Global extensions are extensions that are not installed into a profile. Therefore, the extensions is always available, even in a new profile. Yes, I am talking about extensions, not plugins. Plugins can also be global, there are a few ways to achieve this on the various platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux).
However, only Windows had the capability to install global extensions, using the Windows registry. Thanks to bug 311008 and bug 412449, global extensions are now possible on Linux and Mac too. The magic paths:
Linux:
/usr/lib/mozilla/extensions/(or /usr/lib64/mozilla/extensions/ ) /usr/share/mozilla/extensions/ ~/.mozilla/extensions/
OSX:
/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/Extensions/~/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/Extensions/
Note that it is possible to limit the extensions to a specific user as well. The new MDC documentation goes into more detail. Hopefully, this makes deploying 3rd party extensions a bit easier.
Cool. What about uninstallation? Is it as simple as deleting the the files and restarting? IIRC, it was quite a chore to delete global extensions in Mozilla Suite, but of course that was some time ago. Hope it’s easier with 1.9.
This is great. Would be nice if there was a:
/Library/Application Support/Mozilla/Firefox/Extensions/
So Thunderbird can do the same in the future and keep that namespace working consistently.