Mozilla Continues Moving Away From NPAPI Plugins

[DanL]

Will Mozilla still support Flash internally on Linux Firefox like Chrome does, despite removing NPAPI and still planning to support Flash with Windows Firefox?

I doubt it. Hacks like Freshplayer and Pipelight are probably the "best" we're going to get.

[jacob]

"Except Flash"
But Flash is the only plug-in I have in FF.

Exactly. There is no point in removing NPAPI support while making an exception for Flash. NPAPI should be dropped with no exceptions PRECISELY because it would hopefully exterminate Flash at long last.

[Xaero_Vincent]

I doubt it. Hacks like Freshplayer and Pipelight are probably the "best" we're going to get.

Yes but those use NPAPI right? If it's being removed then they won't be options anymore.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

12 months? Seriously?

[Anvil]

Will Mozilla still support Flash internally on Linux Firefox like Chrome does, despite removing NPAPI and still planning to support Flash with Windows Firefox?

Linux Flash will be DEAD for good at gthe end of next year, thats why Mozilla are tryiong SHUMWAY now, the only other way you'll be able to use Flash an thats if you use FRESHPLUGINPLAYER along with Chrome in firefox

[Anvil]

Yes but those use NPAPI right? If it's being removed then they won't be options anymore.

FreshPlayer uses Pepperflash API from Chrome if im right which is not NPAPI

[Daktyl198]

FreshPlayer uses Pepperflash API from Chrome if im right which is not NPAPI

FreshPlayer is a wrapper to convert PPAPI calls from Pepper Flash to NPAPI calls in Firefox (hence why it doesn't support PPAPI's sandboxing). If NPAPI is removed for everything but flash, then FreshPlayer will stop working as well.

[CTown]

FreshPlayer uses Pepperflash API from Chrome if im right which is not NPAPI

To quote the readme from FreshPlayer Plugin, the project goal is

to implement a wrapper, some kind of adapter which will look like browser to PPAPI plugin and look like NPAPI plugin for browser.

Firefox sees FreshPlayer as a NPAPI plugin while Chrome's Flash Player binary thinks its in a PPAPI environment.

[DeepDayze]

Now why can't FF move towards PPAPI, as Google isn't preventing Mozilla from using that plugin platform. Oracle should implement a PPAPI plugin for Java for those who need Java support in any browser on Linux.

[Luke]

I just switched a few week ago from Firefox 39(not sure whether it came from Experimental or Unstable) to Firefox 38 ESR(Debian Unstable), to limit future feature removal and addition of more unwanted "features." The signed extension mess, not the NPAPI situation is the main reason for this. Firefox updates are complex for me, requiring careful checking for unwanted telemetry with Wireshark as well as making sure every security extension works or has been update. Thus, tarred-up .mozilla directories and older Firefox packages can come in handy when updates go bad. Thus, long-term security updates of an older release are valuable to me right now.

Still, there is a big difference between "dead" and "never updated-insecure." It will remain possible to use old versions of Flash with old browsers in Linux on known safe sites only, with Flash always disabled by default and enabled only on a case by case basis. This really should be done in a newly-untarred VM image every time or from a read-only FS for security reasons, as 3ed party attacks on otherwise safe sites can and do occur. Good enough for harvesting/downloading those porn videos from that flash-only site you like, especially if you exile it to non-security critical hardware as a defense against hardware fingerprinting.