Google delays execution of doomed Chrome extensions Google has delayed its browser extension platform transition for enterprise customers, giving those using managed versions of Chrome with the deprecated Manifest v2 (MV2) extensions an extra six months of support. The Chocolate Factory has also redefined its deadlines for general Chrome users to make the transition to the new …
Our IT support people accidentally removed as a system policy Firefox, about 1/3rd of us used it.
I could not do any support fixes as I could not access the online support system.*
15 minutes later it was back complete with complaints from us.
* I kept quiet about Palemoon on my PC, that is my fail over browser.
"I think people will simply switch to Chromium forks where it still works."
A minuscule proportion of all Chrome users will switch. They're the technical people like the El Reg forum dwellers.
Think about your next door neigbours, your CEO or your parents/children. Most people are just using "a browser". Just like the blue E letter used to mean Internet access some years ago, now it's that multicoloured ball icon that is the internet for most people in the world.
Of all Chrome users (billions of them?), a minority know about, or use adblockers or other plugins that will stop working. Those in the know will move to Firefox or whatever Chromium fork will survive but masses won't.
"A minuscule proportion of all Chrome users will switch."
Maybe the "civilians" will not switch but any corporate deployment that must have the hooks from the old software to be able to have their custom applications work will be switching their staff to a different fork that still supports the calls they use. Maybe this will convince a few more that basing any sort of bespoke company functionality on a browser is a really stupid idea. Maybe not, they haven't learned thus far.
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Where's the status page that says NoScript will work on V3? How about AdBlockPlus? How about the other extensions we need to defend ourselves?
Not only is the fact that Chrome is the browser of choice for the end user, it is the browser of choice for the web developers. In regards to MV2 & MV3 include MS Edge with Chrome since its goal is to be Chrome compatible but slurp to MS rather than Google.
Customer support script: (Earlier versions read Internet Explorer instead of Chrome)
Our website is broken for you? What browser are you using? We only work with Chrome, with all plugins disabled and javascript enabled. You also cannot block ads by any means since that breaks critical website functionality provided by our numerous affiliates and partners. You say it is working now that all plugins are disabled and adblocking is disabled and javascript is enabled, good. We are happy to have solved your problem viewing our website, good-bye.
If privacy (and security) is your goal and Google is closing the door of executing that through the browser, then it will have to be achieved outside of the browser. A netwrok web proxy is the obvious solution. Build a web proxy from a fork of Chromium MV2 so it can host MV2 privacy plugins, it may be easier than starting from scratch. All privacy oriented Chromium fork projects should get behind this proxy project for a common goal and not have to reinvent the wheel supporting continued MV2 in their own projects. There will be a need for ongoing development since the ad industry will circumvent blocking. Control from the browser should be prohibited since what can be controlled from Chromium forks can also be controlled from Chrome, Edge, and Chromium, i.e. to disable ad blockers and slurp filters.
"Our website is broken for you? What browser are you using? We only work with Chrome"
When I run across something like that, it means that company is not getting my business. I have yet to come across the situation where I don't have any alternative choices including doing without. The only one that came close was the cable company I use for my internet service. Their billing wouldn't work with any less than the latest version of Safari, but it would work with an ancient version of FireFox, go figure. For a while, if I wanted to pay my bill online, I had to use FF. They seem to have got the memo that there's no point in forcing customers to have the latest hardware and run the latest OS and browser to be able to pay their bills online. I expect that enough people just went back to paper bills and sending in checks that it became clear. My old mum doesn't need all of the latest shiny and she knows how to use what she has and has had for some time. There will be plenty of people like that.
Non support, common with streaming.
When a streamer does not support the platform you have a choice.
1) Do not bother at all
2) Torrent their stuff
Fed up with arguing with shITV luckily most of their TV is complete crap, and if you miss it tough.
Not got into a drama on shITV for about 8 years as if your PVR hiccups no streaming backup.
BBC Iplayer however, it is everywhere.
Schools that use Chromebooks are required to have filtering in place, and the only way to do this is via an extension unless you want to VPN every single Chromebook back to a server.
So, how does this change affect such extensions? Things like Securly, Smoothwall, etc...
I can bet some of them probably won't work when they switch over. However, If the addon developers are any good they'll have been testing against chromium builds with the new version of manifest and it should work. I would fully expect something to not work though, have a failover ready for a few days. That's just good advice in general but whenever software like this gets changed, shit breaks unexpectedly. And its always the worst possible component that there's no good workaround for.
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