Showing posts with label browsers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label browsers. Show all posts

Friday, July 5, 2019

FOSS Friday - Waterfox

Happy Friday! I'm here to spread some freedom!

In May (weekend of the 4th and 5th) Firefox had a problem that broke almost of their extensions. I am a heavy user of those extensions. The loss of those extensions broke the internet for me. It left me using Chrome and Chromium, which isn't bad, but it's not what I prefer.

So, I decided to give Waterfox, a fork of Firefox, a try!

I also said that I'd give you all an update on my experiences with various browsers. I've been using Waterfox as a daily browser since May and I love it. It behaves exactly like Firefox and I'm able to use all of my lovely extensions. Some of the extensions take a bit of fiddling, but if you aren't a power user, you probably won't need to.

One of the nice things about Waterfox is the lack of corporate apps included on install. There's no Pocket.

I like it because it lends itself to choice and risk. It doesn't tell you what you are allowed to do because you will be taking a risk. I can easily install extensions and plug-ins that are not on the Firefox white-list. Waterfox treats you like a grown-up.

In addition to the extensions available at the Mozilla site, Waterfox maintains a collection of archived addons.

The devs are responsive and have a subReddit for support. They post frequently on their blog.

Waterfox is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

All in all, it's a great substitute for Firefox.

Waterfox

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Well, that was unpleasant

For the people who use Firefox with add-ons/extensions, you are not the only one experiencing problems. A lot of Firefox users had all of their extensions/add-ons disabled last night.
Including me. ðŸ˜¡
I use Firefox for casual browsing and one minute I was fine, the next, not so much. The absense of my Extensions breaks my Firefox (and Chrome, etc.). For me it's like having a smart phone without apps.
The link will take a long time to load. The site is under heavy traffic.
I think the best thing for people to do is either switch to a different browser or try to follow the workaround instructions. I don't recommend the workaround unless you are confident with tweaking browsers. For those that want to try, here's the link:
There are lots of browsers to chose from if you want to switch: Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Waterfox, Vivaldi etc. I'm using Chromium right now. I'm not thrilled with it, but it's what I have. I'm going to experiment with Waterfox later today.