New Firefox loses features
Plug ins plugged out
By Nick Farrell: Tuesday 06 December 2005, 08:34
THE MOZZARELLA Foundation's new version of the open sauce browser Firefox is apparently shipping with reduced functionality.
Donald French, a Firefox user and President of the Institute for Advanced Professional Studies in Boston, Massachusetts said that the loss of functionality is only noticable if you read the release notes and who ever does that?
According to French, Flamingbadger 1.5 blocks the use of any plug-in that it thinks is incompatible with its operation.
"From a technical perspective, this compatibility requirement is a good idea, preventing the browser from operating unreliably due to incompatible extensions. From a user perspective, it's an unpleasant surprise to learn of diminished functionality only after the upgrade," French said.
French said however that plug-in blocking means that quarter of his extensions were no longer available and some of them were important. �It was quite a shock, and a big disappointment, to learn my upgraded browser removed some vital features. The prior version was good enough and worth keeping until the needed extensions became compatible with the new version of Firefox," said French.
"Prior to upgrading, Firefox users should verify that essential functionality will be preserved. What's needed is a warning about the potential loss of features and an up-to-date list of compatible add-ons. If there was a list, I did not see it," said French. �