Mozilla has announced that it’s to remove support for the majority of Firefox browser plugins.
According to the company, the plan is to put a stopper on most plugins by the end of 2016.
The move follows Google Chrome’s recent departure from plugin support for services such as Java and Silverlight.
Microsoft’s new Edge browser, which launched with Windows 10, has similarly eschewed plugin support.
Mozilla says that it will no longer support plugins based on the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface, but it will make an exception for Flash.
“Since Adobe Flash is still a common part of the web experience for most users, we’ll continue to support Flash within Firefox as an exception to the general public policy,” says Benjamin Smedberg, Mozilla’s manager of Firefox quality engineering.
Smedberg continues: “Mozilla and Adobe will continue to collaborate to bring improvements to the Flash experience on Firefox, including on stability and performance, features and security architecture.”
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Mozilla also confirmed that new platforms such as 64-bit Firefox for Windows won’t launch with plugin support.
That’s because they don’t need to support legacy users, as they’re completely fresh.
Are you glad to see NPAPI plugins heading for the trash heap? Are you counting down the days until Adobe’s Flash is finally killed off too? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
