Bug#648150: Addons installed as Debian packages show up as "third-party", and 8.0 wants to disable them by default

[Stanley Pilton]

I've just come across this issue by installing iceweasel 8.0 on Debian
6.0 from mozilla.debian.net.

Users here were happily using the debian-packaged adblock-plus 1.2.1-1
that comes with Debian 6.0, but after we upgraded to iceweasel 8.0,
this was no longer the case.

The general principle should be that host-wide configuration can be
performed by the system administrator, and user-specific configuration
can also be performed by each user.  There are many examples of this
for other applications, because this is just how nice applications
work, but a simple specific example would be that screen reads both
/etc/screenrc and ~/.screenrc on startup.

There is the question of whether mere installation of a module should
result in it being enabled, without further configuration taking
place.  For xul-ext-* packages in Debian stable, the behaviour seems
to be that if there are any new addons installed since the user last
ran iceweasel, the user is told how many add-ons are new, and is given
an opportunity to disable any of the add-ons (not just the new ones).
If they don't take any action, the new add-on is effectively
"accepted" for that user.  This is okay for systems with small numbers
of add-ons and users, but it would be nicer if the system
administrator also had an option to install an add-on to make it
available, without it being activated in any way unless the user
explicitly configures use of it.  This would allow a large number of
add-ons to be maintained on a system without continual bothering of
users each time they launch their browser.

However, I am in no doubt that addons previously accepted by a user
should not be pre-selected for disabling the first time a user
launches a new version of iceweasel.

  regards, Stanley