Well, given the choice between enabling add-ons that might be compatible or incompatible, I think it makes sense to use the version range specified by the author of the add-on. If add-on authors want their add-ons to run on newer versions of Firefox, that certainly is within their power. If they prefer to wait until they can complete testing, or not to support newer versions of Firefox, you as a power user can edit their add-on or, if the license permits, develop a newer version.

This should not be in the hands of developers. This should be a choice for the consumer. It should not require coding, or any other sort of edit to the add-on itself.

Add-ons are developed for and tested with specific Firefox versions. If you update Firefox then there is no guarantee that add-ons still works. All add-ons come with an installation file that defines a minimum and maximum Firefox version that the add-on works with.

If you see disabled, not compatible, extensions in "Tools > Add-ons > Extensions" then click the Tools button at the left side of the Search Bar (or click the "Find Updates" button in older Firefox versions) to do a compatibility check or see if there is an update.

I'm having a similar problem - even when I have add-ons that say they are updated/compatible with FF4, I can't get them to work at all. I have uninstalled & re-installed them but to no avail....

@vampfan30, you might want to start a new question so it picks up your plugin information and other system details.

You say this as if I didn't already know it, and is if the fact that I know it wasn't intimated in my original post.

I am not confused as to how add-ons work. I am saying that Firefox itself, independent of add-ons, should make version-checking for add-ons optional. There are add-ons that do this, but they are made moot if Firefox prevents me from using them.