Sync should become more easy to handle than in Palemoon

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ycom1
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Sync should become more easy to handle than in Palemoon

Unread post by ycom1 » 2023-05-07, 18:05

As a preface, I would like to say I really enjoy using
Basilisk, given up Firefox for now : - )

But now to the topic:

I put forward the proposal that with the new Basilisk
syncing between devices
must become easier,
actually I have given up syncing, it is much to complicated.
It should be like done by a login, maybe email verification
additionally or even maybe not.

Regards Andy Gaal

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Re: Sync should become more easy to handle than in Palemoon

Unread post by Moonchild » 2023-05-07, 18:57

Not sure what you find so complicated

Setting up a sync account: you provide an e-mail and a password. that's it.
Linking another device to your account: on the new device you select "I have an account" you get a 12 character code, which you enter on your primary browser (preferences -> sync -> "Pair a Device", and bam, you're done.
Alternatively you can link a device by entering your account login and the key you saved from the primary browser. (I don't have the device with me)

If you expect a single login to be able to produce everything for synchronising without the primary browser being involved then you should know that cannot be done in a secure way since that would require your secret to be transmitted and stored in a recoverable way on a server. Sync does not send your encryption key to the sync server for a very good reason.
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ycom1
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Re: Sync should become more easy to handle than in Palemoon

Unread post by ycom1 » 2023-05-07, 19:39

you also got to keep life quality,
not to struggle in paranoid
mechanisms.

Not that I overwhelmingly
like Mozilla, but
the way Mozilla does sync,
goes very straight forward
secure and easy.

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Re: Sync should become more easy to handle than in Palemoon

Unread post by Moonchild » 2023-05-07, 20:52

ycom1 wrote:
2023-05-07, 19:39
Not that I overwhelmingly
like Mozilla, but
the way Mozilla does sync,
goes very straight forward
Then I suggest you go and use Firefox.
ycom1 wrote:
2023-05-07, 19:39
secure and easy.
It's (presumably) easy for those who can only fit one generic way of ever doing things in their head (i.e. webby login for everything).
It's also not secure, no matter how much Mozilla claims it is. If you can recover your data from their servers by logging in after losing access to your browser profile (and therefore your key), then that means it is reversible with the data stored on the server, and therefore not a 0-knowledge setup. After all, if you can recover it, so can they. You can call that paranoid, I just call that having some knowledge about encryption. Our Sync on the other hand never contains enough data on the server to recover the encrypted data. Your key is private and secret.

Do with that what you will.
"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
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Re: Sync should become more easy to handle than in Palemoon

Unread post by Basilisk-Dev » 2023-05-07, 23:01

While we appreciate the suggestion, we have no plans to alter the sync system at this time.

It works for many users as-is and as Moonchild has already said, the current sync system we use is much more secure than the Firefox Sync system that Mozilla uses.
Off-topic:
Personally I use an HTML file containing my list of bookmarks and then I set that as my home page/new tab page in all my browsers. By doing this I have the same bookmarks regardless of what browser I'm using, even if the browsers do not use the same sync system.
Basilisk Project Owner

viewtopic.php?f=61&p=230756

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ycom1
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Re: Sync should become more easy to handle than in Palemoon

Unread post by ycom1 » 2023-05-08, 19:28

I do not want to criticize,
and I am sure the developers of
palemoon and basilisk do have more programming experience
than me,
I was just showing the situation as
from a user's perspective, where I think I do have
a valid point.

I can manage to do my sync in other ways,
no probs,
I hope palemoon and basilisk
become more popular,
which is a hard task because people
generally do not appreciate ans support enough those opensource
and foss ideas.

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Re: Sync should become more easy to handle than in Palemoon

Unread post by moonbat » 2023-05-09, 01:49

ycom1 wrote:
2023-05-08, 19:28
from a user's perspective
Unfortunately users care more about convenience than security. Until the server gets hacked and they lose their data, and then it's all the server operators' fault. The present system ensures that no one can get your sync data (bookmarks, history etc) if the server is compromised; quite unlike what Mozilla uses now.
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