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Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

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Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#51

Post by Someone1234 »

throw7 wrote: post #43

Insecure? Bullshit. They should remove http then. I'd respect them if they just said they're lazy and don't want to support the ftp protocol.

> They should remove http then.

They're working on it. It has and will continue to be deprecated with ever increasing security warnings.

But the reason why FTP got pulled and HTTP hasn't is simply usage. The FTP client in browsers is terrible, and anyone using FTP professionally is using a better client (e.g. multiple connection modes, resume downloads, concurrent streams, etc) or has already migrated to FTPS or SFTP.

FTP just adds attack surface and maintenance cost.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#52

Post by jcranmer »

arkitaip wrote: post #46
liquidify wrote: post #3

I'm curious as to how many people use FTP in the browser?

I would genuinely be surprised if even 5% of users used FTP in the last year. But damn do I wish they kept the feature in; Firefox should distinguish itself as the tech worker's browser, sorta like a forensics live CD that has every imaginable tool you need for deep work.

The actual numbers seem to be in the region of 0.1%, according to Chrome telemetry, and my best attempt to read the Firefox telemetry myself.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#53

Post by arkitaip »

saagarjha wrote: post #39
arkitaip wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't believe they have a dysfunctional captcha (doesn't display a captcha at all). That's hilarious considering how critical n-gate is about useless tech.

I would lean towards it being a joke.

I think you are right?? The writeups are still accessible thru the nav menu.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#54

Post by wolco »

preinheimer wrote: post #13
coribuci wrote: post #8

One more reason not to use firefox. Firefox became the younger brother of Chrome. Why they can't be independent and think for themselves ?

So what are you suggesting?

He is suggesting by removing this feature to keep pace with chrome firefox is acting as the younger brother or junior partner.

Probably true in this case. I'm a little disapppinted but if I really cared I would fork the repo remove those changes and spend my life trying to manually keep things in sync. Or just use a different browser.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#55

Post by wolco »

Someone1234 wrote: post #51
throw7 wrote: post #43

Insecure? Bullshit. They should remove http then. I'd respect them if they just said they're lazy and don't want to support the ftp protocol.

> They should remove http then. They're working on it. It has and will continue to be deprecated with ever increasing security warnings. But the reason why FTP got pulled and HTTP hasn't is simply usage. The FTP client in browsers is terrible, and anyone using FTP professionally is using a better client (e.g. multiple connection modes, resume downloads, concurrent streams, etc) or has already migrated to FTPS or SFTP…

You probably don't realize many links you click are ftp links that will now be broken for you.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#56

Post by danudey »

_jal wrote: post #41
im3w1l wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firmwares, drivers, distro isos, tarballs are traditionally distributed on (anonymous) ftp. Given that such downloads should be authenticated using ftp is non-ideal though, I guess.

Yeah, this. I suppose the closest substitute will be to configure directory listings at the http server, although I suspect UX people will get their hooks in to make it pretty instead of efficient. (Ever tried to find something specific but not currently promoted on Dell's site?)

Dell's site is a nightmare. Shopping for monitors has been one of the most inexplicably complex affairs I've ever seen. It also doesn't help that any link to their US site redirects to the dell.ca front page, making it extremely difficult to follow links from forums, google searches, etc.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#57

Post by Someone1234 »

wolco wrote: post #55
Someone1234 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They should remove http then. They're working on it. It has and will continue to be deprecated with ever increasing security warnings. But the reason why FTP got pulled and HTTP hasn't is simply usage. The FTP client in browsers is terrible, and anyone using FTP professionally is using a better client (e.g. multiple connection modes, resume downloads, concurrent streams, etc) or has already migrated to FTPS or SFTP…

You probably don't realize many links you click are ftp links that will now be broken for you.

I'd realize immediately since those links would be broken. I have had:

network.ftp.enabled: false

set since it was introduced in Firefox 60 (over a year ago). I've had a total of one link broken in that time.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#59

Post by zzo38computer »

I think FTP isn't a very good protocol anyways. HTTP and Gopher are better. (HTTP does support most of the features, including authentication, uploads, etc. The thing HTTP doesn't have is proper directory listings; I wrote a document suggesting how this could be done, calling it "httpdirlist" specification; it is a new MIME type, and then each record is a list of records (formatted like a list of HTTP headers) separated by blank lines.)

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#60

Post by charlesdaniels »

gregf wrote: post #21
charlesdaniels wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it from time to time to download ISOs or source tarballs. It's handy not to have to use an external program for that.

I never seen a distro that didn't have a http mirror for those things myself. Even the ones that offer ftp.debian.org for example are accessibly over http as well.

Agreed. I can’t think of the last time I had to use FTP.
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