Update: Fx Add-ons Overhaul

Some how I missed posting this info last week. Here is the latest on the Fx Add-ons site overhaul via Mozilla Webdev blog:

• March 5 - Migrate the add-ons database and update preview.addons.mozilla.org
• March 5-12 - Community testing of preview.addons.mozilla.org, ongoing bug fixing and polishing
• March 12-15 - Final bug fixes and adjustments based on community testing and feedback
• March 15 - Deployment of new addons.mozilla.org

So in theory we could be see the new, improved and overhauled Fx Add-ons site later this week. I took a look at the “preview” site earlier and noticed the performance has improved. However I see it still lacking the “advanced search” feature many users are going to want.

ActiveX & Fx 2.0

We recently an e-mail in our Info box asking about an ActiveX plug-in for Firefox 2. I thought at first this is a rather odd question, of course there is an ActiveX plug-in for Fx 2. Why wouldn’t there be? After some extensive research I discovered there is NOT an ActiveX Plug-in for Fx 2 and likely won’t ever be.
Okay, so now why isn’t there is an ActiveX plug-in for Fx 2? For starters, ActiveX is Microsoft technology and Firefox is not a Microsoft product. I think the main reason (and a valid one at that) why Mozilla choose to discontinue ActiveX support with Fx 2 is security. ActiveX is full of security holes (typical Microsoft) and could cause hackers to take control of your system.
So, what are you to do if you want to view ActiveX content? Well you could open up Internet Exploiter and load the content there, but that kinda defeats the purpose of having Firefox. The best solution I would suggest is using the IE Tab extension so you can render the tab with the ActiveX content in IE.