Surprise? 40% of Firefox users don’t use add-ons

Apart from giving its users more control over its features than any other web browser out there, another strength of Firefox is the browser's add-on system.

Just like customization options provided by Firefox, add-ons give developers and users more freedom than any other browser out there (that is not based on Firefox code).

The add-on system is under fire and big changes are upcoming, and not all of the changes are welcome by part of the Firefox community.

Changes like the introduction of add-on signing, the multi-process feature Electrolysis, and concentration on WebExtensions will all impact the browser and the add-ons that are available for it at least on a temporary level.

It is only natural that Mozilla wants to know how many Firefox users are actually using add-ons in the wake of the Electrolysis roll out.

We're interested in a few stats for e10s rollout:

1) what percentage of users have no addons at all
2) what percentage have e10s whitelisted addons
3) everyone else

According to a report by Rebecca Weiss on Bugzilla, about 40% of all Firefox users don't have add-ons installed.

bcolloran just finished a cross-sectional analysis of users and estimated that approximately 40% do not have any addons installed at all.

He said this is for all channels, but that release channel is not that different from the full population.

The linked table cannot be accessed without requesting permission and it is unclear if permission will be granted if requested. According to Mrs. Weiss, the 40% value comes from all Firefox channels which would include development channels such as Nightly or Beta.

What's clear is that these 40% won't be affected by the changes to Firefox's add-on system that Mozilla will launch in the coming months and years.

That leaves 60% of users that may be effected depending on the add-ons that they have installed in their version of Firefox.

Not all of those users will be affected considering that part of the add-ons available for Firefox are signed and compatible with Electrolysis.

It would be interesting to know how many users are affected negatively by the switching on of Electrolysis and add-on signing. The question has been asked, but an answer has not been provided yet on Bugzilla.

Now You: Are you affected by upcoming changes to Firefox's add-on system?