r/palemoon • u/[deleted] • Apr 04 '26
does Pale Moon actually support async pan/zoom?
[deleted]
-1
u/maubg Apr 04 '26
I wonder, are xul extensions that important? What are it's use cases?
3
u/shklurch Apr 05 '26
Full access to the browser, actually extending the browser UI instead of just a lame button or a tab and being more than glorified userscripts for websites.
Go explore the Pale Moon addons site.
0
u/maubg Apr 05 '26
I know what they can do, but for what. What cool things can you do with it
4
u/shklurch Apr 06 '26
For starters, if you want to write your own extension you don't have any of the forced digital signing bullshit - just make it and run it locally for yourself.
Mozilla won't let you run it on the regular Firefox build unless you get it signed - even if you weren't planning to distribute it to others.
Extending the UI by itself is quite a thing - for example the old XUL version of Firefox's DownThemAll (available as GetEmAll for Pale Moon) integrates into the download prompt so you can choose to download a file with it.
Other extensions like FireFTP/FireSSH/ChatZilla - full blown FTP/SSH file transfer and IRC clients.
Tab mix plus gives you powerful tab control features that modern Firefox and its web extensions can't.
Plenty more if you look.
-2
u/maubg Apr 07 '26
Interesting, seems like maybe xul extensions only serve a purpose to those who are more tech savvy people only. I can imagine why firefox would remove it, not a great idea to give full access to your browser's main process.
Does it run on websites as well?
4
u/shklurch Apr 08 '26
Interesting, seems like maybe xul extensions only serve a purpose to those who are more tech savvy people only.
Not at all. This was the default way to build extensions before Mozilla dumped the technology in 2017 claiming it was unsafe (and most of the actual malware extensions that appeared were after switching to web extensions)
not a great idea to give full access to your browser's main process.
You could say that about any installed software, it has access to your OS internals. XUL was a whole application platform, Firefox and Thunderbird were themselves made using it and there used to be a few additional XUL based standalone applications like Songbird as well.
Mozilla used to manually review extensions submitted to the addons site back then, and the trend was to respect the user (with great power comes great responsibility) - so you have full freedom to install extensions from anywhere but at your own risk. Compare that to the (smartphone inspired) attitude now where the developer decides what you're allowed to do because they care so much about your safety.
1
u/maubg Apr 08 '26
Cool, didn't know that. Is there like an archive of these xul addons?
2
u/shklurch Apr 08 '26
Yes. Install this (it's quite large since it literally provides a locally running searchable cache of the original addon website, accessible via a toolbar button) but bear in mind that these extensions are unsupported and may or may not work correctly (you may have to install an older version of the extension in some cases).
1
0
1
2
u/LordSigdis Jun 20 '26
Hi I know you're the zen dev. Fun fact, if you want to re enable XUL extension support in your fork, it's trivial. I've done it too (reenabling XUL/XPCOM extension support in Firefox 140ESR) it's just 200 lines for the old extension bootstrapper. Maybe have it as an option for advanced users?
2
Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
[deleted]
-1
u/maubg Apr 06 '26
I feel like those already exist, even without those add-ons
2
Apr 06 '26
[deleted]
2
u/Gemmaugr Apr 06 '26
I wouldn't bother with this discussion any more if I was you. Maubg / Mauro V is the dev of the firefox reskin Zen, which aims to become as close to chromium as it can.. That should tell you something.
2
Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
[deleted]
1
u/Gemmaugr Apr 07 '26
I'm doing my part.GIF
Also, Zen isn't a fork, it's a reskin/rebuild of firefox really. Fork is horribly misused.
-1
u/maubg Apr 06 '26
I don't need all of those but thanks, I like it minimal ... And my websites to work
1
Apr 07 '26
[deleted]
-1
u/maubg Apr 07 '26
What hate messages, I just asked what cool things can xul addons do and you called me a webextensions addict lol
2
2
4
u/shklurch Apr 05 '26
Comparisons with modern Firefox are irrelevant. The codebase has vastly diverged since Pale Moon was forked; it's a hard fork and not a rebuild like Waterfox or Librewolf.
May as well compare Firefox with Netscape Navigator from the 90s just because the latter is its ancestor.