After some investigations and internal considerations i’ve decided to ditch [Iceweasel] in favor to [Mercury] . The main reasons are [not-so good performance] even among Firefox forks and pretty shady Chinese origin of software. Firefox Mercury can be obtained from [Github repository] . Author of the fork promised full 115 ESR support till autumn of 2024. So we are future proof here. In the end of the day we’ll see what happens next and what to do with it.

UPDATED ON: 2023-09-06 Some new parameters were added. Note that by default all [Nightly versions] of Firefox are sending back telemetry to third-parties in extensive manner. So, to disable such malicious actions besides turning off telemetry settings via standard GUI options: about:preferences#privacy You’ll need to use good old: about:config To change to: FALSE …or create following parameters in software registry: toolkit.telemetry.archive.enabled toolkit.telemetry.enabled toolkit.telemetry.unified toolkit.telemetry.unifiedIsOptIn toolkit.telemetry.bhrPing.enabled toolkit.telemetry.firstShutdownPing.enabled toolkit.telemetry.hybridContent.enabled toolkit.telemetry.newProfilePing.enabled toolkit.telemetry.reportingpolicy.firstRun toolkit.

I often get asked regarding Windows 7 safety especially in 2023. "Is it safe to use such old operating system?" "What about security?" "How about modern viruses?" .... …. and many other similar questions. Funny thing that people who are asking about security don’t give a damn about privacy. Yeah, that’s quite different definitions for sure, but from my point of view they always come together hand in hand. The main and the most important security police officer is your head.

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-02 Benchmarks and fixes added. Currently i’m using [IceWeasel] browser. Quite satisfied with it in terms of web surfing, but there are a bunch of problems related to no-so correct GPU-acceleration, which works fine in original Firefox. Some visual JS scripts feel laggy, YT tearing is also showing it’s teeth. Couple of days ago i’ve stumbled upon interesting Firefox fork named [Mercury] . Browser claims to be around 8-20% faster than stock version of Firefox.

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-23 Despite [previous statement] regarding Windows 7 EOL status after version 115 current nightly alpha binary [v117] works just fine. Installer threw generic mambo-jambo that program can’t work in Windows 7 environment and then artificially blocks installation. How generic & dumb. Workaround is just unzip exe-package with [7-zip] and execute browser from unpacked Core folder. FIREFOX 117 ABOUT WINDOW Right after installation software immediately begins to whine about inability to update.

I bet most of Firefox oldschool users hated the recent “changes” in terms of overall browser design. Rounded childish like-chrome corners, foolish restriction on what can be configured and so on. And now they crippled the look of browser tabs: to waste your workspace and spoil the design, just take a look at this: MODERN “NORMAL” STYLE LEGACY NORMAL STYLE SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON I suppose that such “changes” were made in favor to touchscreen devices.

Despite the fact that current Firefox market share of Windows 7 users is around 13% Mozilla confirms to [drop Windows 7 support in 2024] . Actually i don’t really understand their bold move and why they are dropping Windows 7 and keeping support for example for Android 7.1 which stopped receiving updates more than five years ago. As you may know i’m using Android 8.0 on my websurfer phone and yeah, it is running latest Firefox forks easily.

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-20 Good news, everyone! Count me as professor Farnsworth from [Rick and Morty] . Mike Kaply, current Mozilla employee [reported] on bug-tracking forum the following: We will not be ending support for Windows 7 / Windows 8 before the release of the Firefox 115 ESR, so the Firefox 115 ESR will support Windows 7 / Windows 8 at least until 3Q 2024. First 115 version of software will be released on July 4, 2023.

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-31 Not long ago i’ve already mentioned about privacy-hardened [Mull browser] . Very nice Android browser, but have one serious downside: limited amount of supported addons. Yes, i like desktop convenience on the go! To enable additional addons in mobile Firefox browser you’ll need to sideload custom addon collection tied to mozilla account. It’s astonishing fact how they like to implement overcomplicated stuff! To create your own collection you’ll need Firefox account, but i’ll not bother to spent time on such dumb efforts.

It looks like that i found replacement for [Fenec F-Droid] browser, for real. I’m not completely satisfied with not fully removed telemetry, shady stubs and other fishy things presented by Fennec. That is why i begin to investigate the problem and discovered [Mull browser] . Main features of it: DOESN’T DIAL BACK NEITHER TO GOOGLE NOR TO MOZILLA [and that’s a complete steal] based around hardened version of user.js [main FireFox configuration file] frequently updated [keeps up with original Firefox releases] mascot of Mull is rather awful [but who cares?

Tired of round shaped chrome-like tabs? These tweaks attempt to recreate the feel of Quantum with its squared tabs and menus, but in the Proton UI. As of FF91, the about:config option to disable proton has been deprecated, leaving CSS as the main way to revert the UI. Want to bring back minimalistic strict lines and make things more serious? [Firefox-Proton-Square] tweak will help ya. INSTALLATION PROCESS Enable userChrome.css support Go to about:config toolkit.

Not long ago [already reviewed] in the past Firefox forks Icecat and [Iceweasel] for some reason went into 404 void due to applied sanctions to Russia. So, i was forced to find an alternative way and stumbled upon Chinese builds of [Iceweasel] . Just want to digest this historical fact as a blog post. Imagery by spacedrone808

I’m still using trusted [Icecat port by Muslayev] . Problem is that it begin to show it’s age by not rendering some websites in a correct way. After checking [Firefox release roadmap] i find out that 91 ESR branch on which Icecat is based will reach EOL status at the end of the summer. So i’ll need a replacement to keep up with modern web standards. Chrome and original Firefox are not an options because of their telemetry framework and bloated nature.

UPDATED ON: 2022-03-16 Degenerative totalitarian regime in Russia just made [another pathetic attempt] to block TOR network. In previous try they’ve blocked only TCP datagrams. And now, it looks like that they have added UDP and ICMP to banned list also. If you experience difficulties in connecting to TOR network using bundled bridges like meek-azure, snowflake and obfs4 try these one: 159.69.156.131:9001 84.117.255.228:9001 37.120.182.1:12443 188.68.62.244:11443 50.7.178.34:443 87.174.114.28:9001 83.97.20.80:9001 80.241.214.102:443 80.

UPDATED ON: 2023-08-04 IMPROVING FIREFOX PRIVACY & SECURITY FIREFOX ADDONS [Part I] Finally I’ve managed to finish this part of the FAQ. Note is a loooong-read, so mistakes can occur » please [report them to me] . One of the most distinctive features of FireFox was customization. With each new version it becomes less customizable, thanks to marketing people at mozilla corp. They do everything to make Firefox look like google chrome.

UPDATED ON: 2023-02-20 I recommend to replace Fennec F-Droid with [Mull Browser] due to the fact that is COMPLETELY free from telemetry. In contrast to Fennec Mull browser do not trigger any mozilla or google connections, so take a note. And for God’s sake do not use plain Firefox, it is almost like chrome now! As my main web surfer IceCat begin to showing it’s age and don’t have any new versions apart from “super-new” 68.

UPDATED ON: 2023-09-03 Addons, addons, addons!! So many of them! How to choice the right one? Whom to trust to? I will help you with your findings and share my personal experience. Rule of thumb: do not install too much addons, they will slow down your browser noticeably! ░ SECURITY ADDONS [Ublock Origin] ► an efficient blocker. Easy on CPU and memory. Far better than famous ADblock Plus with acceptable ads.

UPDATED ON: 2023-02-20 Note is totally rewritten to match 2023 reality. Today it is not an easy task to do. There are plenty browsers out there. “So, what is the problem?” you may ask. Most of them are based upon google chrome. This means that all of them are dialing back to google to share your private data. That’s the main problem. Here is my personal list of browsers that I use in a daily workflow on Windows machine: Main surfer: [Iceweasel 110] ► replaced IceCat For visiting geo-restricted sites: [TorBrowser 12.

Since Firefox v3.x the browser is capable of managing color profiles like sRGB & AdobeRGB. When a browser doesn’t support color management or it has been badly implemented, images won’t show up right.

Just want to make a super quick note on neat browsers for legacy operating systems. There is not so much choice for such vintage OS these days. There are two of last Mohicans. K-Meleon & MyPal.     K-Meleon is way more lightweight and will be good for slow puters. There is even a Windows 98 version. While MyPal will bring up more modern web compatibility, but of course it is tad slower than K-Meleon.

Yeah, i’m 108% confident Nowadays people don’t have much choice in terms of choosing their web browser. google chrome is a choice of almost all common people. I choose not to choose it. Because of it’s invasive philosophy to collect every possible thing it can dig up and then send back to it’s Master. I can’t even call it a browser any more. It is data-collecting platform, with very high privileges.