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Firefox 42 will not allow unsigned extensions

(wiki.mozilla.org)
288 points fernandotakai | 4 comments | 11 Aug 15 03:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.229s | source
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GeorgeOrr ◴[11 Aug 15 03:56 UTC] No.10039015[source]▶
It's important to note that the Developers Editions (and the Nightlys) will have a setting for disabling the requirement.

The assumption being that developers need to test as they develop. And are a more informed user.

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1. ethana ◴[11 Aug 15 04:09 UTC] No.10039040[source]▶
Did they say why beta wouldn't have this setting? If anything beta is closer to release and developer would target that. Developer edition is still nightly if I'm not correct?
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2. GeorgeOrr ◴[11 Aug 15 04:18 UTC] No.10039067[source]▶
I don't see anything about why the beta, but I did see the following in the FAQ. Maybe this will help:

"There will also be special unbranded versions of Release and Beta that will have this setting, so that add-on developers can work on their add-ons without having to sign every build."

3. wsha ◴[11 Aug 15 10:47 UTC] No.10040103[source]▶
I think they want to encourage wider adoption of the Beta version, so they treat it similarly to the Release. The logic seems pretty questionable to me though. If you can install a Beta version of Firefox, you should be able to avoid consenting to allow malware to run on your computer (this change is primarily targeted at extensions installed by some user action -- like something silently side-loaded by an application installer).
4. mccr8 ◴[11 Aug 15 15:41 UTC] No.10041869[source]▶
Generally, beta is supposed to be almost completely identical to the release version, to ensure that what gets shipped to release users is tested. This particular pref seems harmless, but you never know.

Developer edition is what used to be known as "Aurora", which is in between Beta and Nightly.