“This decision mirrors actions by other modern browsers, such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, which have already removed support for legacy plugins”, he said.
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A blog post on the Foundation’s website details this process in depth, and the only NPAPI-based plugin which will be supported in Firefox past 2016 will be Adobe’s Flash. For proof, look no further to Google and now Mozilla’s decision to cut the ancient Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI), the core API that allows plugins such as Flash and Silverlight to operate.
Because Adobe Flash is still a common part of the Web experience for most users, we will continue to support Flash within Firefox as an exception to the general plugin policy. Unless Firefox has a turn in fortune, Computerworld forecasts that it will slip under the 10% mark by April 2016, by which time Chrome will have captured 35% of the browser market.
NPAPI plugins are seen as a problem due to their negative impact on a browser’s security, speed, and stability, not to mention the complexity of the code base.
Again consistent with the other browsers, especially Chrome, Mozilla says that it will be working with Adobe to bring performance and stability improvements to its Flash support.
Mozilla announces the end of NPAPI plugins in Firefox [Mozilla, via gHacks].
Firefox has been one of those browsers that has allowed users to opt for manual plugin activation. Furthermore, new Firefox platforms do not have to support an existing ecosystem of users and plugins, so platforms such as 64-bit Firefox for Windows will launch without plugin support. Chrome’s Flash does not use NPAPI, as Google was unhappy with both its performance characteristics and its security implications. This enables you to toggle plugins as and when you require.
This leaves users with no choice but to switch to another browser when they need to access plugin content on the Internet. With Firefox dropping support, too, there won’t be any mainstream, current, actively maintained browser that can handle these plugins.
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If Mozilla sticks to its update-every-six-week schedule, NPAPI support would be ditched no later than in Firefox 52, which is slated to ship December 27, 2016. What’s your take on the announcement?
