How my Firefox became a LibreWolf
After using their browser for over 20 years, it's painful to admit, but I've grown tired of Mozilla. The recent debacle around their TOS update, their departure from the Fediverse, and their apparent embrace of AI bro culture and corporate marketing have made my Firefox icon feel increasingly out of place on my GNU/Linux OS.
I decided to search for alternatives, but unfortunately, there aren't many options available. You're mostly limited to Chrome derivatives or Firefox derivatives. However, I stumbled upon LibreWolf, a fork of Firefox that caught my attention. LibreWolf is described as "A custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom" which resonates with me.
Installing LibreWolf on my Debian was surprisingly simple, and migrating my profile was as easy as copying the contents of my ~/.mozilla/firefox preferences into the active profile of ~/.librewolf. It felt like home, as it's essentially Firefox.
However, I encountered an issue while configuring it to my liking, and after struggling for more than 1 hour, I was on the verge of giving up. Fortunately, I found a solution to my DRM issue thanks to the help of Cherryband in the Pepper&Carrot chat room.
One thing to keep in mind if you're considering trying LibreWolf is that it has all security and privacy options enabled by default, which may not be the most user-friendly experience. You won't be pampered with a one-click installation for all. Instead, you'll need to take the time to review the documentation and set up the security and privacy features that you're willing to trade off for comfort and convenience.
So far, the experience has been educational, and I'll see if I decide to stick with LibreWolf in the long term.
658 - 
1011
175 comments
ErikUden@mastodon.de
yippiee
★ElectroFetish@mastodon.social
cute and sad
★tanavit@toot.aquilenet.fr
★Excellent, as usual.
batistecarpinetty@mastodon.art
« Installing #LibreWolf on my Debian was surprisingly simple » Coucou 👋 Tu aurais un conseil pour jouir de cette facilité ? Je suis sur Ubuntu et je galère comme pas possible pour l'installer 😭
nicolagaffe
@batistecarpinetty
★Je te conseillerais de passer par flatpak/Flathub.
https://flathub.org/setup/Ubuntu
https://flathub.org/apps/io.gitlab.librewolf-community
tetora_san@piaille.fr
@nicolagaffe @batistecarpinetty Juste une limitation que j'ai vue avec l'installation flatpak, c'était si tu utilises une yubikey pour du 2FA, le fait que l'environnement soit dans une sandboxe empêche de reconnaitre la clef.
Hormis ce cas précis, cela fonctionne très bien.
nicolagaffe
@tetora_san @batistecarpinetty
Oui tout a fait.
J'utilise parfois KeepassXC et le plugin ne peut communiquer avec l'application. C'est effectivement une restriction des applis sandboxées.
batistecarpinetty@mastodon.art
@nicolagaffe Merci, je vais essayer par là : celui que j'ai téléchargéi via le site de #librewolf ne voulait pas s'installer 😶
★
davidrevoy
@batistecarpinetty @nicolagaffe J'éspère que l’installation sera facile sous Ubuntu. Ici aucune idée de comment ça se passe sous les système 'buntu-based. Pour moi sous Debian 12 KDE avec la doc c'était vraiment trois lignes de commandes à copier/coller et c'était fait.
Pour comparaison: déloger le Firefox-ESR de Debian stable et le remplacer par la repo officielle de Firefox au moment de mon install avait été un processus plus complex.
★ZoidbergForPresident@kolektiva.social
Nice! :D
★confusomu@twoot.site
yes, LibreWolf is a great fork of Firefox. I also use it (and I haven't used the “main” version of Firefox in a long time now), and it took a little configuring before being usable the way I wanted.
Its strong privacy defaults remind me somewhat of Firefox Focus on mobile devices.
saphkey@equestria.social
@confusomu If LibreWolf is stripped of Mozilla services like Firefox Sync
how do you sync stuff between your different devices? Extensions, bookmarks etc.
confusomu@twoot.site
@saphkey you can re-enable Firefox Sync in the preferences
davidrevoy
@confusomu @saphkey Yes, it took me time configuring it too. And I wiped more than three time the ~/.librewolf pref directory to start anew and be sure to reactive things I need only. It's very educative to all the many comfort I need that can compromise privacy/security of browsing website these days. Very, very educative.
★stemy@mas.to
I know there is also an alternative called @mullvadnet Mullvad Browser that has been co-developed with @torproject , i can't say wich of both browser is the best.
halibut@piaille.fr
@stemy @mullvadnet @torproject Both Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser are more hardcore about privacy than Librewolf. They block Javascript by default with Noscript addon (you can enable it per-site or globally), use advanced techniques to limit fingerprinting and are designed to be used with their respective privacy networks (Mullvad VPN / Tor).
This may break a lot of websites and increase latency. If privacy is more important to you than ease of use, they are the best in class. Otherwise, Librewolf is a good compromise.
argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org
@halibut
NoScript, the old Firefox extension? I stopped using it because I started seeing third-party ads and cookies on the #NoScript website. Switched to #uMatrix.
I wish uMatrix was still maintained. It is excellent.
@stemy @mullvadnet @torproject
davidrevoy
@argv_minus_one @halibut @stemy @mullvadnet @torproject Hey Stemy, yes I had a look at this other alternative (and adopted an appimage of the Tor browser on the process). Mullvad also looks nice!
rony4102@programming.dev
I am going to ladybird it bro
davidrevoy
@rony4102 Well, I visited their webpage and read their Wikipedia. But only checking they are still active on X was a red flag to me so far to get interested in.
★SRAZKVT@tech.lgbt
@rony4102 isn't ladybird's main dev crazy about pronouns and wokism or smth?
tbh im more interested in servo
alextecplayz@techhub.social
@SRAZKVT @rony4102 And of course, Lunduke made a post about it, Ladybird getting attacked by "unhinged, dishonest activists"
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/5823666/ladybird-web-browser-developer-attacked-by-unhinged-dishonest-activists
Note that Lunduke's a horrible person, so this article of his is from a heavily biased anti-trans perspective, plus the article and his journal as a whole is from Rumble.
davidrevoy
@alextecplayz @SRAZKVT @rony4102 Good to know! Also, in case you missed this yesterday: https://bsky.app/profile/ioi-xd.net/post/3lje222ac5k2y (it makes me like LibreWolf even more 💜 love the ban reason 😆 )
★simonzerafa@infosec.exchange
@protonprivacy also flounced off Mastodon after they received well deserved criticism.
Is @mozillaofficial doing the same? 🫤🤷♂️
davidrevoy
@simonzerafa @protonprivacy @mozillaofficial I'm not sure how official the account you linked here is, the branding feels off and it's not really noted in the bio this is their official new account.
Before December, Mozilla had their instance, and decided to remove it ( src. https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/17/mozilla-exits-the-fediverse-and-will-shutter-its-mastodon-server-in-december/ )
Proton also really manage their PR like rotten potatoes imo ( https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/ )
... both company also abuse marketing bs wording and praise AI. Not surprising they are criticized here.
3 ★matera@mastodon.sdf.org
I'm hooked on the Wolf, been using it for over a year.
Once in a while I use furryfox for some fussy-ass site that I have to do one thing on once in a blueish moon.
davidrevoy
@matera Haha, I typed in a search engine for "furryfox" before realizing it was your way of naming Firefox. 😆
Catchy name.
Yes, I'll keep my Firefox too in background. Right now mainly to compare when I have an issue with LibreWolf, and also to test my blog and peppercarrot website. 😉
matera@mastodon.sdf.org
LOL Yeah, I get too cute sometimes.
It's good to have a few different browsers for website testing. I have an assortment of different browser profiles too. I use dedicated profiles mostly to keep Gahoogle and Zuckland noses out of my business.
★ntoyohito@comicscamp.club
★Welcome to the team ^^
mray@social.tchncs.de
Thank you! Putting the Firefox dilemma in pictures makes it less academic and more approachable issue. I hope many people realize how empowering it is to use free software that can be replaced easily.
It is not always so easy:
https://video.1146.nohost.me/w/ij3qHTrc55t9izuk6hP7HF
davidrevoy
@mray Thanks! Oh yes it's not easy to find the time and do a change and walk the path of frustration of changing habit and studying settings.
Thanks for the video, I'm already subscribed to this animator artist, James Lee.
He recently announced moving to GNU/Linux. It's not the best period to do this for artists, with Wayland, all container war etc...I don't remember I saw an update of them about how they succeed to make it. Certainly hard time ^ ^ I hope he found my blog post about it.
2 ★darkbeth@mastodon.coffee
Excellent art, as always.
I switched this week too. It was very simple on Linux Mint, but I worry about the future of the Firefox code base.
praveen@social.masto.host
@darkbeth hopefully we have to worry about that only a few years until independent engines become usable. #Verso and #Ladybird are candidates if #mozilla codebase rots. GNOME Web / #epiphany is another browser that has an engine not depending on Google (Apple webkit engine though, but at it it will be a real competition and even though they are bad to their own usets, they are not as powerful on the web like Google).
davidrevoy
@praveen @darkbeth Thank you Elizabeth.
LibreWolf is just a layer of community reviewing in case Mozilla pushes something bad to their audience. My metaphor about the layer of ash on top of a fox works for this reason.
I also worry for the future of Firefox. I hope their executives will see larger community forming around forks, and it will make them find back their focus to privacy, and security. I'll be back to Firefox if they do that.
4 ★Sunshine@lemmy.ca
Gorgeous artwork friend!
★BluesHarp@musicians.today
Vivaldi right now and it works great.
davidrevoy
@BluesHarp But Vivaldi is not free/libre and open source software... This is even not an option on my operating system as it is really impossible to know what Vivaldi dev are doing with your data.
3 ★gargle@friendica.world
I migrated to LibreWolf today and am happy to see this! ★
eskuero@lemmy.fromshado.ws
Cute
★yalle@corneill.es
Ce projet LibreWolf semble sympathique mais pas compatible avec firefox syncs, ce qui est sans doute logique, mais sans alternative.
Je teste également Floorp...
ilumium@eupolicy.social
@yalle tu peux facilement activer firefox sync dans la configuration de librewolf. 100% compatible.
yalle@corneill.es
@ilumium
J'trouve pas !
zulo@mastodon.social
@yalle @ilumium Je n'ai pas testé LibreWolf, mais Waterfox a été l'alternative parfaite pour mon vieux laptop sous MX-Linux. Tout ce qui est synchro est natif, et en plus il tourne mieux que Firefox.
davidrevoy
@zulo @yalle @ilumium Yalle: https://librewolf.net/docs/settings/#enable-firefox-sync pour l'avoir en permanent (ou dans about:config , identity.fxaccounts.enabled to true )
Zulo: La partie "vulnerabilities" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfox#Vulnerabilities ) m'a refroidi lors de mes recherches, et j'ai trouver pas ouf leur business modèle basé sur les revenues de la vente de data pour les recherches.
★zulo@mastodon.social
Arf, good catch.
ilumium@eupolicy.social
@yalle un moteur de recherche t'amènerait ici: https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/#can-i-use-firefox-sync-with-librewolf-is-it-safe-to-do-so
★hisham_hm@mastodon.social
@yalle mais Firefox Sync utilise les serveurs de Mozilla... si vous ne voulez pas que votre données soit collectés par Mozilla, Sync est un problème. Il semble que c'est possible d'avoir son propre serveur de Sync, mais ce n'est pas une option realistique pour la majorité des utilisateurs...
★superblox@mastodon.vlaanderen
@yalle Il y a une astuce: https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/#can-i-use-firefox-sync-with-librewolf-is-it-safe-to-do-so
★pre@boing.world
Yep, I switched on my main machine when Mozilla merged with an advertising company, which is to say the new combined entity is an advertising company.
davidrevoy
@pre Right. I was badly surprised to see my Firefox homepage receiving an unsolicited "Temu" shortcut icon recently. Especially after that https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/113317960766927868 ... 😔
pre@boing.world
😞
There aren't any good browsers 💔
★Yingwu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Is it worth running LibreWolf without fingerprinting disabled? It’s kind of a dealbreaker that it doesn’t save zoom options on websites. At least I could handle having to run another browser to use Netflix…
davidrevoy
@Yingwu That's exactly where I found it educative to have to be personally facing this dilemma and having to choose.
Here I decided to allow fingerprinting, because mainly I really like when a blog or website switch to dark mode automatically. Without that, all website were in light theme, and it felt very difficult to me to browse the web like that now...
Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
@Yingwu Even though selecting the dark theme would give a whole 1 bit of fingerprinting, browsers that serve the users really allow optionally keeping dark themes even with fingerprinting resistance enabled.
There is one extension that will set a dark theme regardless min you; https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/dark-background-light-text/ ★
davidrevoy
@Suiseiseki @Yingwu Thank you for the extension!
lispi314@udongein.xyz
@Suiseiseki @Yingwu Not selecting it also gives a bit of fingerprinting, ultimately.
Preferably the way to fix this would be for the user agent to not provide the remote endpoint with a way to extract this data at all.
Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
@lispi314 @Yingwu Unfortunately, certain CSS features allow remove endpoints to work out the state of CSS modals, so the CSS standard would need to be changed to not allow that.
lispi314@udongein.xyz
@Suiseiseki @Yingwu Well, that or a browser could decide to either grab all modal-gated remote resources or alternatively none of them per the user's command.
Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
@lispi314 @Yingwu A browser could be configured to grab all modal gated remote resources and well that isn't a problem for 1 bit options (as there are 2 options), but mozilla doesn't do browsers that serve the user in that way anymore.
socketwench@hackers.town
The fire has gone out, the fox is no more, now is the time of awoo.
★unixcaesar@fosstodon.org
I just switched to librewolf as well.
★Linux_Is_Best@misskey.de
@davidrevoy@framapiaf.org As someone who used to help contribute to Firefox, and who, outside the development, made a Linux installer for Firefox ("Firefox Automatic Installer for Linux"), I absolutely hate LibreWolf. -- Why? 🤔
LibreWorlf often breaks things (repeatedly). Then proceeds to blame Mozilla Firefox, even when Firefox was still good. They seldom took responsibility for their own issues and always passed the blame, despite those issues being exclusive to LibreWolf.
This only further hurt Firefox, because you had all these people saying, "just use LibreWolf" while also saying, "Firefox is the problem." But LibreWolf 100% depends on Firefox. They're a soft-fork who has made it clear, they have no intention of ever going independent. That means, when Firefox goes, so does, LibreWolf.
I switched to Vivaldi Browser. It is everything Firefox should have been. Yes, it is Chromium fork, but they do not follow along with everything Google does. Not only do they include their own ad-blocker, but they worked with uBlock to include v3 support going forward, that works nicely alongside their ad-blocker. I even use Privacy Badger alongside both.
maphew@vmst.io
@Linux_Is_Best thank you for this extra texture. As someone who is still wondering where his next vessel to handle the weather might be this is helpful
davidrevoy
@Linux_Is_Best You know Vivaldi is not free/libre and open source software, right?
★Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
@Linux_Is_Best I'm not sure why you would write all that instead of writing that Vivaldi is proprietary malware (it is). ★
Linux_Is_Best@misskey.de
@Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com @davidrevoy@framapiaf.org Because Firefox and Brave are open source malware, spyware, adware, and calls home like a lost child wanting their mother. And while Vivaldi is not open source, it calls out to check for updates, Widevine updates, and bug reports for a total of 3-4x in the whole day, as opposed to the 4x per hour or more that Firefox and Brave call out, continuously. If you want safety and security and most importantly, privacy, you go with Vivaldi.
Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
@Linux_Is_Best It's actually possible to configure firefox to make 0 spying requests and as a result, if you install GNU icecat or Tor Browser, you don't get spied on.
Auto update checking can be disabled on firefox, but I'm not sure about Brave or Vivaldi.
>If you want safety and security and most importantly, privacy, you go with Vivaldi.
You will never get safety, security or privacy with proprietary malware. ★
iamtakingiteasy@eientei.org
@Linux_Is_Best @Suiseiseki While soft-forks are not making independent development, they're able to provide more reasonable defaults and additional configuration for questionable features, as it takes minimal effort. ★
Yoruka@eientei.org
@Linux_Is_Best @Suiseiseki I have 0 reasons to trust Vivaldi. They might have reputation and they make proper requests that's all nullified when the program is not free. A browser that merely uses Chromium should not be proprietary.
Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
@Yoruka @Linux_Is_Best It is impossible to trust proprietary malware and baiting with proprietary malware should cause a total loss of reputation (alas people don't know better).
No browser should be proprietary, whether it uses chromium or not.
No software should be proprietary.
Yoruka@eientei.org
@Suiseiseki @Linux_Is_Best I mean maybe you made a whole ass browser engine and you feel so proud about it you sell it for 20 bucks. Just know I and probably no person would ever use it. From what I hear the Vivaldi devs REJECT making the browser free which does make me wonder why. Probably because it contains undesirable code there is no other explanation.
Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
@Yoruka @Linux_Is_Best There is no problem with selling free software; https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html#selling
If someone personally wrote a whole browser engine in GNU C, with full HTML5 support that doesn't support JavaScript, and released it under the AGPLv3-or-later, I'd be happy to pay $20 equivalent in XMR for a copy (although I might try it out from a copy shared from someone else first).
Yes, the main reason why proprietary software developers refuse to make software even source-available is because doing so would reveal the malware.
Yoruka@eientei.org
@Suiseiseki @Linux_Is_Best im against non free software but donations are fine. I donate to software I find valuable myself
Yoruka@eientei.org
@Suiseiseki @Linux_Is_Best Oh you mean commercial software, I don't really know about that. If you can find a way to make money without purposefully fucking over your customers I'm fine with it
Yoruka@eientei.org
@Suiseiseki @Linux_Is_Best don't really have an established opinion on it
Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
@Yoruka @Linux_Is_Best Free means freedom and has nothing to do with gratis (although you can easily construct; free of charge); https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html#four-freedoms
Nonfree and proprietary are two words for the same things.
You can make plenty of money with free software - whether that's custom software or support (few people even make money from binaries of free software, like Ardour, although such practice is now mostly obsolete, like icemen).
Although, it is impossible to make a fortune and become a billionaire without multiple crimes against humanity, for example making software proprietary and for some reason people see becoming a billionaire as a good thing rather than a bad thing.
sally@freesoftwareextremist.com
@Linux_Is_Best @Suiseiseki
Of course, the local village idiot had to show up to say the stupid take of the day.
jailandrade@mastodon.social
@categulario
categulario@mstdn.mx
@jailandrade my fire fox became a water one!
LolaCat@lemmy.ca
Great art, so cute!
peterainbow@beige.party
I wonder what the Linux distros that have Firefox in the default install are going to do going forward?
#linuxmint #linux
petitcoeur@hachyderm.io
@peterainbow indeed ! that will be interesting !
★ferran4@xarxa.cloud
@peterainbow
I think I'm gonna give Vivaldi a chance. Looks good and I guess that we could see it soon as the default browsers in some distros.
davidrevoy
@ferran4 @peterainbow Vivaldi is not free/libre and open source software and I would find that using a proprietary freeware as a web browser really dangerous nowadays for privacy and security.
4 ★So, not sure any distribution will think it is a good idea (except a community edition of Manjaro who tried it but , :yay: well, it's Manjaro, not the distro most concerned about FLOSS, imo )
fasnix@iceshrimp.de
At least they state:
"We don't want your data and we don't care how you use our browser."
Mike Kuketz (Data Security Specialist) did an analysis of most browsers and Vivaldi opens nearly no connections to their servers (except e.g. to check for updates).
Still, it's based on Chromium ... so I guess we can only trust them.
@ferran4 @peterainbow
davidrevoy
@fasnix @peterainbow @ferran4 I'm glad they state that, and yes, you have to "trust" them.
In a post-truth era, what companies state worth unfortunately nothing to me, personally. Only legal documents like a license can protect us as a end user.
2 ★zetabeta@mastodon.social
@peterainbow
i could be wrong, so correct if better info.
mozilla's new policies apply on pre-compiled binaries from mozilla website. not if firefox is installed through distro's own repositories.
mozilla offers pre-compiled binaries also for linux systems. but it needs to be run or installed separately.
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world
From the blog post…
You won’t be pampered with a one-click installation for all. Instead, you’ll need to take the time to review the documentation and set up the security and privacy features that you’re willing to trade off for comfort and convenience.
Yeah, ouch, thats not going to sell with the Plebs, and limit buy-in from them, and market share.
They really should try to fix that, and not just hand wave it away as a problem.
Market share is the lifeblood of the browser wars.
~This~ ~comment~ ~is~ ~licensed~ ~under~ ~CC~ ~BY-NC-SA~ ~4.0~
davidrevoy
@CosmicCleric "[...] not going to sell with the Plebs"
😆 I don't think LibreWolf has view for market share and plebs. As far as I know it's a community initiative, not a company. Yes, it require time to install and setup, and understand the implication of what security and privacy setting one decide to lower. But I'm happy I took this time, I feel I understand even more how the web of 2025 is broken and how web browser interacts with it to try to ease the experience.
★CosmicCleric@lemmy.world
😆 I don’t think LibreWolf has view for market share and plebs.
I’ve never met a software developer yet who wouldn’t want their program to be popular and widely used.
Also, when it comes to browsers, the name of the game is to get support from the big websites, which is done by having major/popular usage of their browser.
~This~ ~comment~ ~is~ ~licensed~ ~under~ ~CC~ ~BY-NC-SA~ ~4.0~
vonstauf@infosec.exchange
Thanks for this post and the fun artwork, you convinced me to finally make the jump!
★danielcasanueva@mstdn.social
That's very nice!
★Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf
Didn’t knew this existed, thx!
★SuperDicq@minidisc.tokyo
@davidrevoy@framapiaf.org I now wonder what a GNU IceCat looks like.
Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
@SuperDicq 🖼️ e5e120eafe38a691.png
davidrevoy
@Suiseiseki @SuperDicq 😍 Big potential for artwork this blue IceCat 💙
★SuperDicq@minidisc.tokyo
@Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com @davidrevoy@framapiaf.org I would expect a GNU IceCat to be some sort of combination of a cat and a gnu tho
★mauricepinzon@masto.ai
same same.
★Kampfdiestel@mastodon.social
★LibreWolf sounds nice.
unfortunately its only available in aur for archlinux, what means i have to build it local. and its veeeeeery big. i started it 90min ago and its still compiling...
CalcProgrammer1@mastodon.social
@Kampfdiestel It is in chaotic-aur which has prebuilt packages of many AUR packages that get updated regularly.
★RachaelAva1024@tech.lgbt
@Kampfdiestel You can use the `librewolf-bin` AUR package, which is the same thing, but precompiled, and even has GPG and SHA validation.
★r3vilo@layer8.space
@Kampfdiestel It's also available as flatpak on e.g. flathub. There's also Mullvad browser which I prefer.
★edgren@mst-gts.airikr.me
Too bad the installation for Arch is through AUR. Takes FOREVER to install! Currently installing it now :blush:
positivedinosaur@twit.social
@edgren
Could be worse: could be gentoo and you'd be recompiling from source 😅
edgren@mst-gts.airikr.me
@positivedinosaur Haha, shit! Luckily, I saw that they had librewolf-bin in AUR. That install went much faster! Writing this toot in LibreWolf with imported profile from Firefox.
★nickelson@fosstodon.org
@edgren @positivedinosaur That's why I love #MXLinux - everything is just a click away 🤓
🖼️ facd5e3ad182ecb5.png ★edgren@mst-gts.airikr.me
@nickelson @positivedinosaur Hehe, yeah, the terminal is not for everyone :blush:
davidrevoy
@nickelson @edgren @positivedinosaur 😍 Wow, I wish every distro would offer such a configuration tool. Beautiful!
3 ★edgren@mst-gts.airikr.me
@nickelson @positivedinosaur It would help, definitely :blush: Have you tried Linux Mint Cinnamon? Or Cinnamon for any distro, even Arch?
veroandi@mastodon.social
who is behind Librewolf?
davidrevoy
@veroandi Have a look at their profile here: https://librewolf.net/#what-is-librewolf
veroandi@mastodon.social
I did but there are no names there. :(
I may sometimes use open-source tools that I don't know who made them. But I don't feel comfortable using them for a browser. If it's a honeypot created by intelligence agencies or North Korean hackers, I have no idea. 😬
davidrevoy
@veroandi It's a community fork. So, you have to meet their community. Scroll down the page to the "Core contributor" section. I see 8 profiles here.
You can check their public activities on Codeberg, and follow links on their profile. You can also discuss with them on their Matrix chat room.
rejzor@mastodon.social
I've gone Waterfox and in just 1 day returned to Firefox because so many things just didn't work that did and still do in Firefox. Which is weird but still.
davidrevoy
@rejzor Yes, changing web browser can be difficult. My first hours with LibreWolf was a real maze. :blob_sweat: I'm really lucky I could speak about my issue on the Pepper&Carrot matrix room and received assistance from a more experienced user.
I updated on their bug tracker the thread that I found with the information I needed, for future users in the same situation as me.
rejzor@mastodon.social
I've tried and used so many browser in my life, but at the moment I have a priority of not using anything Google and to not deal with issues and BS. Firefox fits that despite all the idiocies Mozilla is doing as I don't have the time and nerves anymore to deal with random issues forks have that Firefox doesn't. Like, literally the first news streaming site for news I use didn't work in Waterfox and does in Firefox. So, there's that.
★davidrevoy
@rejzor Totally understandable 👍
ibrahim_cris@mastodon.social
I do not like what firefox mozilla is trying to do but. I like librewolf just... they can not enhance security by (in the past) delay the code for (weeks to) fixes. It is not good but sometimes takes days. We need to pull togeather and if librewolf fixed this i am fine to change..
davidrevoy
@ibrahim_cris For sure, yes, this is something I want to see in the long run: how quick LibreWolf get patched and released to security vulnerabilities.
But so far, this was really educative: I now better understand many Firefox privacy options not activated by default and that I never knew of existence. If I go back to Firefox, I'll be a more advanced user knowing the settings and the about:config options.
lispi314@udongein.xyz
@ibrahim_cris Arguably by not integrating upstream's questionable features (which in some cases include new vulnerabilities), they can make it safer.
Upstream continuously making such increases the load on forks, as it makes cherry-picking and backporting security fixes harder.
That being said, a lot of the forks apparently mitigate this by simply gating off/disabling the vulnerable feature in the interim while a proper fix is being backported.
petunientopf@mastodon.social
hachz. Das ist sweet und traurig gleichzeitig.
nekohayo@mastodon.social
Might we worth mentioning Epiphany (WebKitGTK) in the article for those who may be satisfied with a simpler browser that is still not based on Blink :blobcatcoffee:
Playing DRMed content with it isn't really an option, though.
★davidrevoy
@nekohayo Yes, I really like Gnome Web/Epiphany. I had also a look at the Plasma side, the Falkon browser.
And the more I think about my web browsing usage, the more I wonder why I want to keep all my browsing inside a single web browser.
Probably a habit I developed with the early web.
I might start to install more browsers and split up my web browsing habit depending on activities and the level of privacy and security I need for certain website.
3 ★elgregor@librem.one
I still use Firefox, but I disabled sending any data to Mozilla.
Thanks for not contributing to Chromium monopoly. :)
★davidrevoy
@elgregor That's a good solution! My initiation to LibreWolf made me aware of many settings I never thought existing in Firefox (because suddenly all were turned on by default). It was really educative, and I'll probably benefit a lot of it if I'm going back to Firefox.
★technikhil@toot.cafe
For those coming here in search of Firefox alternatives, I just want to point out https://zen-browser.app/ that is also a fork of Firefox though perhaps a more customised fork... Check it out if you are in the mood for trying a different layout from the default Firefox experience...
louischance@piaille.fr
@technikhil I just gave #Librewolf and #Zenbrowser a try. Both seem to work perfectly fine, and reimporting my date from #Firefox was easy (which seems logical since they're both based on Firefox).
I'm not switching now though. I took a minute to check my Firefox settings and opt out from everything that seemed not to be data privacy friendly.
I'm wondering if those forks are actually viable if Firefox dies one day... So for now I'd rather not cut the branch I've been sitting on for 2 decades, wait and see.
I like the look of Zen browser though, looks like arc!
★technikhil@toot.cafe
@louischance Yep, perfectly rational... I too have not (yet) given up on Firefox, I have just started compartmentalizing what I use it for. The Firefox sync allows me to still keep parity between the 2 browsers, though given the direction Mozilla is going I am probably going to delete that account quite soon.
★The similarity with Arc is what drew me to the Zen browser initially. I also like the amount of space it provides for the content in it's "compact mode" layout.
davidrevoy
@technikhil @louischance Yes, Zen Browser was on my list when I tested, beautiful interface and screenshot on their website.
> I'm wondering if those forks are actually viable if Firefox dies one day...
Louis: yes, this THE central real question about all these forks. I personally don't think any forks around could survive that.
2 ★abusayed@mastodon.social
@technikhil @louischance
forks can survive if the maintainer team is 'for the people'. Look at "Jellyfin", a fork of " emby". Still surviving.
★Lux@lemmy.blahaj.zone
For android, there’s also fennec on fdroid
★MouseDotExecutable@mastodon.art
Nice!
I love the implication that the furry flame ball was always a wolf. Lol
I'm personally going to try out Zen and see how it goes.
★eugen@infosec.exchange
For me, it is, honestly, sad. I've been using Firefox since... it was Firebird. Twenty+ years.
Great art, as always!
★pq1r@tech.lgbt
I've gone through this process myself today. I have some comments not found in your blog post:
★Symlinking ~/.mozilla/firefox to ~/.librewolf works.
Synchronisation is turned off by default. Turning it on makes it work, but it also erases all the cookies. Okay, no biggie.
No dark mode by default, you have to set this manually. Unless you disable Resist Fingerprinting, which I kinda want to keep.
The built in password manager is disabled by default.
davidrevoy
@pq1r oh oh, interesting for the symlink! Thank you for sharing. A dual workflow with keeping Firefox for my trusted websites and all search and random web browsing in Librewolf to not get tracked sounds like a possibility I haven't studied. I'll consider this, now.
pq1r@tech.lgbt
Just be aware that you can't use both on the same profile at the same time.
Also I noticed that running FF reverts LW to not syncing for some reason.
You can create separate profiles for trusted website using the -ProfileManager command line option and -P ProfileName to select the profile.
★marnic
Merci pour la découverte.
Mais le souci sera le même que Chrome au final, dépendre de l'évolution de FF pour le code principal.
davidrevoy
@marnic Totalement! C'est même pour ça que dans ma métaphore, je voulais vraiment montrer que le petit renard reste un renard , tant bien même recouvert de cendre. Ca ressemble donc plutôt a une "community curated edition" de Firefox, mais je crois que c'est ce que je cherche là. Je commence à me méfier de Mozilla. Ils dérapent trop souvent ces derniers temps, et ça c'est que la partie publique...
5 ★marnic
Faut créer une nouvelle fondation type de LibreOffice 😅
davidrevoy
@marnic Oui 😁 Mais faudrait commencer cette fondation avec un sacré budget pour avoir déjà une grosse poignée de dev à plein temps dessus.
Je verrai bien la Wikipedia fondation dessus. Il me semble que leur trésorerie et leur moyen technique et leur familiarité avec le publique ferait que si ils entraient dans ce game, ça ferait un acteur de poids très rapidement.
4 ★couscous@mamot.fr
★tiens ben justement, il s'était passé quoi pour openoffice à l'époque ? j'avais suivi que de loin mais il a bien fallu passer la main à libreoffice à ce moment là aussi ?
@marnic
davidrevoy
@couscous @marnic Les premiers paragraphes "Histoire" de https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice te donneront une version bien plus détaillé que ce que j'avais en tête pour te répondre. 😆
2 ★C'était un sacré truc !
couscous@mamot.fr
★oh wow en effet 😅
@marnic
Fat_Farang@mastodon.social
Long time LibreWolf user. I have recently installed "Floorp" on one of my machine, also a fork of Firefox. It has the added advantage of being non-US based (Japan). Seems good, but too early to be definitive.
★davidrevoy
@Fat_Farang Nice, that the first web browser suggestion in all the comments I received that I didn't know of existence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floorp , very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
dick@annihilation.social
@Fat_Farang idk why not use ice cat nigga/ or a diferent browsaer wow. oh yea there is no more browsers for windows fags only linux fags have choice
Heather@pixelfed.social
And if LibreWolf was too strict. I can recommend Zen Browser.
davidrevoy
@Heather That's a good recommendation, it was high on my list (and I love how fresh the vertical tab design is on it 😍 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_Browser )
EkpyroticFrood@mastodon.social
Thank you for this. I had forgotten about LibreWolf and now is a great time to remember it again. I appreciate your introduction as well. It helps to know what I'm getting into and what I should warn others about before sending them to it.
★Luna@mastodon.world
Got rid of Chrome for Chromium I guess Firefox will have to be replaced with an alternative as well since they decided to follow in Google's footsteps.
★bigTanuki@social.linux.pizza
Thank you for being on the right side of history, like … always 😊
★davidrevoy
@bigTanuki
Thank you, but don't worry, I'm making many errors too, and I'll keep doing them as I often experiment with many new things.
I just hope I'll get comments helping me if I go accidentally on questionable territories and I'll have the brightness of mind to study them and readjust.
vampirdaddy@chaos.social
★The catoon also works for MoonWolf.
🤭
cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
LibreWolf needs to adopt a Foxkeh like mascot since Mozilla refuses to do it even though it would make them so much bank and popularity. <3
shafik@hachyderm.io
Check out the cyber cleanse document and their alternatives to browsers and all big tech platforms:
https://hachyderm.io/@shafik/114079918244149955
prakasc@chaos.social
how do you compare waterfox? Thanks.
davidrevoy
@prakasc For Waterfox, I read their webpage, and the Wikipedia page only. The chapter about vulnerabilities was enough for me to not get motivated to explore more. Also a business model based on search result. Meh. But cool name.
★kagan@wandering.shop
The artwork and the alt text describing it are both poignant and touching.
I'm about to migrate from Firefox (which I've been using since it was Netscape 3.04) to Librewolf as well. It's nice to feel welcomed.
★Gonzalo@paquita.masto.host
I switched to LibreWolf two month ago and it works nicely.
★DBG3D@masto.es
@Gonzalo
Extensions working fine on it?
davidrevoy
@DBG3D @Gonzalo I use only three or four extension here, one to skip sponsoring segment on Youtube, another one to auto-complete cookie, a css div box outliner, an extension also to get more info on pictures and be able to search by image. They all look like they work fine.
oldoldcojote@climatejustice.social
Can't seem to install on android. Tor works well.
★notableperson@infosec.exchange
i deleted firefox litllery just today from my distro, and replaced it with librewolf
★its working great!
cyborgnekosica@socel.net
somehow, my #librewolf makes weird alignment in some sites... is there a way to make the text align left?
🖼️ 9c6f61ecbbc970ca.jpegIt's not a big deal but it can be annoying sometimes
Domi
★Il y aussi floorp, un "fork" également du renard. Pas d'avis définitif (en phase test) mais je n'ai pas eu le besoin de me plonger dans la doc et de soulever le capot pour l'intant.
@Khrys
LasseGismo@climatejustice.social
Better that 👍
★#firefox #librewolf #tos #webcomic
fasnix@iceshrimp.de
Love it!
Would also like to see one cartoon with Firefox becoming Zen(fox), how that would work out? :)
davidrevoy
@fasnix Thank you!
No idea for a Zen version, but it can be a good writing exercice if you want to spend time figuring out in a text pad. Feel free to share the result here if you have something fun!
jessienab@wetdry.world
i will still honour and cherish my firefox plushy, which is free from the sins and bounds of a TOS or corporate overlord :blahaj_face:
usul@piaille.fr
good luck getting sec patches in time
fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works
Honestly. The biggest dilemma browsers seem to have isn’t just funding but how to maintain they’re absolutely massive code bases.
Either we really do a very large and robust org like the Linux kernel group, or we need to find a way to massive reduce the complexity of the browser.
Servo is exciting and ladybird too. Maybe their fresher starts can bring in the opportunity to do that.
usul@piaille.fr
@fruitycoder the group exists and is called blink, managed by google who got tired of working with apple on khtml and forked it to do what they wanted.
scaro@mamot.fr
je te suis et pas que pour la qualité de ton travail ! je vais l'installer de suite sur mon portable Frame.Work Fedora. Et pour ton mobile, tu as choisi quoi ?
davidrevoy
@scaro Merci. Sur mobile jusque là c'était Firefox sur un Android dégooglisé... enfin au mieu possible car c'est quasi impossible de faire un 100%.
★Mais là je teste la semaine prochaine https://iode.tech/ , c'est du https://lineageos.org/ mélangé avec de la revente de matos reconditionné. Je donnerai des news sur le blog si ça fait bien le taf, surtout si au niveau photo/video ça arrive à suivre. ☺️
scaro@mamot.fr
alors je serai attentif à tes futures publications. Sur mon Fairphone avec Murena OS, je testerai le navigateur par défaut pour désinstaller dès que possible Firefox aussi. Iels verront vite la baisse de leur utilisation, sans doute lors des prochaines mises à jour...
★Post a reply
The comments are synchronised every 1h with the replies to this post on Mastodon:How to use this? (click here to unfold)
Open a new Mastodon account on the server of your choice. Then, Copy/Paste the adress above in your Mastodon 'Search' field. The post will appear and you'll be able to fully interact with it. You'll have full control of your posts: edit, remove, etc. After that, your message will appear here.
Just please note that it may take up to 1 hours for your changes to be reflected here.