For several months now, part of the Mozilla Labs team has been working on developing a new add-on platform for Firefox which would make it easier for developers to create add-ons and for the regular users to install and manage them. Borrowing from Google Chrome's implementation of an extensions system, Jetpack extensions make use of common web technologies, like JavaScript, lowering the entry bar for developers and also providing several advantages for the users. But having two add-on platforms running in parallel has caused some confusion in the community and Mozilla is now stepping up and clearing some of the misunderstandings.

Probably the most common question and source of confusion was when and if Mozilla planned to introduce Jetpack support in Firefox by default, it currently lives as a separate add-on, and whether it was going to replace the current XUL-based add-on platform. Turns out, Mozilla doesn't know either.

"If Jetpack becomes just as functional and powerful as the existing system, then we’ll talk about whether migrating all extensions to the new platform makes sense. It’s far too early to have that discussion in earnest now, and to be clear, no decision has been made about deprecating the existing system," Mozilla explains.

The existence of Jetpack has caused add-on developers to ask whether they should still support the existing system or move to the new one. Understandably, developers wouldn't want to invest time and sometimes money into a platform that was going to be obsolete, soon forcing them to start over again.

"It means that eventually add-on developers will have the option to use quicker and simpler APIs to build rich customizations for Firefox," Mozilla says. "Developers should adopt Jetpack because they want to — not because they have to — and we’re months away from the point where Jetpack serves as a viable alternative for writing Firefox extensions."

Mozilla also explains what exactly the Jetpack project is and what are its goals. The Mozilla developers reveal that Jetpack is a library and Firefox API designed to be a better add-on platform than the current iteration. Some of the biggest advantages of Jetpack are "improved security, independence from browser versions, and no-restart installations." The post should clear up some of the issues surrounding Jetpack and it also makes it easier for developers to plan ahead knowing Mozilla's intentions.


Mozilla Jetpack 0.7 for Firefox is available for download here.