The Firebug web development tool, an open source add-on to the Firefox browser, is being discontinued after 12 years, replaced by Firefox Developer Tools.
Firebug will be dropped with next month’s release of Firefox Quantum (version 57). The Firebug tool lets developers inspect, edit, and debug code in the Firefox browser as well as monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript in webpages. It still has more than a million people using it, said Jan Honza Odvarko, who has been the leader of the Firebug project. Many extensions were built for Firebug, which is itself is an extension to Firefox.Mozilla began migrating Firebug features to the built-in Firefox debugging tools in 2016. Core Firefox developer tools include a page inspector, web console, JavaScript debugger, and network monitor.
The goal is to make debugging native to Firefox. “Sometimes, it’s better to start from scratch, which is especially true for software development,” Odvarko said. To try Firefox Developer Tools, you can download Firefox Quantum: Developer Edition or update to the current Firefox browser. Mozilla provides guidance on migrating from Firebug to Firefox Developer Tools.