Author: anonym Date: To: The Tails public development discussion list, discussion regarding Tor Browser Bundle development Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] [tbb-dev] future of tor-launcher? - Firefox XPCOM /
XUL based add-ons deprecation
Mark Smith: > On 1/10/17 5:18 AM, anonym wrote:
>> In Tails we run Tor Launcher as a stand-alone XUL application. Last I
>> checked it was not clear whether this would still be supported by
>> Firefox + WebExtensions. Do you know anything more about this?
>
> Unfortunately, I do not know anything about Mozilla's plans in regard to
> standalone XUL applications. Currently Tails is using the firefox -app
> feature, correct?
Correct!
> In the long run, I expect Mozilla to stop using XUL entirely and to
> migrate to HTML-based UI even inside Firefox. Although it will take them
> a long time to make that transition, I could see them dropping support
> for standalone XUL applications relatively soon.
Yes, that is my fear as well.
> I don't expect WebExtensions to support a standalone app mode, although
> for your purposes it might be acceptable to start the browser with
> TOR_CONFIGURE_ONLY=1. I guess there are some differences in terms of how
> much Firefox code is executed as well as loss of a custom icon though.
I wasn't aware of that option, but it sounds promising. Thanks!
