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

Firefox Patch

Yes it's late, but if you're using Mozilla Firefox make sure you have this critical update! To check your version, click the pancakes in the upper right corner of FF>Help>About Firefox. Click below to read the article from Hacker News.

A fix for the Firefox extension problem

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. 😡

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.

Here's the message from Firefox:
https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/certificate-issue-cau…/39047

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:

https://www.reddit.com/…/heres_whats_going_on_with_your_ad…/

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.