Luci Sandor’s blog

During the last days, some millions of Internet users had to update their browser, Mozilla Firefox. Now, with a an universal, operating system-independent browser, we got an universal mechanism for extending the browser and an universal pain - it’s not like when Microsoft pushes once a month, during the night the updates, while keeping the support for those who still use older versions of their software. No, now we can have universal exploits, affecting anything with a mouse and a screensaver, and when you don’t have support for anything else but the last version, everyone is in a hurry to update.

I’m glad I haven’t heard about the millions that downloaded Firefox this time. Maybe Asa and his likes started to understand that more downloads does not mean more users, but more, too many more, buggy releases.

Of course, the extension model changed again, in less than a year, which means that everyone has to update the extensions too, at least with the speed the perpetrators update the fore-mentioned exploits. For me bugs are easier to accept than the lack of planning. Lack of planning creates this kind of impatience, “let’s see, maybe Mr. Hack X finally uploaded the new, working, version of MyExtensionWhichMakesTabsFly” or, worse, the Buridanian dilemma between upgrading the browser or loosing extension functionality, which usually gets the wrong answer, keeping the old extensions.

First troubles started when I tried to update AdBlock, the scary extension that hides ads which are made of JPEG picture files, Flash movies and Java class files. The Firefox checking mechanism assures me that everything is OK with the old AB and the new FF, the official website says there’s no newer version, but some of the ads started to reappear. Then if you read the forums and the bug database, you might believe that AdBlock is practically discontinued and a hero is saving the world with a new extension, AdBlock Plus. Then, if you really dig, you can find an updated version of AdBlock. I’m not questioning the fact that some AdBlock developers got bored, but I wonder who is supporting the aggressive, spam-like, campaign behind AdBlock Plus.

Then, there’s Greasemonkey. This is even more aggressive than AdBlock. It cleans up the text-only ads which are provided by GoogleAds. It can add a Delete button to GMail. And, yes, there’s a a catch with Delete in GMail. On the repository where Greasemonkey script are collected, you can see that the main target for Greasemonkey was Google, sometimes adding a link to Google search on other search engine pages, but usually cleaning up Google ads.

I think there are a few days (maybe weeks) since the new Firefox was released and still there’s no definitive solution for Greasemonkey. With the current, temporary, version, lots of strange error are hurting the user experience. Fortunately, Greasemonkey is based on a model which is not changing monthly , so you don’t have to update the scripts too, but, guess what, these days some of those scripts stopped working. Those are the scripts fixing Google annoyances: “Sponsored links” are back on the pages, there’s no Delete button for GMail etc.

Another front seems to be directly opened by Google through their spyware. Some issues seem to be provoked by the Google Toolbar, a very popular extension which reports to Google whatever you’re browsing. You might not know, but the Google Toolbar which is used on Internet Explorer is self-updating and there’s nothing you can do to stop it (well, except uninstalling it). With the changes in Firefox, Google Toolbar got an update too, and it is different: now it breaks Greasemonkey.

Why on Earth would they do that to the only extension which has a book of its own?

It looks to me as if Google, now the biggest media company on the planet and the biggest ads provider on the Internet, is taking active steps in defending their only source of revenue. Internet Explorer users are already a bunch of non-computer savvy people, which will have to see the ads, but there was a 10% leak in the market share, the Firefox users. It’s easy now, when some of the Mozilla software managers are Google employees, to do whatever you want with the browser, calling it an update or a re-thinking etc., breaking extensions on a weekly basis if possible. The handful of people working on the subversive extensions can be kept away. What would happen after one week is what I’ll call see the splendor of the open source: 1000 new feature requests, 100 bug reports in the informal wording “it doesn’t work”, 10 really good bug reports and no code written. The magnificent community is not moving a finger in fixing the extensions, overwhelmed by the complexity (which is just a wrong impression), by the uselessness (because in a few weeks it will stop working again) and by the laziness which makes OpenOffice.org the most talked about software which nobody uses.

It doesn’t matter, I’m so sick of Flash dirt I’m going back to text-mode lynx browsing anyway. Google can keep the internet for themselves.

PS. What’s the catch with GMail? It’s just that when you are on the web interface, you need two clicks to delete a mail (and even three more if you want to removed from Deleted Items folder too), but you are always just one click away from archiving it. And it’s just that Google claims they are respecting the open standards, but you’d have to try their original POP3 to see it is just a facade - if you download the mail, it is either kept on the Inbox (which makes you use the browser now and then to delete the mails and to feed on the Sponsored links), or deleted without any message-specific command (this option might be useful for those who have a single computer connected through a modem, but, anyway, those people don’t count in advertising industry schemes), or kept in the same omnipresent Archive. I’m not going into conspiracy theories about why Google wants us to keep the messages in the Archive, but you’re free to do it.