Firebug deprecation: what to do next

[Álvaro G. Vicario]

Console stopped working, I came to Firebug site for information and found this:

The Firebug extension isn't being developed or maintained any longer. We invite you to use the Firefox DevTools instead, which ship with Firebug.next

What are we supposed to do next? Must we uninstall Firebug? Is Firebug.next bundled with regular Firefox releases?

[Erik Krause]

Am 14.03.2017 um 13:21 schrieb Álvaro G. Vicario:
> What are we supposed to do next? Must we uninstall Firebug? Is Firebug.next
> bundled with regular Firefox releases?

Firebug.next is integrated in the Devtools, which are shipped with
Firefox. A good starting point is the Migration Guide:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Migrating_from_Firebug

If you miss anything in the Devtools look at the "Depends on" list on
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=991806 whether this is
already filed as a bug. If not file a new one and mark it as blocking
"firebug-gaps" or ask here.

--
Erik Krause
http://www.erik-krause.de

[Álvaro G. Vicario]

El martes, 14 de marzo de 2017, 21:30:01 (UTC+1), Erik Krause escribió:

Firebug.next is integrated in the Devtools, which are shipped with
Firefox.

Thank you. I already found the "Firebug" theme in the settings tab (it may sound silly but it makes transition easier).

I was already aware of the overall process of getting Firebug integrated with builtin tools but it wasn't clear to me whether Firebug would still exist as add-on so it could add additional features on top of native tools (or let third-party Firebug plugins work). I have the impression that the add-on is gone forever and whatever new stuff comes in, it'll will a Firefox core feature. Am I right if I think that I only need to keep Firebug installed to use plugins of unique features that already exist, and even then they can stop working any time?

Perhaps the web site notice should be complemented with a short specific note about whether to keep Firebug or not.



 

[Sebastian Zartner]

On Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 2:06:23 PM UTC+1, Álvaro G. Vicario wrote:

El martes, 14 de marzo de 2017, 21:30:01 (UTC+1), Erik Krause escribió:

Firebug.next is integrated in the Devtools, which are shipped with
Firefox.

Thank you. I already found the "Firebug" theme in the settings tab (it may sound silly but it makes transition easier).

That's the idea.
 

I was already aware of the overall process of getting Firebug integrated with builtin tools but it wasn't clear to me whether Firebug would still exist as add-on so it could add additional features on top of native tools (or let third-party Firebug plugins work). I have the impression that the add-on is gone forever and whatever new stuff comes in, it'll will a Firefox core feature. Am I right if I think that I only need to keep Firebug installed to use plugins of unique features that already exist, and even then they can stop working any time?

This is somewhat right. Though note that once multi-process Firefox (aka e10s) is enabled, Firebug and all its extensions stop working, because they don't work together with it. This is already reality for a big amount of people. Mozilla is automatically switching more and more people to multi-process Firefox.
See https://hacks.mozilla.org/2016/12/firebug-lives-on-in-firefox-devtools/ for some more info about this.
E10s can be disabled manually for now to keep Firebug working, though it's not recommended, as e10s brings stability and performance advantages, and at some point this option will be removed.

Furthermore, with Firefox 57 (released in November this year) it is planned that only WebExtensions will be supported as add-ons. That means that most current Firefox add-ons based on other technologies including Firebug will stop working.

Many features of Firebug and its extensions are already available in the DevTools, though they are also still missing several important features. So, if you miss features Firebug had, you can keep Firebug for now, but expect it to break at some point.

Sebastian