As Mozilla noted, other browser makers have also ditched NPAPI plugins. Google dropped support in April with the release of Chrome 42, and Microsoft killed them with the launch of Edge in July.

Netscape's open source descendent will be removing NPAPI plugin support by the end of 2016. Some variants of the browser, such as 64-bit Firefox for Windows, already lack this plugin support.

Mozilla will follow in Google's footsteps and bar virtually all plug-ins built using a decades-old technology by the end of next year.

Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge have already dropped support for NPAPI plugins, so Mozilla is playing a bit of catch-up here.

Late Thursday, Mozilla announced on its blog that Firefox would stop supporting plugins based on the Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) architecture by the end of 2016.

Starting with March 7, when Mozilla is scheduled to release Firefox 52, all plugins built on the old NPAPI technology will stop working in Firefox, except for Flash, which Mozilla plans to support ...