https://noyb.eu/en/firefox-tracks-you-privacy-preserving-featureWith a recent Firefox update, Mozilla seems to have taken a leaf out of Google’s playbook: without directly telling its users, the company has secretly enabled a so-called “Privacy Preserving Attribution” (PPA) feature.
Haven't you already thought about this?
I doubt the situation has gotten betterLooks like if I want to do this I'll have to sink a lot more time into it than I initially estimated, because Mozilla has moved away from any semblance of modular/selectable setup for its browser. To do this properly, it would require a lot of front-end work to remove integrated bits of spyware which would ultimately be much more of a drain on resources than I can afford at the moment. It would also no longer be a rebuild but a new fork -- I'm really not feeling that that is worth the effort here.
If someone else wants to have a poke at this, go right ahead. I'm available to compare notes with re: what I have so far in terms of build environment and research.
Librewolf fell into the trap of going totally overboard, unfortunately. I initially applauded what they wanted to do but as it is now, it's just going a route that isn't conducive to general use. it's one thing to strip it of Mozilla Services; it's another to try and overly harden overall privacy. Checking https://librewolf.net/docs/features/ there are a ton of "features" that literally make the UX terrible. We need a balanced approach here, not an extremist one.
I still think it could be quite popular, you should really do it. Is there a way to monetize it to help support Pale Moon development?Moonchild wrote: ↑2024-09-25, 13:29Oh make no mistake, it would not be extensive work. it would just be a rebranded rebuild with crap yanked out that inevitably relies on "cloud" services (because Google). I think it wouldn't be all that involved at this point, just needs combing through prefs and build config to flip off the necessary things.
I agree. A big point in PM's favor is that it simply does not contain any of the bloat or tracking crap that Firefox does and so it is privacy respecting out of the box (a few idiots will grumble about start.me of course
) and so there is nothing to 'harden' or tweak. The market for Firefox users who are happy with Firefox other than the privacy violation is already well served by Librewolf and similar. 
I haven't looked much into it... Primarily because the information surrounding it is fairly thin. And tbh the mention of using "betterfox" prefs was a bit of a turn-off. But I may be behind the times in that respect.
I will agree the website is..........not the best looking. But the Mercury browser is not so bad if one wants to play around with it......which is right up my alley.
I'd disagree.suzyne wrote: ↑2024-09-26, 02:22A rebuild of the current version of Firefox seems to directly conflict with the rationale for Pale Moon and it being a browser that answers the criticism of the direction that Firefox went in?
I think offering a Firefox rebuild would dilute the Moonchild Productions brand and could too easily be interpreted as an implicit endorsement or capitulation to the type of browser Pale Moon has worked so hard not to be.
This new (mis)feature was announced on the Firefox release page. - I suspect that I may be one of the few people to actually read this page whenever a new release has been published.suzyne wrote: ↑2024-09-25, 09:46Interesting complaint against Mozilla. From the linked page:https://noyb.eu/en/firefox-tracks-you-privacy-preserving-featureWith a recent Firefox update, Mozilla seems to have taken a leaf out of Google’s playbook: without directly telling its users, the company has secretly enabled a so-called “Privacy Preserving Attribution” (PPA) feature.
For the Firefox users here, did you know of this feature?
Was it really added secretly, or is this claim exaggerated?
I'd say its clearly a job for MP, maybe give it a cool name such as "Pale browser" or "Moon browser"? With a bit of luck it could be released in early October 2009, but maybe I'm just a time traveler .Moonchild wrote: ↑2024-09-26, 08:43Look, I just feel that the Firefox rebuilds out there all try to do more than they should be doing. I looked into it a while back and it seems to either be "Use Firefox and be subject to Mozilla telemetry/bloat/service pushing" or "Use a rebuild that cripples your user experience by being privacy/corporate-shunning paranoid". I don't like either of the two, can you blame me?
We all have websites we need alternative browsers for. The question is what do you use for that? Paranoid browsers will throw mud in your face when you try, because the websites you need them for as an alternate will not like the blocking/neutering those browsers do (usually more so than the sites you would not need an alt browser for). Mainstream browsers will suck your data life blood out of you. There's a gap there I'd love to see filled one way or another.
I'm also not saying Moonchild Productions should be the one to fill that gap. I'm happy to continue focusing on Pale Moon 100%. It just gets frustrating to see that nobody else seems to be able to just constrain themselves to make a proper de-corporatized (is that a word? ... it is now.) general-use browser that doesn't try to also be an "extreme privacy bastion". Firefox, for what it is, is doing a pretty decent job at that by itself, were it not for hooking into all these Mozilla services and telemetry gathering things.