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 personally prefer Librewolf or Abrowser over IceCat, but if you can get IceCat to work then great.
You should be able to get extensions from the Mozilla Add-Ons Store. Failing that, the GNU Project has Mozzarella.
On Android, I would only recommend IronFox. It’s available on GitLab, Accrescent, Obtainium, and F-Droid (third-party repo).
I really like the play on words GNU did with Mozzarella.
Thank you for the links!
Anyone know of something similar for Android? I used to use Mull until it died, and now I’m back to Fennec. I very much prefer that it’s available on fdroid, or at least direct download.
IronFox seems to be a maintained fork of Mull
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.
Perhaps a dumb question but why do you consider this a bad thing?
Should I consider it a bad thing??
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.
They’re probably just trying to be minimalist
Yes. This is it. I want, as much as possible, to use packages from the main Debian repos.
That really depends on the quality of the repo.
what about flatpaks/snaps?
I’ve used flatpaks. I’ve never used snaps (I don’t want to support proprietary Canonical stuff). I prefer getting stuff from the Debian repo.
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.
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.
Thank you for the info. I made assumptions for sure.
The silver lining is that the OP has more than two alternatives regardless 😀
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.
Ah, good call. I probably should too. I’m not sure I will, but I should.
Hmm. I didn’t see the option, but if true, that’s great (if you use the option).
librewolf works just as well. waterfox is good too, but they have some questionable ui designs, though not as irrational as Firedragon
Didn’t consider Waterfox. Will look into it.
I was leaning towards GNU IceCat because of it being backed by Debian.
librewolf. icecat is great, but not all extensions and websites work properly
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?
Thank you for the comment.
It seems difficult to get extensions onto IceCat it seems. I guess I’d have to update them myself as well.
I use Distraction Free YouTube because I run into errors when using FreeTube. I use Distraction Free YouTube to see the description. I use MPV to view the video.
All of the extensions on the Firefox Addon website seem to install fine in IceCat. The extensions will be updated automatically. I recommend after installing IceCat disable all of the extensions that come with it built in or websites won’t load as expected.
Yes. That was the first things I learned very quickly.
freetube is broken now
