thank you very much luigi for this wonderful extension

[B00ze64]

I understand you Luis, WebExtensions is a stupid move, but I don't see why you can't keep on working on your extensions until at least a year after FF57. A lot of us will stay behind and NOT upgrade to FF57. Some, like me, will stick with the last ESR that has XUL forever, or at least until most of our addOns have replacements (which will take years for me, considering I run 74 addOns). You could keep fixing bugs well past FF57, why quit now?

[tonglil]

Thank you, this is my most used addon, and I appreciate your work to maintain it since Firefox removed the feature.

Is there any way you would consider adding maintainers to this project to maintain the extension until FF57?

[leggewie]

I am shocked about the news. I cannot imagine my browser without Tab Groups. Thank you for keeping it alive after it was abandoned upstream and making it more awesome than it's ever been upstream. I share the hope of the others expressed here that Tab Groups can somehow be kept alive until a replacement is on the horizon. I dread having to consider to stay behind with a buggy browser like @B00ze64 since having a browser without tabgroup-functionality is not an option for me.

[eugenp]

Hey Luis, jumping in here after reading the news. First, thanks for all the work you've been doing on this. Tab Groups is certainly an integral part of the Firefox experience, and probably the only thing that keep me from moving to Chrome for all these years.

One quick question popped into my mind when I read your announcement. It makes no sense working on this for free. Why not make it paid? I'm sure lots of users would be happy paying for it, either as a single payment or as a 1 year recurring payment (to continue getting updates). Not only that, but perhaps a quick Kickstarter campaign to jumpstart that support would be a simple way to test that decision and say - if the Kickstarter gets to {insert financial target here} - then I can keep working on it. If not - then no.

Hope that all makes sense. Cheers and best of luck, Eugen.

[clawoflight]

Thanks a lot for this. I'm a student with no budget, but I will donate something anyway in the next few weeks just because. I would also back a fundraiser. Either way, thank you so much for keeping it alive and well and improving it! :)

[Quicksaver]

Hey everyone, first of all, thank you all for your words of support! I truly appreciate it. :)

I will probably be fixing any critical bugs until then if necessary, as long as they're not too complex or they don't take too much time, so that it works for as long as it can. Everyone's still welcome to make pull requests as well of course.

I have thought about kickstarter and patreon options for a long time. The point I tried to make was that I can't use all of my time on it, it's not (just) about money. I would love to continue work as I do now, a few hours every couple of weeks adding something new every now and then, but at my own pace. That's impossible given the what's coming.

And I couldn't make it a pay-only thing. I could charge for services in the add-on, but not for the add-on itself; Mozilla guidelines, and those I do agree with. ;)

[eugenp]

Hey @Quicksaver - yeah, that makes sense. The reason I suggested going the paid route was - as far as I'm aware, paid add-ons already exist. For example - I am using one of them - Right Inbox. I think there's a very limited free version as well, but the main one is the paid one. And there are several more out there. The one thing I think is important is - you might have to put a limited free version in the standard library. So, I haven't looked into it, but based on that they're more or less OK with Mozilla, and quite successful products on their own.

Anyways, just a suggestion of course - because I like the plugin and I'd love to support a campaign backing the large dev push that's required. I'm sure many others would as well.

Cheers, Eugen.

[rusins]

Tab-Groups is an incredibly important part of my daily workflow. As a Computer Science student, I can't possibly imagine having 40+ tabs open and having them organized without this addon. Huge thank-you to you.

I too don't see any reason why I would upgrade Firefox in the near future, but if it's needed eventually, then I'd be down to contribute to rewriting this in the new extension format. Tab-groups saves me so much time that I wouldn't mind. I hope things work out, and just wanted to show you some more gratitude and potential support. Thank you!

[klonamy]

Just thanks. Just thanks.

I am a heavy user of Tab-Groups. Maybe there is a way to help you with the porting? Like a donation goal for a developer or so? That way it is less time consumeing for you.

Anyway was just a quick thought. But thanks again for this addon.

[cipri-tom]

Received the last notice. Such sad sad news !! 😭 Thank you for the amazing work in all these years! I couldn't have survived the internet without tab-groups. Hoping something will come up. Side-loading or something ... We can't completely lose such important contributions.

[dgutov]

It's a sad news indeed. I would back a fundraiser, but not donate to the short-term efforts (the current version works well anyway).

Luís, the notice said

but only after an almost complete rewrite of the code (with some major work done on Firefox's side as well!)

If you don't do all of this yourself, I think guiding and/or contributing to the work on Firefox's side would be most valuable from you. It's easier to get into working on an extension, and the odds are better that someone else (or multiple people) can pick that up.

[mausalimi]

sad, but i guess we simply have to accept it.

thanks for the work you've done in the past.

[rinaldi6109]

I don't use this addon very often but after having read your last advice I felt the need to write to you and say thank you for your work and say that I admire your measured style. You are an example for the life of many.

[nikhita]

Just received the last notice. It's very sad to hear that Tab Groups will be discontinued. Thank you for such a wonderful add on! I cannot even think of browsing without it - will definitely stay back with an older version of FF just for this.

I would love to contribute to port it to the Web Extensions format (if that is a possibility).

Also, sad to hear that the experience has been anything but joyous for you. I wish you the best of luck for your future projects and hope that they will be fun and exciting! :smile:

[antoneliasson]

Thank you for your great work with this addon and thank you for your detailed letter. Best of luck in the future!

[PrototypeNM1]

Very sad to hear, Tab Groups is a rare productivity booster to me.

Have you documented the trouble points and/or ideas on what a rewrite for WebExtensions would require? There's a core subset of the functionality I need for my workflow, so I wonder if it would be easier to achieve on my time.

[dralley]

I'd also like to extend my thanks for all of the work you've put into this addon. I have been using tab groups since they were introduced in Firefox 4, and I'm tremendously grateful that you resurrected it after it was removed from Firefox proper.

@Quicksaver, would you consider creating a new development branch where other developers can direct pull requests for WebExtensions work? Would you be willing to accept those pull requests if they were submitted? I'm sure many of us (myself included) would like to contribute if such an effort is possible. It is unlikely that a WebExtensions version of Tab Groups would ever be quite as flexible as the current one, but the core functionality is a fantastic help to a lot of people's workflows.

[iShyboy]

Thanks for the work all these years. Now I have to take my Firefox ESR and place my TG ESR there.

Maybe not as easily as TG but even in chrome we have some nice tab managers, I just hope that something TG-like pops up.

[ethus3h]

My hope is for a Seamonkey-style semi-fork to pop up that maintains the current Firefox UI but with current Gecko…

[mechalynx]

I'd like to extend my thanks as well and second what dralley said - there's a lot of us that can lend a hand with this and would be willing to help.

I might have misunderstood your letter on the update, but it seems this is something difficult but not impossible under WebExtensions. I'll try to dig in once I get some free time.

Regardless, thanks again! I remember my relief when I noticed someone had provided a replacement for tab groups when the feature was killed.

[DeHuilendeHacker]

Thank you for the wonderfull tab group years!!! I'm truly going to have a difficult time using firefox without it... I too would pay for it, but I understand the time issue.

[hipersayanX]

@Quicksaver thank you very much for your work in this great add-on, it was a must feature. Is sad to see how Firefox developers continue killing it's user base.

[Atario]

Remember when it was Firefox that set the pace and Chrome that tried to be a clone, instead of the other way around? I remember.

[wmtomar]

@Quicksaver Inscrevi-me no github apenas para agradecer o teu esforço e dedicação no trabalho que tiveste.

Sou utilizador à muito tempo, e acho que estás a fazer o que é correcto. Pelo que apesar de ficar triste de não as puder usar mais, compreendo os motivos e concordo a 100%.

Abraço

(English) @Quicksaver I've signed up in github only to thano you for your effort and dedication in the work you've done.

I'm a user for a long time, and i think you are doing the right thing. So despite beeing sad for not using it anymore, i understand the motivation and agree to them 10%

Cheers

[Saborknight]

Don't let Tab Groups die! My life depends on it! It is literally the only addon I am ALWAYS using! :(

[AlexandreBonneau]

Like everybody here I just read your last notice, and I wanted to say thank you for your ongoing effort during the past few years.

Thanks!

[BenjamenMeyer]

@Quicksaver thanks for your work....I must say, TabGroups is the primary reason I continue to use Firefox at all. There just isn't anything like it in any other browser, and I am a heavy user of tab groups - 52 tab groups in the browser I am typing this, I think I have more on my laptop for my primary job, with any where from 5 to 100+ tabs in any given group. :crying_cat_face: that Mozilla is doing this - it'll probably be the death of Firefox if they go forward with it (unfortunately likely).

[udovdh]

TabGroups or a very compatible replacement are very important to my way of browsing. So how can we keep this functionality working? Who can do this work? At what terms? Donations needed?

[piemonkey]

I'd like to echo the thanks from everyone here, especially given your experience of working on the project. Thanks for working so hard despite no longer finding it the fun learning experience you intended.

As a web developer I'm interested in helping with the effort to implement a WebExtensions version. I've never worked on a browser extension before, but am not overly daunted by the idea of learning. One major concern I have however is based on an aside in your notice; you mention "some major work done on Firefox's side" which would be required. Could you clarify this further? I take it this is improvements to the WebExtensions api that Firefox presents? Would this require us to not only implement these changes browser-side but also persuade Mozilla to accept them into Firefox? If so, I think this presents the biggest roadblock to this project continuing, so any additional detail you can give would be greatly appreciated.

[Quicksaver]

One major concern I have however is based on an aside in your notice; you mention "some major work done on Firefox's side" which would be required. Could you clarify this further?

Let me try to quickly sum it up. The "core" of the add-on, as in define what tabs are in a group and make them in/visible appropriately could be achievable fairly easily with few additional API work. It's making the browser behave appropriately according to that info that is more complicated.

The biggest hindrance, IMO, to that is the asynchronous nature of WebExtension APIs. A quick example is the behavior of the browser when you close tabs, especially the last visible tab, the browser has no idea what do then, it's Tab Groups that controls whether to open a new tab, switch to another group, etc. You can't control this through asynchronous APIs because that would require the browser to wait on a response from the extension on that action (so it wouldn't be asynchronous anymore). Which means that this degree of control must be done on the side of the browser. Not to mention that if not done and controlled properly and synchronously, it could lead to the browser loading other tabs unnecessarily (something which was happening in the first few releases of Tab Groups as well), wasting resources for nothing. IMO this is a crucial part of the groups experience that I wouldn't feel right just leaving half-done.

They (Mozilla) do want to make this kind of necessary changes to the browser to implement new APIs easier to achieve without a lot of action on their part, but of course it will still be subject to an extremely high degree of scrutiny because they can't accept just anything into their code. Plus of course, anything that changes the behavior of the browser in any way must also be carefully considered on their part. (None of this process is up yet, I have no idea of what the timeline is on this to be perfectly honest, could be soon, could not. Right now you have to do it all still as if you were working on Firefox yourself, I also don't believe WebExtensions Experiments bring any benefit on that front yet either.)

That is just a quick example that pops into my head, but there are more and quite possibly some that I haven't even considered yet. Anything related to keyboard shortcuts will probably be a nightmare... But most of it should be doable at least.

[piemonkey]

...there are more and quite possibly some that I haven't even considered yet.

Thanks for your response. I'm not going to get much time to work on this immediately, but hopefully it's not just me who ends up interested. Let me know if you think of anything more major that we'd have to look out for.

[misterHippo]

I would like to add my voice to the mass of others here, and say I feel your disappointment.

Tab-Groups is indispensable to my workflow. I'm a web developer in a work place where interruptions are just par for the course. TabGroups mean I can shelve sites and research instantly. You have really made my working life easier.

And for that, I thank you. A lot. Frankly, I don't know how to adapt from here. Hopefully someone takes up the torch from you and continues.

Good luck in the future :)

[spartanatreyu]

There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said.

All I can say is:

Thanks bro <3

[ghost]

I'll write a thank you here too! I seriously wouldn't know how to handle 60+ tabs without your plugin. As said in another post, I'm already looking into ways for me to re-write it or start from scratch using this as a template. Will you be removing this from Github? If so, I'll want to fork it to use as a reference.

[Quicksaver]

Thank you all so much for the support you've been showing me here, I truly appreciate it. ❤️ 😄

@maximstewart the code will stay here in Github for as long as it exists probably, there's no reason to remove it. You're welcome to fork it and do whatever you want with it. Good luck! I hope something good turns out.

[koalie]

Thank you @Quicksaver for your hard work and in particular for TabGroups! And thanks to @maximstewart and all others who may be up to forking it and recoding it! <3

[vanillacyborg]

Add another thank you to the list! Thank you so much! This is the more useful addon I've ever encountered in 10+ years as a Firefox user. I'm so dissapointed in the direction Mozilla is going, ditching what it was the main reason to stick with Firefox despite all of its shortcomings in these last years. I think that after this I will, like many other power users, finally leave Firefox. Once again, thank you, know that your hard work was greatly appreciated.

[Spitfire1900]

Many thanks for creating and maintaining this Add-On, I may switch from Developer to ESR to keep it around as long as possible. It greatly increased my productivity at work as each individual task could have a half-dozen tabs open and I could keep them categorized. I understand why Mozilla removed the feature originally as it wasn't used heavily by myself or others outside of work or hobby activities. I won't dive into the Web Extensions debate, but I hope that it is healthy in the long term.

Good luck on future projects and thanks for your contributions and positive impact on my day-to-day web browsing.

[technoplunk]

Thank you for the work you did keeping this feature available for as long as you did. I found tab groups to be invaluable to my workflow and was very happy to see you pick it up after mozilla initially removed it.

[shangles]

Thank you for taking the initiative to replace a wonder feature of Firefox that Mozilla said nobody wanted. I wish you the best of luck in your future, and I hope someone with your skills and your passion will pickup where you left off - and keep this Tab Group implementation ball rolling.

[Jenselme]

Thank you for maintaining and improving this feature after it was removed from the "core" of FireFox. Like many people here, I always have many tabs opened and Tab-Groups is the best way to work with them.

I do hope we'll see a version compatible with WebExtensions. I may be able to contribute to a port (I will at least be able to do some testing).

Again: thanks for you astonishing work.

[mikhoul]

Thanks @Quicksaver for the time you dedicated to this add-on.

If somebody like @maximstewart fork it let me know, I will be willing contribute on a fork. I'm learning JS as a hobby and it would be a good exercise for me to learn about the Firefox/Chrome API.

Regards :octocat:

[cruzzer]

Thank you @Quicksaver for your time and effort for a feature that we all have benefited from so greatly. Even more so as you yourself don't even seam to be it's biggest user.

I had not been aware that the introduction of webextensions would change firefox in such a profound way. Hopefully they will not give up what has made firefox so compelling, their powerful plugin system.

[BenjamenMeyer]

@Quicksaver given the level of people willing to contribute here, might it be wise to setup a GitHub Organization to move Tab-Groups to and allow the community to form around? $0.02

[irvinm]

I'll add my 2 cents and thanks. I wasn't a big fan of tab groups until over the last year or so. I have since changed how I group my areas of interest and I LOVE how things are working now from grouping, to visualization, to searching for tabs. I am so disheartened by what is going to happen in FF 57. Tab groups has grown own me so much, I can't imagine going back to a vanilla browser.

Who knows but things might change before FF 57, but most likely many of my add-ons will stop working and everything I love about Firefox (Or Cyberfox in my case :) will be gone.

Thank you for everything you have done to this point @Quicksaver.

[Nefari0uss]

Will be very sad to see this addon (like many others you've worked on) no longer work. Fully respect your decisions and reasons for them. Hopefully WebExtensions will mature enough that one day you will make more fantastic Firefox extensions.

Thanks for everything @Quicksaver .

[Lusito]

@Quicksaver: Just a short idea on your issue mentioned here:

The biggest hindrance, IMO, to that is the asynchronous nature of WebExtension APIs. A quick example is the behavior of the browser when you close tabs, especially the last visible tab, the browser has no idea what do then, it's Tab Groups that controls whether to open a new tab, switch to another group, etc. You can't control this through asynchronous APIs because that would require the browser to wait on a response from the extension on that action (so it wouldn't be asynchronous anymore).

I've just started porting my own extension to web-extension (mostly for chrome tho, since firefox just lost all of its appeal). So I have an overview of what is possible with web-extensions. There is no way to add a hidden view like the current tab-groups manager, so you'd have to either put it in an action-button panel (which would make it hard to work with), or you'd put it in a (pinned) tab. I think that using a pinned tab could avoid the issue you described above.. since add-on tab will always be there, there is no need to act synchronously on a tab-close event.

Creating screenshots of the tabs visible area is still possible and using the html5 history api, you can set the history correctly as well. So rewriting it from scratch with reduced features should be possible even without changes in firefox. Maybe I'm missing something here tho.

[tom-rice]

I'm not familiar with how the available APIs compare to Chrome at the moment but I did find this Chrome extension a good start at trying to achieve a similar thing: Tab Sugar unfortunately it never got out of alpha but since @Lusito brought this up I'm just putting it here for reference sake in case it helps anybody.

Thanks @Quicksaver for keeping this feature alive as long as you could. Tab groups has been one of the main few things that made me stick to Firefox for so many years.

[maverick74]

@Quicksaver are you aware of Mozilla's Meta Bug:

Extend WebExtensions with custom APIs so more legacy add-ons can be ported ?

It's terrible news to see such great addons (TabGroups, FindBar-Tweak, Beyond Australis, etc) going away :(

But, THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR WORK!!!

[Lusito]

@tom-rice: Since there is a lot of code in the Tab Sugar add-on, I can't be certain how much can be ported, but yes, that seems like a good starting point. It seems this is not a Web-Extension, but it is very similar to it, so I'm assuming this was googles first attempt at extensions, later to be standardized as web-extensions. Web-Extensions should be portable between supported browsers with few changes (as long as the browsers support the APIs in use).

Edit: just tried the add-on on chrome, but it's buggy as hell / not usable. Not sure if this is due to the age.. Maybe it can be used as reference for some things, but I'm guessing getting into their code and fixing it will take as much time as doing it the modern way from scratch.