this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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In this specific context we are talking about Manifest V3 artificially limiting the number of rules in an extension. That's it, it's artificial, there is no reason for it to exist other than Google purposely degrading the capability. What does Mozilla have to gain by also degrading themselves?
Compatibility. You want to have enough users to be considered for being paid off, but not too little that you can be ignored. It's similar to the linux gaming move: on linux you can't just add a windows compatible interface to the kernel, so you have to translate it. Game developers thus focus on windows and ignore linux since there build process is completely different. As a browser, you sure as hell can introduce a common interface --> extension devs write their extension once and it run on firefox too. Users who care enough can thus switch without much hassle.
It's a numbers game.
It will still be compatible, Firefox just doesn't need to add a limiter, meaning the same extension will run better on Firefox than Chrome in the end. That's how I see this all unfolding at least. (I'm a javascript developer, I audit all the extension code I run generally, my perspective is purely technical and not political on the matter.)