Mozilla reveals major changes to Firefox add-ons

Mozilla announced major changes coming to how Firefox add-ons are built. While this is mainly aimed at add-on developers, the end results will trickle down to Firefox users over the next few months and years. That group of add-on makers has four announcements to digest today:

1. Add-ons will soon be built with the WebExtensions API, which is largely compatible with the model used by Chrome and Opera and should make it easier to develop extensions across multiple browsers.
2. Add-ons will have to support multi-process Firefox, which is coming soon as part of the Electrolysis project.
3. Add-ons will have to be validated and signed by Mozilla, in the name of security and performance, starting in Firefox 41, which is slated for a September 22 release.
4. Add-ons built with XPCOM and XUL will be deprecated within 12 to 18 months from now.