#Waterfox review 2019 code

He also wrote the USA's most-saved article of 2021, according to Pocket.Ĭhris was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Beyond the web, his work has appeared in the print edition of The New York Times (September 9, 2019) and in PCWorld's print magazines, specifically in the August 2013 and July 2013 editions, where his story was on the cover. With over a decade of writing experience in the field of technology, Chris has written for a variety of publications including The New York Times, Reader's Digest, IDG's PCWorld, Digital Trends, and MakeUseOf. Chris has personally written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times-and that's just here at How-To Geek. Just stick with a browser that's continually updated, like Firefox.Ĭhris Hoffman is the former Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. We don't see the point of resisting new features only to make a major leap to them every few years anyway. Now, the developer is doing the same thing again, basing this new version largely on the pre-Quantum Firefox code. But the developer eventually had to switch to Firefox 38 ESR to get more modern features. The first major version of Pale Moon was based on Firefox 24 ESR, due to a disagreement about where Firefox was headed. This fits Pale Moon's kind of weird history. It also doesn't enable any multi-process features.Ī future version of Pale Moon will be based on this code, but right now the developer considers Basilisk an unstable development platform.

#Waterfox review 2019 code

The developer is working on the 'Unified XUL Platform (UXP)', which is a fork of Mozilla's code without the new Servo and Rust code that makes Firefox Quantum so fast.

While Pale Moon is based on Firefox 38 ESR, Basilisk is based on newer Firefox code. We don't think waiting more than two weeks for security updates is a good idea!īasilisk is a new browser from the creator of Pale Moon. Waterfox's developers released Waterfox 56 that incorporated the security updates found in Firefox 57 on November 30, 2017. Let's look at the most recent major release: Mozilla released Firefox 57 on November 14, 2017. Whenever Mozilla releases security updates for Firefox ESR, the Waterfox developers have to integrate those updates into Waterfox before delivering them to users. Overall, using Waterfox is basically just like using Firefox ESR and changing a few settings.with one big difference: security updates arrive in Firefox ESR much faster than they do in Waterfox. Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), which are required for sites like Netflix, are also disabled by default-and, again, you can disable them yourself in Firefox, if you like. It won't send telemetry data to Mozilla, but you can disable that from Options > Privacy & Security > Firefox Data Collection and Use in Firefox. It disables Pocket by default, but you can disable Pocket yourself in Firefox. Waterfox also has some other different features. Here are our concerns with some of the more popular Firefox alternatives. That's why we recommend against using these smaller Firefox-based browsers, and why we also recommend against using alternative browsers based on Google Chrome. We think it's best to go with a big project with a large number of developers that receives a lot of attention to security.

But, after taking some deserved public heat, they've made policy changes and we're hopeful they'll do better in the future.Įven if you don't completely trust some of Mozilla's business decisions, your browser is just too important to be left to a small community of enthusiasts. Robot 'Looking Glass' add-on was ridiculous, and we're not thrilled about what they're doing with Cliqz in Germany. Yes, Mozilla has done some things we're not crazy about. If you want to keep using your old add-ons that no longer work in Firefox Quantum, we recommend Mozilla's Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) instead.įirefox ESR is based on Firefox 52, supports traditional XUL Firefox add-ons and NPAPI plug-ins, and will continue receiving security updates directly from Mozilla until July 2, 2018. We like Firefox Quantum, which is faster and more modern than previous releases of Firefox. Related: What's New in Firefox Quantum, the Firefox You've Been Waiting For If You Don't Like Firefox Quantum, Use Firefox ESR Instead