Android fixes in 25.5?

[Daikun]

I was looking over the release notes for 25.5 and came across this:

Fix to prevent potential disclosure of sensitive information in Android logs

Um... Huh? I thought you dropped the Android version of PM with the last version.

[Moonchild]

The fact that I'm not building or actively developing it, doesn't necessarily mean I'm instantly going to let it rot when I come across a sec fix that's a one-liner...

[Daikun]

So, is this version downloadable for Android?

[New Tobin Paradigm]

That would be a no. Pale Moon for Android is discontinued.

[Daikun]

Then why bother adding tweaks to a version that won't be supported, anyway?

[squarefractal]

Then why bother adding tweaks to a version that won't be supported, anyway?

The fact that I'm not building or actively developing it, doesn't necessarily mean I'm instantly going to let it rot when I come across a sec fix that's a one-liner...

[Moonchild]

Then why bother adding tweaks to a version that won't be supported, anyway?

If someone else is going to pick up development, which I'm still hoping, then why make it difficult for them?
Sec fixes need to be applied anyway, and I see no reason not to "bother" when I have access to the info - these kinds of fixes tend to be very small, but with big impact if not applied.

[Daikun]

Ah, okay. Thank you.

[Begather]

So, is this version downloadable for Android?

Yeah you can easily download this version.

[moorken]

That would be a no. Pale Moon for Android is discontinued.

[Moonchild]

I'm looking at fixing a few things to provide a security update soon, but no active work is being done otherwise.

[squarefractal]

If that indeed is your intention, why not just back out libcubeb upstream pull and be done with it?

[CharmCityCrab]

If that indeed is your intention, why not just back out libcubeb upstream pull and be done with it?

Because he's hoping to find someone to pick up development, as he said earlier in the thread.

The impression I get, and this just as a bystander with no real involvement, is that they'd love to do a Pale Moon for Android. Most PC owners also have smart phones and/or tablets these days. In fact, some people primarily or exclusively access the Internet through their smartphone. People with both want to be able to sync history and bookmarks- and absent the ability to do so may be put off Pale Moon for desktop (Right now I am sometimes copying URLs into Google Keep on my phone to click on them from my desktop later in the day). People who use just the phone may want the Pale Moon experience in general.

There's also bit of a gap in the Android browser marketplace. Chrome is a sleek fully featured experience in most respects, but doesn't allow adds-on or ad-blocking. Firefox has the add-ons and ad-block plus, but is missing things like bookmark folders. Seriously, when I switched from Chrome to Firefox for mobile, they dumped all of my Chrome bookmarks into one big list, and I had big folders like e-books and music I was considering buying in the future mixed in with news and sports sites. Eventually, I had to delete all the potential future purchases and just stick with sites with articles and the like. Even if I *could* sync Firefox for Android with Pale Moon for desktop, I wouldn't, because the way I organize things requires bookmark folders on desktop, and if the mobile browser doesn't support it, I'm going to want a more trimmed down set of bookmarks for that and can't be syncing them back and forth.

So, if there winds up being an actively developed Pale Moon for Android, they enhance the experience of Pale Moon for desktop users by letting them sync bookmarks and history. They also could even conceivably combine the features Firefox doesn't have (like bookmark folders) with the features Chrome doesn't have (like ad-blocking) and attract new users into the Pale Moon universe.

*But* right now they are a small organization with a limited number of volunteers so they don't have an existing person who can spare the time and attention, they (I'm guessing) can't afford to hire someone, and they can't find a person who is willing to take on Pale Moon for Android on a volunteer basis who has the suitable skills.

In short, it sounds like they've pulled out of the platform *right now* because they don't have the time or the people to do it right, *but* they want to get back in *in the future* because they realize the importance of being on the platform. They are just waiting on the right person or people to volunteer. In the meantime, rather than throw away any coding and development work they've already done, they are sort of keeping it on life support as an alpha with occasional security fixes when it's easy to do them, so they can toss it at whomever volunteers to really take on the job and give him a running start if he finds what they've done useful.