Trying to move away from FireFox.
I know that there is LibreWolf and GNU IceCat.
What are the pros and cons for each?
I tried GNU IceCat and I don’t know how to install extensions. How to get extensions for GNU IceCat? Is it easier on LibreWolf?
I need the following extensions:
- ublock origin
- send to MPV player
- privacy badger
- Distraction free youtube
- Unhook
- LeechBlock NG
- Privacy Badger
- Tab Session Manager
- KeePassXC-Browser
I just recently switched to LibreWolf from Firefox. It’s one of the easiest software transitions I’ve ever made. It really is just Firefox without Mozilla’s recent bad decision making.
Thank you.
I see that I have to add an extra repo for Debian. That’s my only hesitation towards it atm.
what about flatpaks/snaps?
Perhaps a dumb question but why do you consider this a bad thing?
Should I consider it a bad thing??
They’re probably just trying to be minimalist
It’s not a bad thing.
It’s that I’d prefer if it was in the Debian repos. There’s an advantage to having all your packages come from one tested and trusted source. There are of course downsides to this approach namely, this kind of situation where there’s something new but not in the main repos.
I can’t tell you much about the pros and cons for each, however, when I look at the number of active contributors for each project, I’m not thrilled by either of their staying power.
Icecat has only a few active contributors. LibreWolf has <20.
Just to compare, Waterfox has over 5000 contributors.
LibreWolf (and Waterfox) install extensions the way Firefox does, so it’s very easy. Waterfox does give you the option to sync with Firefox, so that might be a major benefit if you want the functionality.
You can also sync in LibreWolf, if you enable it in the settings.
I need to run my own sync server.
You can do that too. LibreWolf is not taking away any of Firefox functionality unless there’s a specific reason for it. Some of its defaults are stricter, but those can be changed. All the configuration is totally available to you.
I get that. It’s just your comment made me realize I should self host my sync server.
Just to compare, Waterfox has over 5000 contributors.
I am 100% certain that this count includes Firefox contributors, not direct contributors to Waterfox. None of the Firefox forks are massive projects with contributors into the thousands. I would expect Waterfox to have a similar number of dedicated contributors to the others.
IDK, but it looks like a lot of individuals.
I compared them all the same way.
Yeah, those are almost exclusively Firefox contributors. e.g. Emilio Cobos Álvarez is a Gecko engineer at Mozilla, moz-wptsync-bot is a bot Mozilla uses to sync web platforms tests, Ryan VanderMeulen is the Firefox release manager at Mozilla.
Since their commits show up in the Waterfox commit log, they are Waterfox contributors, but only because it’s a fork and they contributed to the upstream project, Firefox.
LibreWolf and IceCat aren’t on GitHub (officially), so I’m guessing it’s just a difference in how different code trackers report contributors in forks or something.
I think you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between Firefox and Librewolf as you do all of your normal business with websites, but prove me wrong.
For IceCat, my main browser, you have to do a web search for the extensions you want and install the extension from their website, from Github, or from Firefox Addons. The IceCat FSF have a mentality of believing the only way to protect people’s freedom, which never ever includes freedom of choice, is to have total tyrannical control and eliminate all options for users that don’t conform to FSF philosophy because users aren’t smart enough to know what not to install. So the IceCat people say the best way to protect people is cut off their ability to natively search Firefox Add-on website.
I’m curious to ask you, why do you use Distraction free YouTube instead of FreeTube? Do you need native YouTube functionality or do you post comments?
freetube is broken now
