It's time to remove plugin support from Firefox mobile

[David Keeler]

[bcc'd to many lists for wide visibility - discussion should probably be
on mobile.firefox.dev
(https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/mobile-firefox-dev )]

TL;DR: Now is a good time to remove plugin support from Firefox for Android.

Consider:
* We do not support plugins for Firefox OS and do not plan to
* The only plugin that most users care about is Flash. Adobe stopped
development for Flash on Android in November of 2011, which is a year
and a half ago[1].
* Popular sites that use plugins have native apps. This includes
YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and so on. Other sites can follow suit or use
modern web technologies like HTML5. Addons are also an option.
* Plugins are a security hazard
* Plugins drain battery life and make Firefox seem slow

Let's be bold, let's protect our users, and let's move the web forward.

[1] http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2011/11/flash-focus.html

[Gervase Markham]

On 10/05/13 18:54, David Keeler wrote:
> * The only plugin that most users care about is Flash. Adobe stopped
> development for Flash on Android in November of 2011, which is a year
> and a half ago[1].

.... and it's no longer available for new installations.

> * Popular sites that use plugins have native apps. This includes
> YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and so on. Other sites can follow suit or use
> modern web technologies like HTML5.

I think the first big question is: is driving people to using native
apps rather than Flash a win or a loss for us?

Clearly we'd prefer them to use HTML5 video, but they won't all do that.

The second big question is regard to user opinion. When we didn't have
Flash support we were regularly panned for it - even beyond the Flash
EOL announcement IIRC. Do we want to take the hit to our Market rating?

Addons are also an option.

How are addons a serious option?

Gerv

[zika...@gmail.com]

As a user best suggestion I have is a press to activate plugin overlay over the content like in the desktop browser, that or a check box in settings which is off by default.

[zika...@gmail.com]

Like this https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2013/01/29/putting-users-in-control-of-plugins/