Mozilla has cultivated one of the most interesting and healthiest ecosystems for extension developers around its popular Firefox browser. The problems with this, of course, is that whenever Mozilla releases a new version of Firefox, developers have to make sure that their software is compatible. For the next release of its browser, Mozilla aims to make sure that 90% of those add-ons that make up the top 95% of add-on usage will be compatible with the latest version of Firefox. The release of Firefox 3.1 is still a while off, but currently only 28% of the top extensions are ready for the transition.
According to Mozilla's Justin Scott, 861 add-ons make up 95% of the total usage, while the other 5% are distributed among close to 5000 add-ons. 94% of the top add-ons are currently compatible with Firefox 3.0.
According to Mozilla's compatibility dashboard, as of today, only about 28% of the top 861 extensions are compatible with the latest builds of Firefox 3.1.
Currently, Mozilla's evangelism team is trying to reach out to all Firefox developers to make sure that everybody is ready by the time Firefox 3.1 is released. The release date for Firefox 3.1 is currently a moving target, but the second beta version should be available to the public by the end of this month, which might be followed by a third beta before the final version is released.
Some extensions, of course, are abandoned by their developers over time, so it might not be possible for Mozilla to get to the 95% mark for Firefox 3.1, but given the importance of Firefox and the extension ecosystem around it, it is good to see them reach out to developers proactively. For developers, getting ready for 3.1 should also be a priority, as Firefox users tend to update their browser very quickly after a new version is released.
For more information about the transition to Firefox 3.1 for extension developers, have a look at Mozilla's 'Add-on Compatability Center,' which will soon also feature additional tools for developers.
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all Read/WriteWeb posts
yes this is irritating even Firefox says even beta versions also can't support installed add-ons with Firefox3.Developers make sure that all add-ons are compatible with Firefox3.1 and start working for users when Firefox3.1 installed without any problems.
Posted by: venkat | November 13, 2008 10:17 PM
Last update broke Ubiquity, some sort of memory leak that made the browser so slow. I had to uninstall the plug-in, these updates surely discourages a lot of plug-in installation.
Posted by: Diamonds | November 14, 2008 9:38 AM
I would rather say: Please... Mozilla build developer tools to build extension (you know eclipse plugin system?), building extensions requires a lot of personal energy because the platform is a bulk of xml,xul,rdf and in the 21st century we need tools.
Look at the source of tab mix plus, and see how the developer needs to spend a lot of time to make his extension compatible to everything!
I think the Mozilla guys are the lazy here.
Posted by: srw | November 14, 2008 5:18 PM
Yes! Build tools please!!!!
Posted by: brutuscat | November 17, 2008 6:39 AM
Well, I would also like to add on specific that, Firefox 3 and newer versions need to get compatible with the Password Bank and Vista. There are cases where Firefox 3 and updates, crash on vista. And the new updates do not take the information from the Password Bank. Firefox needs to take note of this.
Posted by: Priyanka Shitole | November 19, 2008 8:26 AM
I cannot wait to see the new update of FireFox. Currently using the 3.0.4 is a great experience so 3.1 hope would be greater!
Posted by: Mac @ Motorcycle Fairings | November 19, 2008 2:04 PM