alt Hacker NewsOn desktop Firefox, you can download an extension from anywhere and install it. All they're gatekeeping is their own repository, which I think most of us would like them to do.
I think mobile requires using a nightly build to install extensions from outside Mozilla's repository, and that suggests their thinking is becoming contaminated by the rest of the mobile ecosystem.
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To add on to the other replies, you *can* load unsigned extensions with desktop Firefox if the build you're using disabled the signing requirement at build time. A bunch of distros' FF packages do that, for example, and is why I use a bunch of extensions I wrote myself (and thus trust) for myself without having to deal with Mozilla. (Zip up the files, change the file extension to `.xpi`, drop it in `$libdir/firefox/browser/extensions/`)
Are you certain extensions can be downloaded and installed from anywhere? Firefox's documentation[1] states "Extensions and themes need to be signed by Mozilla before they can be installed in release and beta versions of Firefox." If UBlock Lite was rejected through Mozilla's signing API, they'd have no ability to create an XPI that can be installed by release/beta version of Firefox.
[1]: https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/signing-...
No, the normal version blocks (at least permanent) installs. You need the developer version to install unsigned extensions.
You can no longer package extensions yourself and if you try using "Load add on from file" you get that extension loaded but it's gone after a restart. All extensions have to be signed first to be permanent and Mozilla denied to fix that on their bug tracker.