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Jetpack FAQ, and the Promising Path Ahead for Firefox Extensions

Recently, we covered Mozilla's Jetpack. It's an API designed to make building extensions for Firefox easier and faster. It doesn't require extensions to be written in XUL, and allows developers to use standard technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Essentially, anyone who can build a web site can build Firefox extensions with it, and it's gotten quite a bit of notice for its potential to greatly increase the already large number of Firefox extension developers. According to an update from Mozilla, there is already very strong interest in Jetpack, and a new Jetpack FAQ.

According to a Mozilla newsletter:

"In less than a week after launch, the new Mozilla Labs Jetpack project had been downloaded more than 25,000 times, and over 100,000 people had watched the tutorial movie."

Now, Mozilla's Aza Raskin has posted a FAQ about Jetpack, which illustrates what a good idea the project is, and how many open source projects could benefit from similar efforts to lower barriers to participation. He writes:

"The number of people who come online for the first time in the next 10 years will dwarf the number of people online today. If the browser is to stay relevant in an increasingly global context, anyone with a source of inspiration will need to be able to create the innovation that meets their needs. With Jetpack, what used to take 100s of lines of code now takes 10s of lines of code; and what used to take carefully-cultivate domain specific knowledge now simply requires standard Web developer skills."

Firefox has greater than 22 percent browser market share now, and keeps growing as Internet Explorer's share declines. While extensions are coming for Google Chrome, there are already over 7,000 Firefox extensions. Extensions remain the primary reason that I favor Firefox, and Jetpack is looking more and more like another key differentiator and growth engine for what I think is the best of all browsers.
 

• firefox
• Internet Explorer
• mozilla
• browsers
• extensions
• Jetpack

by Health and safety on Jun. 15, 2009

The graphics are very simple. There are no cutscenes, no bosses, no music, and

very few sound effects; it's just straight-up, no-nonsense platforming

goodness. The regular game boasts 100 levels, and many of them are undoubtedly

among the most challenging platformer levels you will every play. Jetpack is

highly replayable due to the ability to play levels out of order, the built-in

level editor

0 Votes

by Health and safety on Jun. 15, 2009

The graphics are very simple. There are no cutscenes, no bosses, no music, and very few sound effects; it's just straight-up, no-nonsense platforming goodness. The regular game boasts 100 levels, and many of them are undoubtedly among the most challenging platformer levels you will every play. Jetpack is highly replayable due to the ability to play levels out of order, the built-in level editor

0 Votes

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