I switched to Firefox in part because XUL-based extensions can heavily customize the user interface. Things like Tile Tabs, Tab Mix Plus, and other extensions have been extremely useful to me. Despite my dislike of XUL as a language, I'm sad to see XUL extensions go; I suspect that WebExtensions will, like Google Chrome extensions, be much more limited.
In fact, I had always hoped that FF would move in the opposite direction, and split itself apart into a bundle of extensions, so that even more customization could be possible.
I've also always enjoyed being able to run the latest versions of extensions, which sometimes take a while to get Mozilla's approval.
Are there any plans to maintain a fork of Firefox that will not include these changes?
I don't really know why, but I have some small optimism that Servo might enable such a browser. The only other candidate browser engine is Webkit, which is already too huge to be part of a small Unixy browser. Maybe Servo, as a project that people are actively hacking on, might work.
I think that any browser that can render the modern Web will necessarily be too big to really be called "Unixy". But Servo is an exceptionally modular browser engine, as is obvious upon building it. We're up to 150 crate dependencies and counting, most of which are independent of the browser engine.
One option I have found is surf (http://surf.suckless.org/), but it seems too limited for me to use it on a regular basis. Really, what I'd like is a browser in which almost all components (tabs, bookmarks, etc.) are just extensions around a simple (Servo-based?) core.
Servo is awesome, by the way -- I look forward to seeing what comes next!
None of the major browsers are really modular in the Unix way. There are some research browsers that are much more modular, though, like IBOS and Servo,
In fact, I had always hoped that FF would move in the opposite direction, and split itself apart into a bundle of extensions, so that even more customization could be possible.
I've also always enjoyed being able to run the latest versions of extensions, which sometimes take a while to get Mozilla's approval.
Are there any plans to maintain a fork of Firefox that will not include these changes?