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Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

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Re: Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

#101

Post by mkirklions »

zaarn wrote: post #96
mkirklions wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apple's primary aim by limiting the access to the store isn't to make devs miserable, it's to have users trust the app store. What about when they force devs to buy their multi-thousand dollar ecosystem? That has nothing to do with quality apps. Also, by excluding the poor from developing for iOS, they are widening income inequality.

That's an entirely separate decision from deciding to control what goes into the shop and by that not really part of the discussion, isn't it? And Apple asking for a fee to allow uploading apps is also a separate issue, after all, Mozilla is doing it without a fee by using volunteers to screen apps. Both points are true and a problem but it's distracting from what this is about, no?

These arent separate, situations do not exist in a bubble.

These are Apple taking aggressive measures toward developers. Squeezing them and potentially blocking them from perfectly legitimate apps.

Re: Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

#102

Post by modzu »

soapdog wrote: post #70

Lots of heat in this thread... So, Addons are mostly reviewed by volunteers. Sometimes people make mistakes. The best course of action is to try to reach out for the AMO team on IRC or their mailing list. - Addons forum is at https://discourse.mozilla.org/c/add-ons - All contact info for AMO dev stuff is at: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons#Con... - Developer Hub for addons is at: https://addo…

this. from experience, the group at AMO does a good job even tho it's unpraised and when working well it's basically transparent. so i don't think they deserve all this heat (unless attempts to correct the mistake reveal some actual conspiracy ;)

Re: Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

#104

Post by zaarn »

mkirklions wrote: post #101
zaarn wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an entirely separate decision from deciding to control what goes into the shop and by that not really part of the discussion, isn't it? And Apple asking for a fee to allow uploading apps is also a separate issue, after all, Mozilla is doing it without a fee by using volunteers to screen apps. Both points are true and a problem but it's distracting from what this is about, no?

These arent separate, situations do not exist in a bubble. These are Apple taking aggressive measures toward developers. Squeezing them and potentially blocking them from perfectly legitimate apps.

They don't exist in a bubble, correct, they are however separate, but again, this is not what this is about.

It still means you can separate the good ideas that apple has from the bad ideas. Not everything Apple does is inherently bad or evil because they do some evil or bad things, no?

And this is simply extracting the good part of apple's store policy; patrolling and checking apps so that users can trust what is in the store.

Re: Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

#105

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

mkirklions wrote: post #92
zaarn wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misunderstood there. Apple's primary aim by limiting the access to the store isn't to make devs miserable, it's to have users trust the app store. Mozilla's aim is (likely) the same. If a user finds an addon in Mozilla's addon store, then Mozilla wants the user to fully trust that this addon will not violate their privacy in unexpected ways or install malware on their computer or otherwise interfere with…

>Apple's primary aim by limiting the access to the store isn't to make devs miserable, it's to have users trust the app store. What about when they force devs to buy their multi-thousand dollar ecosystem? That has nothing to do with quality apps. Also, by excluding the poor from developing for iOS, they are widening income inequality.

I develop for iOS on a secondhand Mac mini and commodity keyboard, mouse and monitor. Total cost well under £600, let alone “multi-thousands of dollars”.

Re: Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

#106

Post by SilasX »

avian wrote: post #33

> Release and Beta versions of Firefox do not allow unsigned extensions to be installed I'm really disappointed at Mozilla regarding this. I recently wanted to do some Firefox customization for my own private use (not even an extension, I just wanted to have some visual indication of which Firefox windows belong to which profile). I was surprised to find out that even just a header .png in a theme can't be loaded loc…

Yes, I was livid when they did this because there was an extension (Pentadactyl) where I had to maintain compatibility myself by recompiling it.

I wrote this Hitler parody about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taGARf8K5J8

Text version: officers tell Hitler that he has to upgrade FF because of bugs but warn it breaks his extension again. He dismisses the importance until they break the news he can't install the recompiled extension even if he says it's okay in about::config. Hitler goes ballistic about how that defeats FF's mission to give control back to users.

Climax: "If every tweak must be personally approved by Mozilla employees, why not just shrink-wrap the browser and make me buy it from Microsoft at Best Buy?"

Epilogue (real-life): Mozilla has now broken extensions so badly that you can't recover some of Pentadactyl's functionality, like customizing key commands. (At least, they won't take effect while on a tab until that tab's JS has loaded. Seriously?)

But hey, at least I get Looking Glass forced on me with a cryptic message that makes me think I've been hacked. That's worth the tradeoff, right?

Re: Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

#107

Post by SilasX »

zaarn wrote: post #79
funklebunkle wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple does the very same thing. I understand that Apple does everything in its power to make the life of developers miserable (such as requiring a Mac to be used for iOS development), but Mozilla were supposed to be the good guys on the web.

I think you misunderstood there. Apple's primary aim by limiting the access to the store isn't to make devs miserable, it's to have users trust the app store. Mozilla's aim is (likely) the same. If a user finds an addon in Mozilla's addon store, then Mozilla wants the user to fully trust that this addon will not violate their privacy in unexpected ways or install malware on their computer or otherwise interfere with…

But what about the whole "give users control of their machines again"? What if I have an extension originating elsewhere -- say, because I'm a sympathetic person Mozilla claims they encourage learning to code -- and I want to bypass the usual protections.

They still won't let me install it.

Re: Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

#108

Post by the8472 »

zaarn wrote: post #67
avian wrote: post #33

> Release and Beta versions of Firefox do not allow unsigned extensions to be installed I'm really disappointed at Mozilla regarding this. I recently wanted to do some Firefox customization for my own private use (not even an extension, I just wanted to have some visual indication of which Firefox windows belong to which profile). I was surprised to find out that even just a header .png in a theme can't be loaded loc…

IIRC you can install unsigned extensions in the dev and nightly as well as unbranded versions of firefox (usually the last option means compiling it yourself). Mozilla is, to some extend understandably, concerned with the image of Firefox and patrolling what Addons are available in the store is part of that. Apple does the very same thing.

> Mozilla is, to some extend understandably, concerned with the image of Firefox and patrolling what Addons are available in the store is part of that.

This is a non-sequitur. Reviewing things on their addon store has nothing to do with requiring a mozilla signature for sideloading.

Re: Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

#109

Post by smt88 »

otter-in-a-suit wrote: post #95
avian wrote: post #33

> Release and Beta versions of Firefox do not allow unsigned extensions to be installed I'm really disappointed at Mozilla regarding this. I recently wanted to do some Firefox customization for my own private use (not even an extension, I just wanted to have some visual indication of which Firefox windows belong to which profile). I was surprised to find out that even just a header .png in a theme can't be loaded loc…

Waterfox should be able to do it: https://www.waterfoxproject.org/en-US/

Cursory reminder that using Waterfox is very risky[1] because it takes a huge amount of labor (more than Waterfox has) to secure a browser and because forks tend to be behind the latest patches.

1. https://www.howtogeek.com/335712/update-why-you-shouldnt-use...

Re: Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

#110

Post by megous »

mkirklions wrote: post #92
zaarn wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misunderstood there. Apple's primary aim by limiting the access to the store isn't to make devs miserable, it's to have users trust the app store. Mozilla's aim is (likely) the same. If a user finds an addon in Mozilla's addon store, then Mozilla wants the user to fully trust that this addon will not violate their privacy in unexpected ways or install malware on their computer or otherwise interfere with…

>Apple's primary aim by limiting the access to the store isn't to make devs miserable, it's to have users trust the app store. What about when they force devs to buy their multi-thousand dollar ecosystem? That has nothing to do with quality apps. Also, by excluding the poor from developing for iOS, they are widening income inequality.

You can use qemu to run macOS. It's probably agaist ToS, but it works. But it's best to just ignore Apple if you can. It's their problem anyway, if they want to discourage cross-platform developers that don't own or have interest in their HW.
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