22996 - [RFE] want Linux Mozilla to support Win32 plug-in binaries via WINE

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, enhancement, P3)

Description

[nick255]

Mozilla currently can't use netscape 4.x for linux plugins, which may limit mozilla's acceptance.  Also, if mozilla for linux could be made to use win32 netscape 4.x plugins (via winelib mabye?), or even win32 mozilla plugins, that would be a nice addition.

Comment 1

[Kevin Puetz]

a similar request for linux is in bug 31012 (with a patch to do it I think).
This is related, but not exactly a dup... but maybe some of that code might be
helpful.

Comment 2

[nick255]

This is not a dup because I am also wondering about plugins designed for the win32 version of netscape 4.x

Comment 3

[ekrock's old account (dead)]

The request for Linux Mozilla to support Linux Nav4.x plug-ins as-is in the 
general case is INVALID (impossible, in fact) because of the Motif (GUI for Nav4 
Linux) to GTK (GUI for Mozilla Linux) changeover. See 
http://www.mozilla.org/docs/plugin.html#linux for details. In bug 31012 they've 
been doing some work to enable *modified* Nav4.x plug-ins for Linux to work 
within Mozilla, which is great, but this still depends on plug-in vendors or 
their partners making modifications to plug-in source (to eliminate 
GUI-specific assumptions on the code) and recompiling. If other vendors or 
Internet contributors want to work on enabling that approach, I welcome their 
help, but Netscape can't commit to enable this for FCS.

The request for Linux Mozilla to support Win32 plug-ins via WINE is a nice idea 
but unfortunately it's a blue-sky "nice to have" given the current schedule. 
Netscape Navigator has never done this before in the past and Netscape is not 
committing to implement new enhancement requests for FCS at this point. Nor do I 
expect that Netscape will attempt this in the foreseeable future; it would be 
really hard, it would have to be debugged one plug-in at a time, and I'm 
skeptical that we'd ever get many plug-ins working in that fashion. It will take 
plug-in vendors less time to support Linux natively (with better user experience 
and reliability) than it will for Netscape to try to shoehorn Win32 binaries 
onto Linux in this fashion, so lobbying plug-in vendors to support Linux is the 
more realistic option and will produce better results sooner for Linux users.

For info about backward compatibility with Win32 plug-in binaries, see 
http://www.mozilla.org/docs/plugin.html

Very sorry to be such a wet blanket but unfortunately that's part of my job at 
this stage of the game!

Since a single Bugzilla report should be about a single issue, changing summary 
to "want Linux Mozilla to support Win32 plug-in binaries via WINE." Reassigning 
to [e-mail] and marking WONTFIX and helpwanted. If an Internet 
contributor would like to attempt this, their contribution would be welcome!

Comment 4

[shrirang khanzode]

v