The much awaited Firefox 64-bit build for Windows is finally here. Mozilla released bug report 1225293 today which indicates company’s plans to add Microsoft Silverlight support in its Winx64 version of Firefox. Mozilla recently silently launched Firefox 64-bit for Windows OS with a support for Silverlight. However, company hasn’t yet revealed when this version of Firefox will be listed in official download site.
Firefox 64-bit build for Windows, for now is available only on the download archive of Mozilla which probably means that it is still under trial. Mozilla reportedly wants to check for the bugs and other functionality issues before adding it into the official download page of the company.
Firefox 64-bit may probably come with Firefox 44 which currently under development and is scheduled for a release in January 2016 or Firefox 45 which will probably be released by March 2016. However, there is also Firefox 43 lined up release in near future, but it might not include Silverlight support. No version of Firefox currently supports the plugin.
Firefox anyway, is the only web browser which still supports NPAPI plugins – other popular browsers Microsoft’s Edge and Google Chrome already have stopped the support.
The Silverlight support seems to be temporary, as stated in a blog post earlier this year, Firefox announced that it will stop supporting most plugins by 2016 end which includes plugins like flash, Silverlight and other browser plugins.
Since I stopped installing Java & Silverlight and started blocking third-party cookies I only have to run malware scanners once a month. Now they only find a few tracking cookies and nothing else.
As Silverlight was effectively binned by MS two years ago and hasn’t been supported by Chrome since early this year this would appear to make no sense at all. Firefox is going to party like it’s 2013?
64-bit Silverlight will be supported in Firefox 43. It has already been enabled on the Firefox 43 Beta channel.
Netflix uses HTML5 video in 64-bit Firefox, but many regional video services (such as Amazon Video, Canal+, and HBO Go in Europe) still rely on Silverlight. 64-bit Firefox users would not be able to use those services without 64-bit Silverlight. In the meantime, those services can migrate to HTML5 video.