Google removes NPAPI apps and extensions from Chrome Web Store homepage, search results, and category pages
NPAPI is the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface and Google is hopeing "This change will improve Chrome’s security, speed, and stability as well as reduce complexity in the code base."
NPAPI is the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface and Google is hopeing "This change will improve Chrome’s security, speed, and stability as well as reduce complexity in the code base."
So if you have extensions using NPAPI… time to update them. Google plans to permanently remove all NPAPI apps and extensions in September 2014.
Chromium Blog: Update on NPAPI Deprecation
Last September, we announced our plan to remove NPAPI support from Chrome by the end of 2014. This change will improve Chrome’s security, speed, and stability as well as reduce complexity in the code base. Over the last few quarters, we’ve been encouraged to see an overall 12.9% drop in per-user …
I'd like to see them remove all the stupid extensions that are just links to websites and have nothing to do with browser extensions. If we wanted a link to a website we could just bookmark the fucking thing.
Yeah I've never understood the point of those either +Lee Forest.
I still dont like this. Chromes a superb browser, but there doesn't seem a concuss on this. Seems Googles trying to force people to use their Native stuff. Firefox meanwhile wants to go a different route, with users stuck in the middle.
Meanwhile for really heavy stuff pure web isnt ready yet – the Runescape MMO invested heavily in making a WebGL version of their game but had to pull back due to lack of support. Its the 4th biggest MMO last time I checked, still Java.
According to their site there is still an HTML5 beta going. Or is that something different than what you're talking about +Thomas Wrobel?
I sort of view this like the deprecation of the .live() for .on() in JQuery. One has advantages over the other and the older needs to be moved away from. It's also like how FF is deprecating mutation events in favor of Mutation Observers.
+Paul Spoerry Its ongoing, sure. But they scaled back operations/update due to lack of support of a few key things in firefox, and poor performance over the user-base of testers in chrome. I could try to find the exact technical things missing, as they listed their problems somewhere in detail. I think it was the performance that was the stopping factor though – putting a lot of resources towards what was (currently) just a small fraction of their userbase able to run it well was a problem.
Still, the fact their game doesnt run at all on mobile platforms right now is a pretty big incentive to switch over, so I am sure they will do another push later.
Just to be clear its not that I think this shouldn't happen, its just that by happening now puts developers in a tricky situation. If you got a big project at the moment currently in Unity/Java/Silverlight do you make a special version just for chrome? (which might mean a new codebase). Do you wait for companies like Unity to do a "export for chrome" function? Do you try to rebuild everything from scratch in web-tech?
Obviously the last is the preferred option but also potentially the longest and most fraught with problems.
I can't think of anything I use that uses Unity or Silverlight. While I code in java at work I won't even install it on my personal computers.
Unity has announced they are doubling down on the webgl.
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/235703-Future-of-Unity-in-Chrome
Biggest silverlight userbase I think at the moment is Netflix – its all I use it for anyway. Its also
precisely why they are pushing for web DRM, as without that as a reasonable standard it will be hard to
persuade the IP owners to license their stuff for streaming.
–
I too mostly use Java for coding but not actual running (GWT and Android projects). However, I do occasionally
play with Processing – which is good fun, and its nice to be able to share stuff with a simple embed.
Other then that Runescape and Minecraft are played in this house, so Java stays installed.
Ohhhhh yeah, and now that you say it, I do have java installed (Minecraft household too); I just have it disabled in browsers.