Mozilla announces the end of NPAPI plugins in Firefox

[Petrovic]

Mozilla just announced an updated roadmap for the removal of NPAPI plugin support in Firefox and Firefox ESR. According to information posted by Benjamin Smedberg on the official Mozilla blog, plans are underway to remove NPAPI support by the end of 2016.

There is one exception to the rule and that is Adobe Flash. While support for all other NPAPI plugins is being removed in Firefox at the end of 2016, support for Adobe Flash remains available after that date.

Mozilla notes that "Adobe Flash is still a common part of the Web experience for most users" which is why the organization made the decision to make an exception in the case of Flash.

While Flash support remains available in Firefox after 2016, it is likely that it will be removed at one point in time from the browser.

Plugins such as Silverlight, Java, Unity and others will stop being supported in Firefox at the end of 2016.

The core reason given by Mozilla for the move is the following one:

Plugins are a source of performance problems, crashes, and security incidents for Web users

Mozilla announced a a close collaboration with Unity to bring Unity-based content directly in the browser without plugin requirement.

Unity announced the deprecation of its Web Player plugin which will be phased out by the company when Unity 5.4 will be released in March 2016.

While existing Web Player content remains accessible, it won't be accessible in browsers that don't support NPAPI. The new way of making content available to Internet users is through WebGL export instead which is currently available as a preview.

Mozilla mentioned furthermore that it is working with Oracle to ensure a smooth transition for websites requiring Java.

Oracle published a blog post today as well which highlights the company's Java transition plans. One option that developers and sites have is Java Web Start which is already included in the Java Runtime Environment.

Mozilla is not the first organization to announce the discontinuation of support for NPAPI plugins. Google announced in 2013 that it would deprecate support for NPAPI and Chrome 45 was the first version of the browser that shipped without support for NPAPI.

While all NPAPI plugins are no longer usable in Chrome, Flash content is still supported through Google's own PPAPI interface.

Microsoft launched its Edge browser for Windows 10 without support for popular plugins as well.

Mozilla plans to launch the 64-bit version of Firefox for Windows without NPAPI support.

The outlook

Firefox users who require plugins that are not Flash won't be able to use them once NPAPI support is removed from the browser. Since it is removed from all versions of Firefox without options to override the change, it will no longer be possible to access sites and apps that require these plugins.

While the count of sites requiring NPAPI plugins will drop further during 2016, it is unlikely that the requirement will be fully eradicated before support is removed.

This leaves users with no choice but to switch to another browser when they need to access plugin content on the Internet.

It is unclear right now if browsers that are based on Firefox code will follow Mozilla's decision and remove NPAPI support as well.

Source

[banned]

it will no longer be possible to access sites and apps that require these plugins.

It will still be possible with older versions of the browser. Just look Internet Explorer 5 and 6. People still use them for this very reason. In a way, this move by Mozilla will actually reduce security.

[Kalju]

It is clear that these things are not the right reasons, but if all are disabled, which were mentioned above, has to come from the new solution.

So far, there has not yet been something new. (but maybe the world doesn't exist anymore - The Third World War has already ended and is only emptiness and a dead fox's skin).

[SPECTRUM]

it seems to be a strategy to kill plugins used to block ads.

[Kalju]

it seems to be a strategy to kill plugins used to block ads.

I would not want to believe that there are so stupid engineers. Among the crowd can find a lot of smart people. There will always be somewhere new solution and someone, who can do something new instead what is disabled or no more available. Think about Start menu in Windows 8-10. Nothing cannot to be simply disabled, those times have passed.

[Bausch]

So they disabled all the working plugins, but left the only one that cripples Firefox and is vulrenable supported!?

And why not work with Adobe to get its act together instead, seems that Oracle is willing to do some work here, but Adobe is not.

[Amigaspace]

it seems to be a strategy to kill plugins used to block ads.

What? Aren't you confusing plugins with extensions?

[SPECTRUM]

it seems to be a strategy to kill plugins used to block ads.

What? Aren't you confusing plugins with extensions?

no, I'm just talking about what seems to be the real purpose of remove NPAPI support.

[CODYQX4]

I'm disappointed. Chrome killed off NPAPI (finally) but bakes in Flash. MS does too.

Firefox is going to take 14 months to do so and still leave Flash.

We need to kill Flash, and I mean it, even if we have to decapitate it with a rusty butter knife. The ancient sites WILL NEVER drop it. Everyone else trying to remain relevant and support the past 8 years of tech (not late 90s to early 00s shit) has made their video not need Flash.

Nuke the festering pile of trash we call Flash off the face of the Earth once and for all. These half measures mean nothing if you don't kill the most common, and most insecure software on the planet, with the rest of them.

"Oh, you can't use NPAPI plugins for security reasons, except for the most insecure NPAPI plugin ever made..."

[DKT27]

I think to stop Flash, all the browsers will need to together take a stand on it. Yes, ME might not support it, but that's about leading the way, that in a way, others might not follow. They need to together announce their dislike for it, first via releasing official open source tools for replacement it, if already exists then make them more famous and then, together deciding to remove it officially in their respective methods.

[dcs18]

Not sure why one needs to depend on Developers and then, wait for them to take action against Flash — the Users can prevent and ban Flash themselves, regardless of the implementation status on browsers . . . . . . . . why wait? :dunno:

[Amigaspace]

no, I'm just talking about what seems to be the real purpose of remove NPAPI support.

What are those ad-blocking plugins you are referring to?

[steven36]

I'm disappointed. Chrome killed off NPAPI (finally) but bakes in Flash. MS does too.

Firefox is going to take 14 months to do so and still leave Flash.

We need to kill Flash, and I mean it, even if we have to decapitate it with a rusty butter knife. The ancient sites WILL NEVER drop it. Everyone else trying to remain relevant and support the past 8 years of tech (not late 90s to early 00s shit) has made their video not need Flash.

Nuke the festering pile of trash we call Flash off the face of the Earth once and for all. These half measures mean nothing if you don't kill the most common, and most insecure software on the planet, with the rest of them.

"Oh, you can't use NPAPI plugins for security reasons, except for the most insecure NPAPI plugin ever made..."

Flash has never been a problem for me i just simply turn it off when not using it . I don't install Java And I use Cyberfox were only the flash plugin installs.

Anyways Chrome just sort of blocked flash they didn't block you from being able to watch videos with it because many sites don't have HTML5 support. They would lose users if they did. They only blocked flash ads.

In June, we announced (https://goo.gl/TF7dmD) that Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default to improve performance for users. This change is scheduled to start rolling out on September 1, 2015.

Most Flash ads uploaded to AdWords are automatically converted to HTML5. To ensure your ads continue to show on the Google Display Network, please follow these steps before September 1:

1) Identify any Flash ads in your account that aren’t eligible for automatic conversion: https://goo.gl/I4186A

2) Convert these ads to HTML5: https://goo.gl/ZBq5DR

https://plus.google.com/+GoogleAds/posts/2PmwKinJ7nj

Edit: Flash on Windows as far as Microsoft that's and update . If you're on Windows XP -Windows 8.1 you don't have install it unless you want . Windows 10 will keep installing it so you have turn it off in you're Microsoft browsers . Firefox you don't have to install it unless you want and Pepper Flash can be deleted from Chrome.

Its you're choice if you want to use flash or not . Its not baked in.. only HTML5 is baked into browsers Witch has its own set of vulnerabilities . .

[CODYQX4]

Not sure why one needs to depend on Developers and then, wait for them to take action against Flash — the Users can prevent and ban Flash themselves, regardless of the implementation status on browsers . . . . . . . . why wait? :dunno:

Not the user who knows what they are doing, but the clueless user who sits on old Flash and old browser and old OS, and expects old sites to work.

Then asks a developer to make changes to their site, that was coded in Flash 10 years ago.

Personally, I filter out all plugin/objects via ad blocker except those I want. I prefer that to Click to Play. I won't even see a box that way, don't download anything (I don't know if C2P skips the download of swf in all/any browsers), and if there is a specific piece of Flash I want. I can allow it (not a whole site like C2P) alone, and not have to click it each time.

[SPECTRUM]

no, I'm just talking about what seems to be the real purpose of remove NPAPI support.

What are those ad-blocking plugins you are referring to?

nothing specific really, just wondering/guessing that probably they want to remove some plugins/extensions related with ADs blocks, like Chrome did few time ago, removing Adblock Plus from the Store.

[steven36]

Here's a add-on for Firefox I been using here lately .


Watch with MPV

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/watch-with-mpv/

mpv windows builds

http://mpv.srsfckn.biz/

You put youtube-dl.exe in the folder with it.. make sure to keep it updated

https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe

Change the addons path to match were you keep the player at on you're drives . It lets play videos from many sites without using flash at all . It don't work for all of them but works for enough of them.

[Amigaspace]

Here's a add-on for Firefox I been using here lately .

Change the addons path to match were you keep the player at on you're drives . It lets play videos from many sites without using flash at all . It don't work for all of them but works for enough of them.

ViewTube (and ViewTube+) does the same thing and seems a more elegant solution.

[dcs18]

Not sure why one needs to depend on Developers and then, wait for them to take action against Flash — the Users can prevent and ban Flash themselves, regardless of the implementation status on browsers . . . . . . . . why wait? :dunno:

Not the user who knows what they are doing, but the clueless user who sits on old Flash and old browser and old OS, and expects old sites to work.

Then asks a developer to make changes to their site, that was coded in Flash 10 years ago.

Personally, I filter out all plugin/objects via ad blocker except those I want. I prefer that to Click to Play. I won't even see a box that way, don't download anything (I don't know if C2P skips the download of swf in all/any browsers), and if there is a specific piece of Flash I want. I can allow it (not a whole site like C2P) alone, and not have to click it each time.

Yes of course, my reference too was very obviously to the clueless — others who can overcome said Flash issue/s should not be wailing & whining as per my understanding . . . . . . . . . . no? :tehe:

[steven36]

Here's a add-on for Firefox I been using here lately .

Change the addons path to match were you keep the player at on you're drives . It lets play videos from many sites without using flash at all . It don't work for all of them but works for enough of them.

ViewTube (and ViewTube+) does the same thing and seems a more elegant solution.

I know you have VLC or quick time npapi plug-in for this user script I use Cyberfox on windows witch don’t install nothing but flash pug-in .. As soon as Firefox kills these this user script will no longer work for it ether. The method I post only requires and add-on and the player .

[Amigaspace]

I know you have VLC or quick time npapi plug-in for this user script I use Cyberfox on windows witch don’t install nothing but flash pug-in .. As soon as Firefox kills these this user script will no longer work for it ether. The method I post only requires and add-on and the player .

No need to install those plug-ins, you can just select HTML5.

[steven36]

I know you have VLC or quick time npapi plug-in for this user script I use Cyberfox on windows witch don’t install nothing but flash pug-in .. As soon as Firefox kills these this user script will no longer work for it ether. The method I post only requires and add-on and the player .

No need to install those plug-ins, you can just select HTML5.

I just install this in Linux mint it only works for hand full of sites . Were Watch with MPV will will for many sites even sites not on the list. ;)

I test it on youtube and i had to allow quicklime plug-in for ViewTube too work?

ok i think i got it to work by disabling all plug-ins on you tube why do need I this to play HTML5? With Watch with MPV i can block HTML5 in my browser with Policeman and still load the video in my player.