firefox 26 final released

[bruceb]

Found this add on from a poster on the Mozilla forums

Download nubs - DNubs - the Download Statusbar replacement and alternative for Firefox 26+

It restores some good functionality for downloads in Firefox 26
It is not yet an official add on at the Mozilla add on site and some items, like options, still need to be added, but it does work.

http://www.dnubs.com/

 

[Iron Woode]

Found this add on from a poster on the Mozilla forums

Download nubs - DNubs - the Download Statusbar replacement and alternative for Firefox 26+

It restores some good functionality for downloads in Firefox 26
It is not yet an official add on at the Mozilla add on site and some items, like options, still need to be added, but it does work.

http://www.dnubs.com/

there are also complaints about Dnubs:

Here in the reviews DNubs is mentioned as an alternative, however the people at mozillazine discovered malicious code in the plugin:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2745707&start=45

 

[lxskllr]

there are also complaints about Dnubs:

There's this later in the thread...

Hey guys - some of you may remember me from these forums - I was active years ago. I am the original developer of Download Statusbar.
You can still see my original idea post here:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5473

I don't own or work on Download Statusbar anymore - don't have time for it. But as the original developer (and user!) I have a natural interest in all things related to it. So I keep track of what is going on. I was bummed when Download Statusbar stopped working, but intrigued when I found out about download nubs

Here is my investigation:
I downloaded the dnubs addon from both the download nubs website, and from AMO, while it was still available there. They are both identical, so there isn't any switching going on.

There are two main javascript files that are obfuscated. "ff-overlay.js" and "dnubs.jsm" The use of a .jsm (javascript module) is itself an indicator that this is not a rip of Download Statusbar. Download Statusbar was developed before javascript modules for firefox existed!

I looked at the hex decoded strings in the same way as was previously posted and contrary to what patrickjdempsey posted before, I see no references to porn, gaming sites, or html.

You can see for yourself here:
dnubs.jsm:
http://ddecode.com/hexdecoder/?results= ... 23c308f867

ff-overlay.js:
http://ddecode.com/hexdecoder/?results= ... bc7794fc46

They are full of uninteresting strings like: "getMostRecentWindow", "totalBytes", and "getElementById" - basically what you would expect for an addon like this. I have no idea what patrickjdempsey was looking at but what he said about the source is not true.

It's hard to completely blame the developer of Download Nubs for obfuscating the source. Copyright isn't always respected at AMO - as illustrated by the existence of the "Download Statusbar Fixed" addon. Which is a violation of the Download Statusbar code copyright, and didn't actually fix anything...

So what DownloadNubsDev has told us so far is correct.
We should let the AMO review process play out - for all of our sakes, it would be great to have an active developer working on this type of addon again.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2745707&start=75

What's more bothersome is the non-free license(presumed), and the obfuscated source code. I have exactly one non-free extension on the browser(ForecastFox), and I've considered getting rid of it, but I really like having the weather in my status bar.

If the code can't be viewed, it can do anything. When finding an extension, the first thing that should be done is look for the license. Most seem to be "custom license", which is is usually a modified MPL, and is a free license. If it isn't simply javascript, you then look for where the source code is hosted, Sourceforge, Github, private... Check it out to see if everything looks like it's there, and is getting commits. Even if you can't read code, that at least tells you it's probably an active project, and people that can read code are reading it, and writing bad reviews if things don't look right. Free code is one of the best ways to protect yourself from crap. If an extension is non-free, see if there's another one that is free. If not, think carefully about how much you want it, and carefully read reviews.

That said, what's wrong with the current download mechanism? It takes two clicks to get a discreet window that looks the same as the classic to the best of my memory, or you can set a bookmark to about:downloads, and open it up in a tab. Not worth an addon imo.

 

[taq8ojh]

So what exactly changed with the download window? I can't see any difference (or never paid attention to it) - it's still a popup with list of downloads.

 

[bruceb]

Lots of confusion about it may or not be bad. But it does do what it says it will do for Firefox 26 downloads.

Since it may be bad, I found another extension that is just as good.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-status-bar/

 

[taq8ojh]

Aren't there like five different plugins with the same name already? It's confusing as hell.
In fact, I find the addons site horribly confusing anyway.

 

[Iron Woode]

Lots of confusion about it may or not be bad. But it does do what it says it will do for Firefox 26 downloads.

Since it may be bad, I found another extension that is just as good.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-status-bar/

That's the one I installed early Friday morning. Seems to work quite well but I still like the original Download StatusBar.