Earlier quoted context omitted.
They made it default. It's called Normandy.
A place most people associate with the largest amphibious invasion in history seems a curious choice of codeword.
They invaded nazis, so it's all good.
Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
351–360 of 392 posts
Re: Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why would anyone want to upgrade from XP? Is that a serious question? Security? Compatibility with Modern hardware? If you want to use a car analogy, what you're asking is 'why would anyone want to upgrade from a Model T?
Microsoft could drop newer Windows versions and instead focus on improving Windows XP.
That ship has sailed many years ago.
Re: Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
But Chromium still has most, if not all, the Google integration. There are forks that try to strip Google from it, but it is a mistake to assume that Chromium is somehow better than Chrome.
Firefox by default sends all your searches to Google, and uses Google search suggestions (so sends all typed in text to Google). What other integrations, specifically please, does Chromium have with Google? Aside: do Google serve the Firefox Newtab adverts, perhaps that "feature" was added for the extra money Firefox are getting from Google?
Many things.
1. It uses Google DNS internally, bypassing system DNS.
2. First-run analytics to Google, new tab page analytics to Google.
3. Various built-in google services that phone home: Google Host Detector, Google URL Tracker, Google Cloud Messaging, Google Hotwording, Google Safe Browsing, WiveDine DRM, Google AutoFill, etc.
4. Update checks for all these components (the browser does not have update, but the rest does).
5. Countless accesses to Google, such as geo-location to find nearest Google server, ping probes for connectivity, etc. For a list of domains that are accessed by Chromium, see this regex used by the ungoogled-chromium project: https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium/blob/30969fddf...
More info at https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium/tree/30969fddf....
I see no problem with neither Chrome nor Firefox defaulting to Google search and suggestions, as that is easily configurable for normal users. All of the above, however, is not.
Re: Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chromium has a working exploit (AFAIK it still is not patched) that allows third-party code to masquerade as first-party code. Unless you run a special addon[1], you are vulnerable to this. The fact that I still can't find that it's patched now tells me nothing good about the health of the ecosystem and who it is meant to serve. That should be all the reason you need to switch to Firefox, which admittedly also has hu…
You make it sound like it's a third-party RCE; but it's a cookie bypass, so it's tracking -- that's serious still [and the implementation sounds illegal to me]. The companies Instart Manager (used by cnet, tomshardware, etc., see link) and Upmanager that are doing this workaround of ublock -- are they not able to attack other browsers, only Chromium? I guess one benefit of being the biggest advertising company is tha…
> workaround of ublock
This has nothing to do with ublock origin specifically, ublock origin's author just happens to have a band-aid for this exploit. Assuming I don't misunderstand what is happening, any other blocking plugin is vulnerable as well.
> people don't want to mess with Google's stuff
I don't understand what you're saying. Chromium is vulnerable and by extension, so is Chrome.
Edit:
> You make it sound like it's a third-party RCE
I don't think I am. I said third-party code looks like first-party code, that is precisely what is happening.
Re: Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chromium is not Chrome. It does not have auto-update. Surprisingly this gives more control by default than with Firefox.
I find it very disturbing that the very dangerous issue with Chrome and its family is not discussed here, which is the erosion of web standards. tl;dr : Choosing anything based on Chromium is giving the death sentence to the Web "democracy" Moving to a Chromium based browser is letting more and more market share to a browser engine whose roadmap is fully determined by Google. The issue trackers of Chromium or Android…
It is disheartening how we seem to learn so little from history, even recent one. It seems like yesterday that the web managed to come out from under the stranglehold of IE and now the wheel turns yet again. This time it may be even harder to break the monopoly since billions of ordinary web surfers have little to no idea of these issues and default to Chrome because it is pre-installed and has almost become synonymous for a browser.
Re: Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
> why am I opted-in to a Studies program in Firefox's default state? (With no explicit information about what it is) I came here to mention exactly this. I don't mind the certificate issue (as long as there is a post mortem and they learn something from it). I was wondering how my addons came back automatically (without me having to upgrade to 66.0.4) and I found out about this studies thing, which I never consented…
You could just turn off all studies in Firefox. It's a simple option: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/shield#w_to-opt-out-of-...
I did. The problem is:
- I had never heard of "Studies" before; which leads to
- I never agreed to be a part of Studies in the first place.
The docs says it must be opted in, so supposedly I have to give consent to it. I don't remember doing so. For all my life, I've always rejected any survey, opt-in request and similar stuff. I do admit there is a small, unlikely chance that I did opt-in. Maybe I misclicked it? Maybe I thought I was rejecting when I was actually agreeing to? Maybe someone else was using my computer and opted-in?
If this is indeed opt-in, and this unlikely scenario did happen, then I apologize for the rant. But I can't remember the prompt at all, and I would never consciously opt-in, hence the feeling of betrayal.
For the record: I now know what Studies are. I acknowledge that companies need to run A/B experiments in order to enhance their products. I just don't want to be opted-in by default.
Re: Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
#357Good move, congrats on surviving the second armag-add-on finally BUT I won't be moving from chromium until Firefox (or Mozilla) explains: - why am I opted-in to a Studies program in Firefox's default state? (With no explicit information about what it is) - what does app.normandy.enabled switch do and why is its default value is True and doesn't change to false when I explicitly state I don't want to be in the Studies…
> why am I opted-in to a Studies program in Firefox's default state? (With no explicit information about what it is) I came here to mention exactly this. I don't mind the certificate issue (as long as there is a post mortem and they learn something from it). I was wondering how my addons came back automatically (without me having to upgrade to 66.0.4) and I found out about this studies thing, which I never consented…
> And the problem is, what browser am I supposed to use from now on? Lynx? Sigh
You can try Firefox from your distribution's repositories. eg. Debian disables this sort of things.
Re: Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
In this case, I was more insecure being subjected to advertising networks (and the malware carried on them) because of Firefox's mistake which meant I wasn't able to load ublock origin. I'm also not sure how many of those "security patches" are intended to make my browsing experience safer, or simply meant to implement bizarre policies that might blow up in my face at any time (as this certificate issue has). It's a…
>I was more insecure being subjected to advertising networks >2019 >not running your own ad network blocking DNS Why even bother?
A 4-channer on HN. A rare sight indeed!
Re: Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chromium is definitely worse. While these deserve an explanation, you should not wait to move. Chrome is spyware that does web browsing. It's parent company also shows ads, all the time. Chrome's auto update not only allows them to silently update or change your browser, it allows them to silently install other software on your computer. Firefox is a browser. It can auto-update in a way that may be questionable, but…
I want the ethics of Firefox and the speed / user experience (eg. select & move multiple tabs) of Chrome, so I moved to Brave. It's a Chromium fork that's a bit more Firefoxy -- made by Brendan Eich, former Mozilla CEO and inventor of JS, (eg has the "Switch to Open Tab" feature I love from FF), although there's some cryptocurrency stuff thrown in that I'm not a fan of, but so far it feels like a net positive over bo…
Sadly, I'd also like more competition in the browser technology space; with Edge switching to Chromium, and Safari's years of neglect, it's not looking too good.
Re: Firefox 66.0.4 is out, fixes disabled add-ons
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
> why am I opted-in to a Studies program in Firefox's default state? (With no explicit information about what it is) I came here to mention exactly this. I don't mind the certificate issue (as long as there is a post mortem and they learn something from it). I was wondering how my addons came back automatically (without me having to upgrade to 66.0.4) and I found out about this studies thing, which I never consented…
> what browser am I supposed to use from now on? There's actually quite a few. This Wikipedia list [0] might not be the best curation, but it carries my point, somewhat. For example, I've really enjoyed the power-user browsers, like surf, luakit or uzbl. I know you were expressing the fact that we're stuck between Firefox and Chromium, because they're the only browsers able to keep up with the rapidly moving web stac…
> keep up with the rapidly moving web stack
Yeah, exactly. I mean, not even EdgeHTML could keep up!
> surf, luakit or uzbl.
Thanks for the suggestions. I had never heard of any of those three, but they look awesome! The only extension I need is Vixen (or any Vimperator-like addon), and they all seem to be keyboard-first. The only browsers I had used before were Lynx and w3m, which were way too hardcore for me. I'll give a shot with luakit. Seems to be an ideal middle ground between functionality and privacy.