong statCounter Page
- They link to older data
- Dr. Andy Farnell Explains How Google Turned From "Librarian" Into "Oracle", Telling Us What to Think Instead of Where to Look
- Google was always a lousy librarian
- Microsoft Layoffs Continue in August 2025
- If Microsoft is doing so well, how come about 10 rounds of layoffs in about 7 months in 2025?