
Librefox, mainstream Firefox with a better privacy and security - pplonski86
https://github.com/intika/Librefox-Firefox
======
ukyrgf
This is unrelated, but I've never had the opportunity to ask before: in what
cultures is it common to put a space before a colon (e.g. "Librefox : Browse
With Freedom")? When I see that behavior, I immediately know the author isn't
a native English speaker, but I've never known the reason behind it.

~~~
FragenAntworten
I believe it’s French.
[https://www.iwillteachyoualanguage.com/learn/french/french-t...](https://www.iwillteachyoualanguage.com/learn/french/french-
tips/french-punctuation)

~~~
Nodraak
As a French, I confirm we put a space before colons. (It's a mistake I often
see in English presentations made by French and it drives me crazy)

~~~
abrowne
Since we're on the subject, saying "a French" sounds wrong to me (American
native English speaker), even though the same construction is OK for other
nationalities. (E.g. "a German" is OK.) You're better off with "a
Frenchman"/"a Frenchwoman" or "a French person".

~~~
chrisdhoover
No no no. As French is the correct English locution

------
jamieson-becker
Tragic and ironic that we need a _libre_ Firefox.

~~~
Digital-Citizen
Firefox has been and continues to be libre in the sense of software freedom --
free to run, inspect, share, and modify. Anyone who complains about how
Mozilla runs their variant of Firefox should thank Mozilla for that licensing
choice so that with other people's hard work, the world has multiple variants
to choose from all of which are also free software (as far as I know).

You won't see such improvements for non-free (proprietary) software because it
wouldn't be legal to prepare or distribute them and because modifying binaries
is remarkably difficult. Any improvements the proprietor distributes are
untrustworthy unless they are freed. I think it's great that software freedom
exists and that people are willing and able to distribute variants that serve
their needs.

~~~
intika
True, and a nice reminder :)

------
kevingadd
Weird to see "better privacy and security" listed when the notes say that it's
not safe to use it with Tor. I assume it's just a compatibility issue with
extensions or something, but still...

Bummer that the performance for videos and stuff is apparently worse. I assume
it's because the developer doesn't have access to the PGO/LTCG resources that
are used for official Firefox builds, but maybe hardware video playback has to
be disabled for privacy reasons? The readme doesn't seem to say why it's slow.

~~~
darkpuma
_" Weird to see "better privacy and security" listed when the notes say that
it's not safe to use it with Tor. I assume it's just a compatibility issue
with extensions or something, but still..."_

I'm guessing it lacks some of the more obnoxious features used by the Tor
Browser bundle, such as the nag dialog when you change the window size.

That particular window geometry being common for all tor users may be a good
way to keep your browser fingerprint anonymous, but I wager that screen
geometry for general internet access is less common than _[fullscreen on
whatever common size of screen you own.]_ I suspect that if your traffic isn't
coming out of a known tor exit node, you're better off using a normal window
geometry.

~~~
jstanley
Except when do you ever use the browser at _actual_ full screen? Your window
decorations, desktop environment, and browser UI cruft reduce the viewport
size by a few tens of pixels.

And if you do use actual full screen, that's probably even _more_ uniquely-
identifying!

~~~
darkpuma
> _Except when do you ever use the browser at actual full screen?_

Almost always, maybe I'm weird like that...

> _" Your window decorations, desktop environment"_

For most people the signal that gets through will be "windows" or "mac".
Anybody else _may_ benefit from sending the _" window geometry typically used
by the tor browser but not coming from a known tor exit node"_ signal. Maybe.

> _" and browser UI cruft "_

That an interesting point, does enabling or disabling the bookmarks toolbar
trigger the window geometry nag dialog in the Tor Browser bundle?

~~~
jstanley
> Almost always, maybe I'm weird like that...

Right, so you're definitely producing a very unusual fingerprint in terms of
browser dimensions. Yours is exactly the kind of use case that the Tor browser
nag popup is supposed to help.

~~~
darkpuma
I wager my _" fullscreen on a particular mac"_ signal is less unique than the
_" tor browser bundle size but not coming from a tor exit node"_ signal.
Because what browser other than the tor browser uses that geometry? And how
many people using that geometry aren't coming through a known tor exit node? I
wager the haystack you'd be putting yourself in by doing this is vanishingly
small.

------
giancarlostoro
I see they add a plugin to add a refresh button to the URL bar. But I have
that on my Firefox without an addon. Is there a new version that removed this
button moving forward or something?

~~~
opencl
FF57+ combines the refresh and stop buttons, the addon makes them separate
again.

~~~
librefox
you were close ^^, it just add a refresh to the URL-bar instead of the toolbar

------
solarkraft
> This is not a fork

... but they're shipping modified code under the FF logo.

Is this okay?

~~~
jmisavage
Probably not. Mozilla will chime in sooner or later. They had a problem with
Debian distributing a modified version of Firefox and ended up forcing Debian
to call it something different - Iceweasel. Everything got sorted out years
later.

------
nhynes_
The packaging instructions are a bit manual. Here's a script which automates
the process on MacOS:
[https://gist.github.com/nhynes/46a01eadf7af747a1915f9a964337...](https://gist.github.com/nhynes/46a01eadf7af747a1915f9a964337e3d)

~~~
intika
Thanks again for your contribution :)

------
jammygit
Installed this out of curiosity, then returned to my usual firefox. Had to re-
opt-out-of the sponsored stories again.

As somebody who donates to Mozilla, I wish there was a paid version of firefox
that removed that sort of thing.

------
darkblackcorner
The logo just makes me think "Chrome"...

~~~
Hedja
It makes me think "AppVeyor".
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppVeyor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppVeyor)

Looks like it's a placeholder.
[https://github.com/intika/Librefox/issues/20](https://github.com/intika/Librefox/issues/20)

