1235718 - build options to build without system addons

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox :: Pocket, defect)

Description

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

3rd parties should be able to build firefox without feature addons (pocket, hello, future best-of-web, etc)

Comment 1

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

(In reply to Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy) from comment #0)
> 3rd parties should be able to build firefox without feature addons (pocket,
> hello, future best-of-web, etc)

Hmm, I disagree.

There are plenty of feature that ship in Firefox (including Hello and Pocket, before they became system addons) that don't have mechanisms for 3rd parties to disable. Over the years there has actually been a trend to *remove* such build options (especially for platform-level features), because they are generally untested, frequently break as a result, and end up causing pain for people who (reasonably) expect those options to work.

Comment 2

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

IMO if removal of a system addon breaks firefox, then the addon is not written correctly.  If we expect that they must be there for things to work and fx shouldn't be built without them, then we're only making extra work by using system addons.

Comment 3

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

Any consensus on this? Do we plan to ship this feature without options to build and leave out the system addons? Who might this be useful for (do we know of specific 3rd parties who want it?)  
Javaun do you have an opinion from the product point of view? (Or know who would?)

Comment 4

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

This is not necessary for release.  Having a build option to build without system addons would be more for 3rd party distributions.  I don't know if it is possible at this time to run without the Hello addon.

Comment 5

[Jessilyn Davis]

This bug has been closed due to inactivity and/or the potential for this bug to no longer be an issue with the new Discovery Stream-powered New Tab experience, and improvements to Pocket’s integration with Firefox.

Please help us triage by reopening if this issue still persists and should be addressed.

Thanks!