Firefox about:config privacy settings • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#151

Post by bmurphy1976 » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 2:30 PM UTC

bmurphy1976 wrote: post #18

pcwalton wrote: post #8

I don't like encouraging mucking around in about:config, but I might as well mention this one. If you don't mind your window losing vibrancy and rounded corners, you should be able to significantly improve battery life on macOS by setting "gfx.compositor.glcontext.opaque" to true. This makes WindowServer stop drawing whatever is behind the Firefox window. This bug tracks the proper solution: https://bugzilla.mozilla.…

I have a new 2018 MBP with an i9. I've noticed I can squeeze upwards of six hours battery out of it using Safari. With Firefox I'm lucky to get three. I made this change just to see. So far it does appear to have lowered the energy impact score a bit, but I'm not sure it's enough to matter yet. I guess we'll know in a couple hours. Edit: 20 minutes in and I've watched my Time Remaining estimate creep up from 3 hours…

For anybody reading this after-the-fact, I was able to squeeze just shy of 6 hours out of my laptop with this change.

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#152

Post by Drdrdrq » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 6:13 PM UTC

dao- wrote: post #136

Drdrdrq wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! Says Google, right? Anything that gets sent to them is too much.

Says Mozilla, and the source code is available for anyone to double-check. Google doesn't have control over what data Firefox sends to the safe browsing API.

Let me fix that for you: Google doesn't have direct control...

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#153

Post by guilhas » Fri, Sep 14, 2018, 1:37 PM UTC

floatingatoll wrote: post #150

guilhas wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is HN. Advanced knowledge is not an issue. People making changes to user.js will have some knowledge of what they are doing, and handle the issues. The post points some security/privacy extensions to complement. Nothing that a user changing user.js wouldn't already know.

Presuming intimate knowledge of second- and third-order consequences from seemingly-innocuous preference changes is guaranteed to be a losing bet, even among tech enthusiasts and experts. I missed the high risk resist-fingerprinting setting and had no idea it would cause so many problems. Those problems certainly are not documented in the gist and I would have fallen prey to them if I had applied it unaware. Advanced…

So that's you, but don't say that they should not share their knowledge because it does not follow your standards. I'm more than happy to see someone experience on this, what what worked for them, compare with mine. Better have something than nothing, not everyone have time to write a blog post every time they change one setting.

You change it. Have issues. Realize it does not work for you. Change it back. If you're not sure or don't have time to deal with it, don't do it. Not difficult is it?

Ans a said previously the responsibility is in the person making the change to their browser, no one is forcing them.

This is my preferred approach: https://github.com/ghacksuserjs/ghacks-user.js https://github.com/pyllyukko/user.js

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#154

Post by floatingatoll » Sun, Sep 16, 2018, 2:42 PM UTC

guilhas wrote: post #153

floatingatoll wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presuming intimate knowledge of second- and third-order consequences from seemingly-innocuous preference changes is guaranteed to be a losing bet, even among tech enthusiasts and experts. I missed the high risk resist-fingerprinting setting and had no idea it would cause so many problems. Those problems certainly are not documented in the gist and I would have fallen prey to them if I had applied it unaware. Advanced…

So that's you, but don't say that they should not share their knowledge because it does not follow your standards. I'm more than happy to see someone experience on this, what what worked for them, compare with mine. Better have something than nothing, not everyone have time to write a blog post every time they change one setting. You change it. Have issues. Realize it does not work for you. Change it back. If you're…

Sharing knowledge respectfully and without overstatement or misrepresentation is a bar I’m not willing to lower. We’ll have to settle for disagreeing on this point.