Survey results

Anything to do with the Pale Moon Sync service.
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Moonchild
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Survey results

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-06-17, 08:02

Although barely enough people responded to draw any conclusions from, here are the Sync survey results:
  • Of the people responding, 26.3% actively use Sync
  • Of the active users, 28% use Sync in a manner it's not designed for: Please be aware that our Sync server is not a backup server, nor is it a service to be used to install defaults in browsers on many computers at once (you should use pre-generated profiles for that)
  • As far as the actual service goes, users find it extremely important that Pale Moon Sync is free and available, but don't care very much actually how it is given shape. People do find it important that it is run by us instead of a third party.
This makes the situation difficult for us because we cannot change it, and it is our largest expense post in terms of server hosting (it takes considerable computing power and storage to run the Sync server, managing a database of many GBs of encrypted data, with on average 200 concurrent synchronization connections at any point in the day) but we cannot charge users for it. Because we cannot change it, we can only continue running it as-is until we either run into scaling issues when more users use it or we simply don't have the funds to keep it running. We're not a corporation and we do not sell data (not that Sync has any usable data on it, anyway; everything is encrypted, including your account e-mail) so there's nothing on the other side of the equal sign here. Because it's insisted that we run it, we can also not ask volunteers to set up alternative servers for our community, even though that would be a viable solution.

So, for the future, it looks like we can run it as long as we can, and then it will be shut down. Making sure Pale Moon retains the Sync client will allow knowledgeable individuals to synchronize with e.g. several free cloud packages out there that support weave or to run their own FSyncMS instance.
Last edited by Moonchild on 2018-06-17, 08:05, edited 1 time in total.
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troypulk

Re: Survey results

Unread post by troypulk » 2018-06-19, 14:29

What other Android browsers will work with Pale Moon sync, Just Fire Fox?

Thanks

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SpockFan02
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Re: Survey results

Unread post by SpockFan02 » 2018-06-19, 16:54

troypulk wrote:What other Android browsers will work with Pale Moon sync, Just Fire Fox?

Thanks
Actually, not Firefox—Firefox requires Firefox Accounts now to Sync.

I, too, would like to know of any other compatible clients.

troypulk

Re: Survey results

Unread post by troypulk » 2018-06-19, 19:28

An alternative to sync would be to export bookmarks to a HTML and keep the HTML as a backup and keep it updated, any browser that can import HTML bookmarks will work.

Basically all I really need is the bookmarks anyway.

martywd

Re: Survey results

Unread post by martywd » 2018-06-19, 21:51

Moonchild wrote:Although barely enough people responded to draw any conclusions...
Sorry I missed the vote on this issue. I only sync bookmarks (Preferences|Sync|Manage Account|View Quota) sez: 1.6 MB . But the syncing of bookmarks between my various machines is kind of important to me.
... Making sure Pale Moon retains the Sync client will allow knowledgeable individuals to synchronize with e.g. several free cloud packages out there that support weave or to run their own FSyncMS instance.
That's good to hear that the sync functionality will not totally abandon in Pale Moon. At some point in the past I tried to figure out how to setup and configure my own 'weave' sync server (on ubuntu server, or maybe debian, I can't recall at the moment?) using howtos probably posted by our illustrious founder or other Pale Moon devs. My attempts were a dismal failure, thus I've continued to rely on Pale Moon.

Now I really need to figure this out (hosting my own sync server for Pale Moon).

.

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Moonchild
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Re: Survey results

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-06-19, 22:08

When it becomes prudent (or when I just have the spare time) I'll make a detailed write-up how to use FSyncMS to host your own sync server, that should be deployable on any VPS package available on the 'net.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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