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Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

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Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#31

Post by duskwuff »

Someone wrote: post #20
yingw787 wrote: post #2

Are there security issues with FTP, or do people just not use it enough because HTTP supplants it? I haven't used FTP in a while to download files.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol#Securit... lists many issues. The worst is that FTP transmits user names and passwords in cleartext. Having said that: nowadays it isn’t uncommon to say “FTP server” for a server running SFTP, its secure replacement, so it isn’t clear to me what exactly is being removed from Firefox.

FTP is FTP.

SFTP is SFTP -- a protocol which runs over SSH -- and Firefox doesn't support that. It wouldn't really make sense for it to do so, either; SFTP more or less requires SSH authentication, making it a poor fit for a web browser.

There is FTPS (FTP + SSL/TLS), which Mozilla might support -- but that's rather rare.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#32

Post by codr7 »

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?

Flagging a problem doesn't mean you're required to provide a solution.

Mozilla has been cutting useful features from Firefox at an increasing rate, and there are no real alternatives out there.

The whole point of having multiple implementations is that they are different, and Firefox is quickly turning into Chrome with a new logo just like Internet Explorer.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#33

Post by rhencke »

jovial_cavalier wrote: post #28
yingw787 wrote: post #2

Are there security issues with FTP, or do people just not use it enough because HTTP supplants it? I haven't used FTP in a while to download files.

Why is this comment grey?

Your monitor is likely running low on black ink.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#36

Post by arkitaip »

Arubis wrote: post #30
getpolarized wrote: post #15

I love discussions about browsers on Hacker News! They're amazing. Half the people ranting how some insanely complicated technical decision is going to ruin the world, the other half yelling at them that this is necessary, others ranting about how the vendor is evil for some reason, etc. Just lovely!

You're going to love http://n-gate.com/ .

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.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#37

Post by saagarjha »

jcranmer wrote: post #27
yingw787 wrote: post #2

Are there security issues with FTP, or do people just not use it enough because HTTP supplants it? I haven't used FTP in a while to download files.

The entirety of changes to one of the files in the past 13 years is here: https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/log/tip/netwerk/strea... There's more changes on nsFtpConnectionThread.cpp: https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/log/tip/netwerk/proto... Looking at those changes, it's clear that there has been very little substantive modifications to the FTP code itself, as opposed to keeping up with style guide change…

Perhaps they should take the opportunity to rewrite it in Rust.

Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox

#39

Post by saagarjha »

arkitaip wrote: post #36
Arubis wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to love http://n-gate.com/ .

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.
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