Thoughts on Removing the Profile Migrators

[Basilisk-Dev]

What are your thoughts on removing some or all of the profile migrators from Basilisk? Have you used these recently with a current version of any browser, and if so did it work properly?

I am thinking of removing these because they are not regularly maintained and were built around old versions of each respective browser. I'd imagine there has been some breakage over the years, but I want to hear user feedback first.

For reference, Basilisk has code for migrating from the following browsers:
* Internet Explorer (I'd imagine this is the most stable and should still work but who uses IE in 2023?)
* Microsoft Edge (not Chrome Edge but the old one)
* 360 Secure Browser (outside of China I doubt many people have ever used this feature)
* Firefox (this is almost certainly broken and will likely be removed regardless)
* Safari (I have no input here as I don't use a Mac)
* Chrome (No idea if this works or not)

[Moonchild]

I'm pretty sure the following is the current state of what you have:

• Internet Explorer works but probably irrelevant in 2023. MSIE is totally unusable these days and I doubt people are actually still using it unless they are on XP or something... And Basilisk won't run on that
• Microsoft Edge works but probably just as irrelevant in 2023 as MSIE, since people have been updated to Chredge automatically.
• 360 Secure Browser No idea.
• Firefox Broken
• Safari Likely broken, but I haven't kept tabs on Safari's profile format changes, maybe not?
• Chrome Broken

[dapgo]

As real life require of using an additional (modern) browser when pages are not compatible with PM/Basilisk.

It would be great to have an easy way to migrate (both directions) info between Firefox and PM/basilisk profiles (logins, bookmarks, history, cookies,...)

[Basilisk-Dev]

As real life require of using an additional (modern) browser when pages are not compatible with PM/Basilisk.

IMO the wording of this sentence implies that Basilisk and Pale Moon are not modern browsers, which is incorrect.

It would be great to have an easy way to migrate (both directions) info between Firefox and PM/basilisk profiles (logins, bookmarks, history, cookies,...)

That is already pretty easy to do for bookmarks. Pretty much all mainstream browsers as well as Pale Moon and Basilisk allow you to export your bookmarks to either a JSON or an HTML file. You can then import the file into the other browser and have all the same bookmarks.

In my case, I have an HTML document with my list of bookmarks that I set as my homepage in all browsers. If I need to add a bookmark I just edit the HTML document.

I'm pretty sure the following is the current state of what you have:

I did some additional testing and what I found pretty much matches up with what you've said here. Only IE import works. I don't have a machine with legacy Edge to test but I assume that works too.

If anyone has any objections now is the time to speak up. If not these importers will be removed in the next week.

[Lucio Chiappetti]

As real life require of using an additional (modern) browser when pages are not compatible with PM/Basilisk.

IMO the wording of this sentence implies that Basilisk and Pale Moon are not modern browsers, which is incorrect.

Off-topic:
Yes, it is quite annoying when somebody calls non-chrome-like browsers not modern, or non-HTML mail clients not modern (I use one, alpine, and actually I have procmail rules which strip html redundant attaxchments from e-mail, and my organization newsletter says "no modern mail client").
However I use to note that modern ("moderno" in Italian) is related (in Italian) to "moda" (i.e. "fashion"). So "not modern" means just "not fashionable", one thing is "to be modern", and another "to be a progress" (from Latin pro-gredior, to make a step forward). Not all which is fashionable is a step forward.

[athenian200]

I would say go ahead and keep the IE and Edge migrators (some people have gone out of their way to keep the older Microsoft browsers and there are registry hacks and such, etc), but get rid of the broken ones, as keeping the broken ones around creates an expectation that they will be fixed eventually.

The way I see it, if the profile migrators for IE/Edge work, then there's no need to get rid of them right away. That is to say, there's no real downside to keeping them around a little longer, and anyone frustrated enough with modern Chromium to keep on desperately trying to keep IE on life support might well be a good candidate for a future Basilisk user... since one of the reasons why someone might go out of their way to keep IE past EOL is ActiveX controls which are basically equivalent to NPAPI plugins.

It's not likely anyone will need them, but if they work and keeping the code around isn't a maintenance burden, I don't see any reason to be in a rush to get rid of it either. I'd say it would be a little safer to get rid of it in 2025, after mainstream support for every OS that ever supported IE or legacy Edge has ended. That is, I'd feel better about waiting a couple of years on that.

[Moonchild]

Also, a side note: the profile reset functionality uses the Firefox migrator, internally, IIRC. So while it would be fine and prudent to just disable access to it, its plumbing can't be removed without breaking the profile reset option.

[TTraveler]

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Now that I know what they are, sure remove them.....I've never used them....ever.

Thanks for asking....It's much appreciated knowing our thoughts are appreciated, & we are not just taken for granted.


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