null wrote:
David E. Ross wrote:
On 7/6/2017 4:11 PM, [email protected] wrote:
I'm running SeaMonkey v2.46 on a Windows 10 Pro 64 bit system with the
Creators Update version 1703 installed.
This morning when I started SeaMonkey, it opened several tabs. Each one
said something like "SeaMonkey v2.46 would like to update your <plug-in
name> plug-in. Each of these mentioned a different plug-in.
>>>>>>John
First of all, PrefBar is an extension, not a plugin. There are
significant differences between the two. The Mozilla developers did a
serious disservice to users when they decided to lump the two together
under the term "add-on".
I was interested in your above comment because I too have always been
rather confused about the difference between an extension and a plugin,
and I'm still unclear!
Would be great if you could post some clarification of this - I'm sure
there would be others who would also find it helpful.
Answering in context...
A plug-in is an external program, which is normally installed via normal
O/S installation processes, and makes itself available to Seamonkey or
other browsers. And since it's an external program, it runs apart from
the browser, even if the browser provides the UI. Somewhere in the last
couple of weeks (perhaps in the Firefox support group), I saw a
discussion that noted that if a plugin crashes, it won't bring down the
browser.
Adobe Flash is a plugin (and in the Add-ons section, it calls itself
"Shockwave Flash", even if Shockwave is a different tool (and also a
plugin). Java (i.e., JRE) is also a plug-in (and not to be confused with
the unrelated JavaScript). Although the visibility of Java is
considerably less than it was a couple of years ago, it's still out
there, and still a productive tool. It's just that you don't want to
expose Java applications to the Internet through your browser.
The primary weakness of plug-ins is that there's no easy way of
authenticating whether code is legitimate or malicious, and both Flash
and Java have history of being vectors for malware (e.g., drive-by
downloads). Thus, developers are moving away from doing things by
plug-in. In particular, Firefox now has deprecated access to all plugins
except for Flash, and they'll be doing that to Flash by the end of the
year.
I'm currently a contributed build of Seamonkey 2.50, and I see that
there are no plugins visible in the AddOns manager (I quit running Flash
some time ago), although I think that's a development that may be more
recent than the official distribution of 2.46. In the past, my habit
has been to set permissions on a couple of plugins (such as Flash) to
request permission before executing, and explicitly setting others to
access that is permanently denied. I'm working from memory, but I know
that Citrix (via tools like GoToMeeting or GoToWebinar) provide
plug-ins, and even Microsoft Office provides plugins. For me, since I
have no felt need for access for those tools in my browser (even if I
make other use of them), it's easy deny access to everything.
Extensions are code that connect to your browser, and in the current
Mozilla architecture, normally distributed as .XPI files. The general
purpose of extensions is to extend the capacity of the browser (or in
Seamonkey's case, the mail client, as well), where the developers are
not part of the core development group, and in ways that are much more
finely tuned to user preferences. By the original Mozilla development
philosophy of "light and fast", if users want more capacity in certain
areas, the better way of doing that is to do it through extension, and
let individuals who what that capacity to install the extension
themselves, without burdening all users with a lightly-used feature.
The vast majority of extensions are distributed through
addons.mozilla.org, and dating from a couple of years ago, all
extensions there are digitally signed. I don't know if Mozilla has had
much in the way of problems, but I know that Google had problems with
their extensions system, of extensions projects that have been
abandoned, and then where malware writers take over the projects.
The other thing about extensions to be aware of is that Mozilla is in
the process of changing the API used from XUL to using the WebExtensions
API used by Google Chrome. Stuff done with WebExtensions will be
interchangeable with Chrome, but a lot of Mozilla extensions are done by
small developers (and a long-time evolution) and where they simply don't
have the capacity of re-coding their work for WebExtensions. So far,
both Seamonkey and Thunderbird are continuing to use the old API, but
some extension writers who have extensions that will run on either
Firefox or Seamonkey have announced that they're abandoning their work.
Thus, depending on the extension, you may find that extensions that work
well in Seamonkey get abandoned.
For PrefBar (and I'm an enthusiastic user), I haven't yet seen whether
the developer will move to WebExtensions (although I doubt it), or if
he'll continue XPI development for Seamonkey users.
Smith
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