Quantum to Waterfox

[Cody]

I've been experimenting with this browser - it's a fork from Firefox, without some of the bells and whistles. I hesitate to say a stripped-down fork, as it seems to use about the same resources as Firefox (could that be down to me choosing the 64-bit version, I wonder?). I rather like it, as it happens - and it has been very useful today as Firefox decided to brick itself this morning. Anyone else using/used Pale Moon?

[spud42]

been using firefox for many years but i am finding that it is not as stable as it once was. im getting a lot of "not responding" messages and crashes of the video player.

has pale moon been stable?

[Diziet Sma]

crashes of the video player.

I've been seeing a lot of those too.. I'd imagine Mozilla have gotten loads of complaints, and have been working on it. I'm hoping that the recent bump from FF40 to FF41 has fixed that.. haven't really tested it yet, though.

[Cody]

... has pale moon been stable?

So far, yes... it's like using an older build of Firefox (31 perhaps). Firefox (41) itself remains bricked for me - something odd about that.

[spud42]

yes, around build 34/35 it started to be flaky. and the fast pace of fixes and updates lately has not fixed any thing.

[avder]

Firefox to me seemed like it started to wobble around on the rails ever since it change to the rapid update schedule they do now. And of course every so often it goes completely off the rails entirely.

Seriously considering giving Pale Moon a shot as I'm getting fed up with Firefox as a whole.

[Cody]

<nods> How many times does a really good product get over-tweaked, and ends up average - 'twere ever thus! Pale Moon is perfectly adequate as a back-up, it is quite fast, but seems to use more resources than Firefox 41 - go figure! Anyway, I've managed to get Firefox 41 to install and run correctly, so I've switched back - for the time being. If Pale Moon had been lighter on resources, I may well have stuck with it and done without the bells and whistles - but I did want my Oolite-themed skin back.

[spud42]

you sir are a gem....

oolite theme installed and running.

[Cody]

Scenario: dev meeting

How can we make the upcoming Firefox Quantum browser noticeably faster?
Oh, tough one! That'll take a lot of work. Any ideas, anyone?
How about we use the next couple of updates to slow Firefox 56 down. Then, when Quantum is installed, it'll appear much faster?
Result! Let's head for the pub!


Firefox Quantum (57) - you might like it, you might not. It may infuriate some, especially those who use lots of Add-ons. It's certainly infuriated my brother, and I've gotta fix it for him. But on my machine, it does seem faster, and appears to be a tad leaner too. So far, so good!

[Astrobe]

I'm still using Pale Moon. Starts faster, uses about two times less memory. I use FF for some stuff and I was displeased to see that I lost a few things because FF57 made obsolete the speed dial extension I was using (might be temporary though). Mouse gestures are gone too. Add the mandatory ad-blocker and that's about all I use in terms of extensions, so 66% are "broken" right now (yes, I know there are alternatives).

I'm keeping an eye on Vivaldi, the spiritual child of Opera (which was converted into a Chrome skin and sold to a Chinese company with a bad rep). Vivaldi has all the conveniences I want (speed dial, mouse gestures, tons of configuration options) built in. They plan to integrate an email client (like the old Opera). Add an IRC client (like the old Opera) to chat on #oolite, and it will become very attractive.

The only things that holds me back is that it's a semi-closed source Blink-based browser.

[ffutures]

The one I've heard good things about is WaterFox, which is making a point of staying compatible with existing add-ons, unlike Firefox in the near future. Apart from that it seems a lot like Firefox, when and if Firefox does kill some of my favourites I will be switching.

[Smivs]

Update Firefox last night (to v57.0) and it no longer supports my form filler add-on
At least it's not using nearly all the available memory like its predecessor did, so (most of) it works better.

[Cody]

At least it's not using nearly all the available memory like its predecessor did

That was a problem I didn't have - it rarely used more than 600MB. It was the slowing-up that irritated me.
As regards Quantum, the jury's still out. Got myself lost in about:config earlier - here be dragons!

[CaptSolo]

Not a big fan of Quantum. They've moved things and changed some icons. Guess I'm just an old stick-in-the-mud.

[spud42]

i started having trouble with FF about 3 revisions ago. forced me into chrome. still have FF on my work laptop because chrome wont open pdf's in foxit. keeps opening them in a browser plugin even though i have told it to use foxit.
will keep using whatever works for the task... so chrome at home and FF ot work...