Linux Solutions

Its not every day that I get to write about Mozilla, but with yesterday’s story about the non-profit organisation and its tax dodging efforts, today’s news that the organisation is warning Firefox users about rogue add-on’s just adds to the weeks problems.

Mozilla say that users should be wary of what they class as “experimental” add-ons, as they can cause some pretty major computer problems.

The reason for the Firefox browser’s success has to be down to not only the sleek and well balanced layout, but for the customising capabilities that other browsers just don’t have. Some of the add-ons make brilliant additions to your browsing experience, and give users more reasons to stay away from the epic fail that is Internet Explorer.

However, many of the problems lie in third-party development of these add-on’s. Take the recently released ‘China Channel’. This add-on allows users around the world to know what it feels like to surf the web in China, and got a ton of press when it was announced due to the sheer nature of the add-on. Now, why you would want to surf around a highly censored internet is beyond me, but I digress. The fact is that this browser add-on lets you roam around in fake China for a while, but when you invariably get bored and want to leave…you can’t.

The add-on’s pitch says on the Firefox add-ons page, “Take an unforgettable virtual trip to China and experience the technical expertise of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry” – and so far over 1000 users were sucked in by the…er…hype?

vnunet.com ran a test on the add-on and found that the ages the China Channel were trying to restrict appear to be lost for good, even when the add-on is turned off. One other tester said that he had found an “uninstall bug”, and that all proxy settings were lost when he shut the browser down. “Unforgettable”, indeed.

Mozilla has small print to deal with this kind of situation:

“This add-on is meant for advanced users to test add-ons before they are made available and reviewed for general use. Many add-ons may be in prototype form. Experimental add-ons may be alpha, beta or pre-production in quality, performance and features. Caution should be used when installing experimental add-ons, as they have not been tested by an editor and may harm your computer configuration.”

As of yet the Firefox developers claim to be blissfully unaware of the add-on’s press coverage, but say they are going to look into the issue further to ensure no other users are affected.