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Discussion on: 12 Must Have Browser Extensions for Developers

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️ • Edited

One of the cool things about using Chrome as your default browser is all the extensions you can use

Every single one of these is also available on other browsers. Some of the functionality provided by them is actually built in to Firefox.

This isn't a criticism of you personally, but people should really stop writing posts as if Chrome has a monopoly on useful browser extensions, because this simply isn't the case. The framework used to write browser extensions is almost exactly the same between browsers - and as a result, most extensions are available for most browsers.

Chrome (and other Chromium based browsers) are - unfortunately - monopolising the browser space. This can only be a bad thing for user choice and for the advancement of browsers in general. This situation is not helped by the endless parade of articles written that refer only to Chrome, when almost everything in the article is also relevant to other browsers.

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matthieu_rolland profile image
Matthieu Rolland • Edited

Chromium based extensions are indeed compatible with all chromium based browsers...(chrome, brave, edge, etc...)

But firefox is not chromium based, I'm not sure you can juste install a chrome extension on firefox, and it's not rare that an extension exists on chrome and not on firefox (and vice versa)

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️ • Edited

I'm not sure you can juste install a chrome extension on firefox

You pretty much can. I'm a maintainer of an extension. The code is identical between the Chrome and Firefox versions. The only difference is the way the code is packaged up for distribution. A standardisation process took place a good while back to ensure much greater compatibility, and a fairly standard extension API implemented by most browsers.

The fact that it's not rare that extensions exist only on one browser is precisely my point. Most posts are written very much like this one, actively praising Chrome whilst failing to mention that the exact same extensions (or functionalities) are available on other browsers - giving the misleading impression that these browsers are inferior with respect to extensions/add-ons.