845022 - Remove stale info from about:plugins

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

I'd like to eventually kill about:plugins, but in the meantime we can remove a couple of waaaaaay stale info.

At the top of the page there are 3 blurbs:

1) "Find more information about browser plugins at mozilla.org"
2) "Find updates for installed plugins at mozilla.com/plugincheck"
3) "Help for installing plugins is available from plugindoc.mozdev.org"

We should keep #2, and kill blurbs #1 and #3.

#1 is a link to https://pfs.mozilla.org/plugins/, which currently just redirects to the same site at #2.

#3 is stale and full of irrelevant info. Plugins in general are being deprecated, and we don't want to help users install plugins. (Rather, we want to help them NOT install 'em, because they're bad for the web, full of security issues, and a support nightmare.)

Burn it with fire. :)

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Evilpie is touching this right now, perhaps he can do this at the same time.

Comment 2

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

Attachment: Remove outdated links from about:plugins

Comment 3

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/reply/question/etc.)]

(In reply to Justin Dolske [:Dolske] from comment #0)
> I'd like to eventually kill about:plugins...
Completely or will be this information added to about:support? It can be added in similar 'style' as Extensions there.

Comment 4

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

(In reply to Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] from comment #3)
> (In reply to Justin Dolske [:Dolske] from comment #0)
> > I'd like to eventually kill about:plugins...
> Completely or will be this information added to about:support? It can be
> added in similar 'style' as Extensions there.

well, actually, the information in about:plugins can also be found in the Add-ons Manager; except you have to click the `More` link after the plugin description to read it. Plus for the Add-ons Manager is that it's way more discoverable than the about:plugins page and its easier to maintain it in one place.

Comment 5

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Comment on attachment 718452 [details] [diff] [review]
Remove outdated links from about:plugins

Good riddance! :)

Comment 6

[Georg Fritzsche [:gfritzsche]]

(In reply to Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer] from comment #4)
> well, actually, the information in about:plugins can also be found in the
> Add-ons Manager; except you have to click the `More` link after the plugin
> description to read it. Plus for the Add-ons Manager is that it's way more
> discoverable than the about:plugins page and its easier to maintain it in
> one place.

about:plugins is (AFAIK) used by developers and testers, so discoverability is not an issue.
The addon manager may in principle have the same information, but it's very inconvenient for the dev/tester use cases (e.g. try finding which of 30 installed plugins handles which mimetype) and doesn't help with diagnosing at all when the addon manager UI or state handling is broken.

Comment 7

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Oops, should have flagged this one for checkin.

Comment 8

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/93a749d5d268

Comment 9

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/reply/question/etc.)]

(In reply to Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer] from comment #4)
> well, actually, the information in about:plugins can also be found in the
> Add-ons Manager; except you have to click the `More` link after the plugin
> description to read it. Plus for the Add-ons Manager is that it's way more
> discoverable than the about:plugins page and its easier to maintain it in
> one place.

But when you have more than one plugin, checking this might be a nightmare as you don't have all info in one place.

Comment 10

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

Virtual, Georg: true, that. If Dolske and others truly want to get rid of about:plugins, than we need to find a solution for listing all info in one place. I will remember this argument and bug when the discussion comes up.

Comment 11

[Benjamin Smedberg]

I WONTFIXed the bug about removing about:plugins. I would like it to be kept.

Comment 12

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/93a749d5d268

Comment 13

[Georg Fritzsche [:gfritzsche]]

whimboo, does this also need mozmill updates?

Comment 14

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

(In reply to Georg Fritzsche [:gfritzsche] from comment #13)
> whimboo, does this also need mozmill updates?

Thanks for asking Georg! I have checked the patch but none of those changes will affect our tests. So we are good.