4 ms·

> Well this project is now more important than ever since Firefox basically sold its soul [1]. I'm still not convinced that Firefox is The Actual Devil for pot

> Well this project is now more important than ever since Firefox basically sold its soul [1]. I'm still not convinced that Firefox is The Actual Devil for potentially appearing to perform .000001% of the bad behavior that is fully-baked into popular Chromium browsers. But for the sake of argument, lets say that .0000001% > 99.99999%. What is the browser I can install+configure right now, that will perform what Firefox does every day. For ex: natively support containers, provide fully uncrippled element control, provide reader mode when *I* want it, locally save and sync windows, provide granular redirection control, and the other functions that are mostly unique to Firefox ecosystem ?

gkbrk 2y ago
LibreWolf
- DiggyJohnson 2y ago
  Why and how?
  - eloisant 2y ago
    It's literally Firefox without all the telemetry and Mozilla's cloud services. Also a few privacy-related settings but it's mostly that.
- WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
  I will give LibreWolf a legit look-over. My browser conversations always start with "I need containers" - which rules out everything non-Firefox. Besides running Ffx, I'm also running Waterfox and Floorp - which just about exhausts my options for modern Ffx forks + Windows + Extensions.
- keyle 2y ago
  Shame they don't sign their macOS builds.
  - gkbrk 2y ago
    Can they just sign it with their PGP key or something? Or does it require paying money to Apple for no reason?
mariusor 2y ago
Zen browser which is a relatively modern fork of Firefox. https://zen-browser.app https://zen-browser.app It's relatively new, but I liked using it more than other of the forks.
- sierra1011 2y ago
  Seconded for Zen.
- latexr 2y ago
  The website looks good, but as I scroll down in mobile Safari the page starts glitching until it fully crashes and Safari says an error repeatedly occurred. It doesn’t inspire much confidence when the web page for a web browser is broken.
  - Propelloni 2y ago
    FWIW, it works fine in FF mobile.
- akimbostrawman 2y ago
  I rather not https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41887594 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41887594
  - mariusor 2y ago
    Have you tested the waters with a request for the devs to remove whatever you consider suspicious in that list? I believe the current issue regarding Firefox is it's new terms of use, which are not presently in Zen browser. Other than that is a pretty close copy of Firefox, which is the point, and why I suggested it to parent as an option.
    - akimbostrawman 2y ago
      I did not. However considering that they have advertised themselves as "privacy-focused" Firefox alternative and can't be bothered to do the most superficial of tests, I don't think they care or are competent[1] enough to change it. [1] https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/pull/927 https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/pull/927 If you want an actual private Firefox alternative there are already multiple long standing and competent projects such as arkenfox, librewolf, mullvad and tor browser.
cryptonector 2y ago
Containers is key. NoScript is wonderful. I cannot live w/o containers, but I'd really like to also have NoScript.
mikae1 2y ago
> We’ve seen a little confusion about the language regarding licenses, so I want to clear that up. We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible. Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into Firefox to perform your searches, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice. We’ve added this note to our blog to clarify, so thank you for your feedback.[1] So, did the internet explode again for no reason? [1] https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/information-about-the-new-terms-of-use-and-updated-privacy/m-p/87926/highlight/true#M33708 https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/information-about...
- jackvalentine 2y ago
  The question I can’t find answered is why now?
  - addicted 2y ago
    They could have done this on literally any date and your question would apply. Usually the answer is something really mundane. They did a privacy policy review and realized a couple of their core fewtures break the policy. Or someone new joined the team who had an interest in their privacy policy and realized it contradicts. There could be a thousand mundane reasons for why now.
    - amiga386 2y ago
      Or it could be that they announced an entirely new leadership team last week: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-leadership-growth-planning-updates/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-leadership-growt... And their "aquisition" of an adtech company last year, and their rollout of its data collection into the browser: https://news.itsfoss.com/firefox-ppa-ad/ https://news.itsfoss.com/firefox-ppa-ad/ And the US DoJ ruling last year that Google had an illegal monopoly on web search, and one of the mooted remedies was to bar Google paying to be the default search engine in other browsers... and about 90% of Mozilla's income is Google paying to be the default search engine. But sure, "why now", maybe someone reported a typo or something.
tored 2y ago
Can I backup my container configuration to a json file on disk or do I still need to sync it to the cloud to save it?
- WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
  > Can I backup my container configuration to a json file on disk or do I still need to sync it to the cloud to save it? I will guess the ability to save containers locally must be possible, based on this: Every night, my desktop ffx profiles are copied over to a VM. The VM hosts firefox as a remote app. That remote app instance of ffx has all of my sessions and saved passwords. I can access it from anywhere over VPN and they never leave the house. I'm typing on it now. Included in that are all of my containers - so in theory they're transportable. I've never thought to try to isolate them from the profile - but my gut says it should be possible.

gkbrk 2y ago

LibreWolf

DiggyJohnson 2y ago
Why and how?
- eloisant 2y ago
  It's literally Firefox without all the telemetry and Mozilla's cloud services. Also a few privacy-related settings but it's mostly that.
WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
I will give LibreWolf a legit look-over. My browser conversations always start with "I need containers" - which rules out everything non-Firefox. Besides running Ffx, I'm also running Waterfox and Floorp - which just about exhausts my options for modern Ffx forks + Windows + Extensions.
keyle 2y ago
Shame they don't sign their macOS builds.
- gkbrk 2y ago
  Can they just sign it with their PGP key or something? Or does it require paying money to Apple for no reason?

mariusor 2y ago

Zen browser which is a relatively modern fork of Firefox. https://zen-browser.app https://zen-browser.app It's relatively new, but I liked using it more than other of the forks.

sierra1011 2y ago
Seconded for Zen.
latexr 2y ago
The website looks good, but as I scroll down in mobile Safari the page starts glitching until it fully crashes and Safari says an error repeatedly occurred. It doesn’t inspire much confidence when the web page for a web browser is broken.
- Propelloni 2y ago
  FWIW, it works fine in FF mobile.
akimbostrawman 2y ago
I rather not https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41887594 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41887594
- mariusor 2y ago
  Have you tested the waters with a request for the devs to remove whatever you consider suspicious in that list? I believe the current issue regarding Firefox is it's new terms of use, which are not presently in Zen browser. Other than that is a pretty close copy of Firefox, which is the point, and why I suggested it to parent as an option.
  - akimbostrawman 2y ago
    I did not. However considering that they have advertised themselves as "privacy-focused" Firefox alternative and can't be bothered to do the most superficial of tests, I don't think they care or are competent[1] enough to change it. [1] https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/pull/927 https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/pull/927 If you want an actual private Firefox alternative there are already multiple long standing and competent projects such as arkenfox, librewolf, mullvad and tor browser.

cryptonector 2y ago

Containers is key. NoScript is wonderful. I cannot live w/o containers, but I'd really like to also have NoScript.

mikae1 2y ago

> We’ve seen a little confusion about the language regarding licenses, so I want to clear that up. We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible. Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into Firefox to perform your searches, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice. We’ve added this note to our blog to clarify, so thank you for your feedback.[1] So, did the internet explode again for no reason? [1] https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/information-about-the-new-terms-of-use-and-updated-privacy/m-p/87926/highlight/true#M33708 https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/information-about...

jackvalentine 2y ago
The question I can’t find answered is why now?
- addicted 2y ago
  They could have done this on literally any date and your question would apply. Usually the answer is something really mundane. They did a privacy policy review and realized a couple of their core fewtures break the policy. Or someone new joined the team who had an interest in their privacy policy and realized it contradicts. There could be a thousand mundane reasons for why now.
  - amiga386 2y ago
    Or it could be that they announced an entirely new leadership team last week: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-leadership-growth-planning-updates/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-leadership-growt... And their "aquisition" of an adtech company last year, and their rollout of its data collection into the browser: https://news.itsfoss.com/firefox-ppa-ad/ https://news.itsfoss.com/firefox-ppa-ad/ And the US DoJ ruling last year that Google had an illegal monopoly on web search, and one of the mooted remedies was to bar Google paying to be the default search engine in other browsers... and about 90% of Mozilla's income is Google paying to be the default search engine. But sure, "why now", maybe someone reported a typo or something.

tored 2y ago

Can I backup my container configuration to a json file on disk or do I still need to sync it to the cloud to save it?

WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
> Can I backup my container configuration to a json file on disk or do I still need to sync it to the cloud to save it? I will guess the ability to save containers locally must be possible, based on this: Every night, my desktop ffx profiles are copied over to a VM. The VM hosts firefox as a remote app. That remote app instance of ffx has all of my sessions and saved passwords. I can access it from anywhere over VPN and they never leave the house. I'm typing on it now. Included in that are all of my containers - so in theory they're transportable. I've never thought to try to isolate them from the profile - but my gut says it should be possible.