I'm maintaining two Add-Ons with around 20k active users.
I agree with his predictions, but I also find it hard to give to much attention to voices like the one expressed here.
It's hard for me to tell how much of this is genuine concern, or just how many donations or how much income he will loose because of this. I never see numbers from these Add-Ons. The one in question here has 1,300,000 daily active users.
Sure, if I make $1500 per month on an Add-On, I would be very upset if things change. Then I'd rather see the XUL/XPCOM stuff around for another 15 years.
Thanks for implying I'm in it for the money without even knowing me. Nice ad hominem you got there.
Let's just say that the donations do not nearly cover the time I spend developing add-ons, helping other add-on developers out with their questions, volunteering on AMO, writing patches for core Firefox and so on.
I'm sorry if I offended you. All I'm saying is you could be in a position of conflict of interest. Unfortunately, your user base would never mobilize on your behalf, because they don't understand the technical details behind the comprehensive Firefox extension system that would be deprecated.
That's a problem. The user don't understand what they are about to loose, but the big name developers with millions of users have a vested interest in the status quo. I don't have a solution for that. There are a lot of Add-On developers out there for which this is a business. Firefox extensions can generate an income.
At least you make no secret about it. The euro coins are right next to the article. I mean that in a good way.
What does the developer's monetary incentive have to do with the issue of FF deprecating the API? This article would have been just as valid as if it came from a company who made money selling FF extensions.
It's hard for me to tell how much of this is genuine concern, or just how many donations or how much income he will loose because of this. I never see numbers from these Add-Ons. The one in question here has 1,300,000 daily active users.
Sure, if I make $1500 per month on an Add-On, I would be very upset if things change. Then I'd rather see the XUL/XPCOM stuff around for another 15 years.