Iceraven is a similar (in principle) fork of Firefox for Android. => https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/
Mull is another popular Firefox Android fork. It's part of the DivestOS project and available on F-Droid.
LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
61–70 of 178 posts
Re: LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mozilla ships Firefox with telemetry (aka spyware, given that it operates silently and automatically without consent) enabled by default. They also ship closed source DRM in the browser which infringes on software freedoms. Mozilla doesn't actually care that much about privacy or freedom, it's just marketing to make line go up and to the right while Mozilla staff can keep collecting paychecks for being "the good guys…
> Mozilla ships Firefox with telemetry (aka spyware, given that it operates silently and automatically without consent) enabled by default. So opt out of it. Calling it spyware is inflammatory, and disregards the reality of the world that we exist in. > It's just marketing to make line go up and to the right while Mozilla staff can keep collecting paychecks for being "the good guys". There's a lot of money involved.…
It's hidden. It's spying. It's software. It's spyware.
Re: LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
it's open source, you can simply look at the code (or, better, at the differences with firefox)
This approach also assumes that you then compile the browser from source yourself (and also do that for each future update).
Yeah, and we know it's relatively common for open source projects to end up with malicious code in them unless the project has maintainers that can be trusted.
I have LibreWolf installed and I use it from time to time (although I prefer Brave), but I don't have that much trust in project as is. I think if it had sponsorship and could afford to pay a few reputable pro-privacy developers to maintain the project then there's less risk, but as it stands is anyone honestly looking through all the source code to validate their pro-privacy claims? And even if they did, could you trust them or their releases?
Re: LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
#64There are many valid counterpoints on why you shouldn't trust/use this, but the mere existence of it raises a very valid point and calls Mozilla's BS; why does this fork exist at all if Mozilla supposedly cares about your privacy, security and freedom?
Mozilla has a pragmatic view on privacy. Your freedom has no worth, when you can't use the browser because it breaks sites all the time. Though, it's true that Mozilla has become kinda lazy in their quest for protecting the user. They could do significant better.
Re: LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use both Firefox and Librewolf to achieve browser isolation. Librewolf is my default browser for all anonymous browsing such as news sites. I use Firefox for all my real name ID account logins such as banking. This way your Librewolf browser fingerprint is never associated to your real ID.
Yeah, I get the concept of using different browsers for different things to compartmentalize, and I've tried it, but to me it just seems like I'm making my life more complicated switching back and forth, and I feel like it's cluttering up my system. I love how Librewolf takes privacy to another level, but honestly, all I want is Firefox without all the BS and the ability to disable things I don't want (and not having…
This is one of those trade-offs between convenience and privacy I have internalized over years. You can refer to this guide to configure Firefox to be more private. https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/#firefox
Re: LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
#66I got fed up with Chrome recently (some real ugly on-by-default advertising tracking) and switched to Firefox on my work computer but not my home computer yet.
Is anyone out there self-hosting firefox sync successfully? My googling seemed to only bring up a deprecated version so I haven't really tried setting it up yet.
Re: LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
#67Disclaimer: I develop Waterfox. I think it’s worth noting that Librewolf provides unsigned binaries and at least on Windows, you need to trust a third party service to provide automatic updates.
These are both interesting niche projects from a user privacy perspective.
Is anyone who is more familiar with Waterfox and LibreWolf able to objectively expand on the differences between these projects?
It sounds like the unsigned binary may be a maturity issue that will get tackled based on the mission statement(educated guess?).
Would greatly appreciate anyone with more knowledge about these projects elaborating.
Re: LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
#68It's fascinating that there are quite a number of forks from Firefox aiming for more privacy, security and old codebases, but none for improving the browser itself, making it more interesting for power users. Considering all that was lost in the quantum-phase, I would think someone would fork it just for improving some small things like better vim-style support or a second sidebar.
Re: LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sign example is exactly what the film industry does to notify people of filming activity inside an establishment. It’s perfectly reasonable. Using the example of sexual assault just makes the issue look more extreme than it is. You might as well say “By entering this building you consent to be murdered,” but we all know that’s taking the slippery slope too far. Usage statistics and bug telemetry isn’t the same a…
You don't need consent to film someone in a public space. It's done as a courtesy, not a legal requirement. My computer is not a public space and the software that is installed on it, and when, and the IP address used to do so, are private information. Exfiltrating that data without consent is a violation of my right to privacy, full stop. Nothing that is said, no notice that is provided, can change that. You could j…
Haha, man, I wish more people than literally just you and I still thought this way
Every fucking piece of software out there is packed with shady spyware and BS, and everyone thinks he's entitled to treat users as cattle and do whatever he wants to them.
It's probably going to keep getting worse at this rate too. It'll become illegal to do anything privately or anonymously in the name of preventing misinformation and spam/click fraud
Re: LibreWolf – Custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom
#70The biggest problem with all these "privacy" oriented web browsers is that you have to trust their creators explicitly and I just cannot. Most often the developers are some random anonymous Joes without CVs or anything proving they have reputation at stake. Thank you, but no thank you. Even if the official Firefox "leaks" something it's well controlled and well known. What do these browsers do? I've no idea.
it's open source, you can simply look at the code (or, better, at the differences with firefox)
If I have to read and understand all the diffs myself I might as well maintain my own fork.