add-ons and plug-ins and extensions - OH MY!

could someone pls explain the diff in terms of firefox's usage? is add-ons a catchall under which the other two fit?

when i click on "add-ons", it defaults to "plug-ins". when i use "get add-ons", otoh, i get things which end up under "extensions". how does one get a "plug-in"?

afaict, toolbars and video DLers are "extensions", whereas handlers for outside apps (video players, acrobat, MS office) are "plug-ins". the diff seems minor at best - is there some more obvious distinction i'm missing?

moreover, when i reinstalled FF, it came with the plug-ins section chock full of stuff, but extensions fully empty. i guess this is ok, but it's far from intuitive.

:confused

 

In Firefox, if you go to Tools -> Add-ons, on the left you'll see Get Add-ons, Extensions, Appearance, Plugins and Services headings. Clicking on each heading, will bring up a different group of items so, yes, Add-ons is a "catch-all" term.

I'm running FF 24 and the extensions heading only has 5 items — Flagfox, Ghostery, IDM CC, mail.com MailCheck and Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant. The first four extensions were items I chose to add to FF.

The plugins heading has 14 items — Adobe Acrobat, Google Update, ITunes Application Detector, Java Deployment Toolkit (disabled), Java Platform SE, 2 x Microsoft DRM, Shockwave Flash, Shockwave for Director, Silverlight Plug-in, VLC Web Plugin, Winamp Application Detector, Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library and Windows Presentation Foundation. So, as you can see, all of the plugins are installed by applications.

Hopefully, this will explain the difference between extensions and plug-ins.

 

not really. i have similar things under plug-ins, but why, for example is "VLC" there while "VLC Toolbar" and "VLC Downloader" are "extensions"?

plus, why are they using the word "extensions" in the first place? for most of us, an extension is the final chars (usually 3) on a filename -- .txt, .doc, .mp3, etc. is there some inherent connection between those and FF extensions? i'm not seeing it.

 

An extension on a file name defines the file type.

An extension in Firefox extends the browser functionality. A typical such extension e.g. is Forecastfox, which adds weather forecast information into the status bar.

 

doesn't ability to play VIDEOS qualify as extending functionality? why are those "plug-ins", rather than extensions?

FF cannot display a PDF w/o the acrobat "plug-in". again, how is that any less of an "extension" in functionality than enabling it to import weather data?

near as i can tell, the "major" extensions are called "plug-ins", and the "minor" ones (apps i've never heard of) are called "extensions". no?

 

The term "Add-On" is used for both Plugins and Extensions since they both add some functionality to installed software.

The way I see it, a Plugin refers to some functionality added from an outside source or another program.
You can have a plugin for a PDF Viewer already installed on your computer or a plugin for a media player or a component from
some security software already installed like an anti-virus program or other anti-malware program.

Extensions are brought in from "outside" and can have more configurable options. They are more likely designed specifically for
a particular software to add some feature(s) to that software.

Browser Plugins vs Extensions – the difference

 

great link!

imma go make a fresh pot of coffee and settle in for the night studying that.... :major