Firefox 52 Brings Modern PC Games to Your Browser, Bans Plug-Ins

Megalith

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Those of you who have already updated should know that the latest version of Firefox has dropped all NPAPI plug-ins (Java, Silverlight, etc.), although support for Flash continues. Aside from security patches, the update also introduces WebAssembly, which is supposed to bring the performance of native applications to the web. I presume this means that the line between desktop and Internet content will be blurred.

…WebAssembly will let developers create CPU-intensive apps—such as games, 3D renderers, video editors—that run in near-native speed without relying on plug-ins. Bryant envisioned WebAssembly (which also goes by “wasm”) as leading to both revamped current web apps and new categories that have been stymied by performance issues. Bryant also called WebAssembly a “game changer.” Apple (WebKit, the foundation of Safari), Google (Chrome) and Microsoft (Edge) have also signed on to WebAssembly. Google has said it will enable WebAssembly support in Chrome 57, currently slated to ship March 14.
 
I was waiting for this. Really happy it's done. Here's hoping it will not descend to obscurity...
 
It is about time. I do wish there was a 'Java Version', so that way if you knew the security risks you could interact with outdated hardware that for some reason all use Java for their web interfaces.
 
Then no more firefox for me. It was the goto browser of mine, but a lot of services I use have java. This just won't fly.
 
Then no more firefox for me. It was the goto browser of mine, but a lot of services I use have java. This just won't fly.

It's important to note that this is for java, not javascript. I'm in the same boat though, I have a home lab and several pieces of hardware that are managed via a web interface that uses java (not javascript).
 
I've pretty much switched completely to Chrome at this point but for some reason keep Firefox on the Beta channel installed and updated even though I don't use it much, if at all.

Did they give Brendan Eich his job back? No? Still not using Firefox.

On a related note, Brave is a fine browser.
Never heard of Brave before. Seems interesting.

Gonna give it a go.
 
The WebAssembly stuff looks interesting. I'm assuming that the source code is compiled into some sort of pcode and then the final conversion into native machine code is done on the client side after the pcode is downloaded. At first I was thinking this would be a security nightmare, but actually, it might be even easier to sandbox such code than something like JS or Java.
 
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