Pale Moon 25.4 is out
Pale Moon 25.4 has just been published. The new version of the web browser is already available via the browser's automatic update feature and the official website.
The release is a major update that introduces several important fixes and changes to Pale Moon. Apart from that, it is patching several security issues making it a mandatory update for all users of the browser.
As far as major improvements are concerned, there are a few that need to be mentioned.
The SQLite version was update in this release which improves database performance for select operations by up to 50%.
Pale Moon, just like Firefox, uses databases to store history and bookmark information among others and operations that run on these databases benefit from the upgrade.
Another performance related change affects the unloading of idle plugins from memory. The new preference dom.ipc.plugins.unloadTimeoutSecs defines the idle time before plugins are unloaded. It is set to 60 seconds by default which you can reduce further. Please note that very low values may cause slow downs.
Another change affects text selection on Windows. If you double click on text, only the actual word is copied but not the space afterwards. This was different before and if you want to restore the previous handling set the preference layout.word_select.eat_space_to_next_word to true.
This is similar to how Firefox handles this and the same controls are provided to change it in Mozilla's browser as well.
Security and Privacy
Several interesting privacy and security related features landed in Pale Moon 25.4. Several trusted root certificates were updated in the release while CNNIC was distrusted (following Google and Mozilla on this which did the same).
The Page Info window highlights the protocol used on HTTPS websites now (e.g. TLS 1.2).
Other changes affecting secure site information include adding encryption with less than 128 bits or RC4 ciphers as weak, and certificate viewer improvements.
So-called mixed-mode connections are now represented by a new mixed-mode state for HTTPS connections that highlights these connections with a mixed-mode padlock and improved tooltips.
Other changes
Most telemetry code has been removed. Telemetry is used by Mozilla to collect various information about the browser. Since this is not used by Pale Moon, it has been removed from the browser.
The developers have removed other Mozilla-specific features like the plugin-check link in the addons manager and parameters for search.
A full list of changes is provided on the official website.
I’ve been a Firefox user since the middle 00s (in Windows and Linux), I couldn’t be more happy (at the time) there was a replacement for Internet Exploder. But now, Firefox has gotten on my last nerve. I haven’t run Windows since 2010 and been strictly using Firefox. Several years ago Mozilla made some gawd awful changes, to the GUI and added some nifty (sarcasm) hidden spyware. Just today I extensively poked around the profile data folders, I couldn’t believe the amount of collected data I saw (and shredded, it did not affect FF’s functionality post shred, do the math). First I dumped MS for this type of behaviour, then Google, and now Mozilla. If a corporation is going to spy on me, I want to know about it and have the option to shut it off, not search engine “about:config” related tweaks, the average Jane/Joe would not know about any of this. The GUI got extremely stupid several years ago, seems devs drink way too much coffee and have to justify their existence (and their salaries) by constantly messing with $#1+, I begrudgingly swallowed the GUI changes like a very huge, dry, bitter tasting pill…with no water. I just installed Pale Moon in all three of the distros on my machine (Devuan 1.0 [PPAs], Ubuntu netinstall Xfce 14.04.x [PPAs] and 2016 PCLinuxOS [in the repo]), it runs fast and problem free, and when I set it to clear data on exit, it does, like it’s supposed to. I more and more had to cherry-pick clean Firefox of snoop data, this reeks of my old Windows days, this makes my eyes glow bright laser red and grow horns, I don’t like that feeling, that’s why I don’t look at pictures of Bill Gates anymore, the horns hurt, lol. ;D I digress, but you get the picture. As far as websites failing to load with Pale Moon is concerned, they can go phruck themselves, they don’t deserve my traffic, I refuse to be part of the great internet consumer demographic experiment and ad business. Site owners hate people like me, I’m impossible to track, just started getting in to Tor browsing too, which I noticed a lot of the big sites block, or try to, they make you go through gestapo style verification to discourage Tor usage, they can go phruck themselves too. That’s right Twitter, you know who you are, phruckin’ @$$#01E$.
I have actually stopped using Pale Moon, as many sites will no longer render properly, and some disallow getting into comments, with the latest versions released.
I also wrote the developer about a specific problem which keeps some sites from loading. He quickly and courteously gave me the answer that, since these sites were not set up correctly, they were at fault, and he would not be changing the coding. I replied that Waterfox works on these same sites, but he did not budge.
Dwight Stegall May 10, 2015 at 6:20 pm #
Any browser that forces you to use plugins is a pathetic waste of disk space. I got sick of wearing out my drives scanning for malware. I’ll be happy when all plugins are a distant memory.
Good God…
a. Palemoon isn’t forcing you to use “plugins” and neither is Firefox.
b. Addons/Extensions are not plugins.
c. scanning for malware, has nothing to do with pale moon 25.4, palemoon isn’t WEARING out your drives–some other horseshit your doing is wearing out your drive. PS I been a bbs sysop since about 1994 and I NEVER WORE OUT A FUCKING DRIVE EVER — ALL THE WAY BACK TO MFM DRIVES THROUGH SCSI AND IDE THEN SATA.
d. your opinion about the use of addons contributes to the attitude of what has made the firefox ecosystem so extremely unhealthy. The arrogance that because you the KING OF HUDDERSFIELD have no need of addons or extensions so shouldn’t anyone else, especially non-programming worthless mere humans. You are not only wrong, your attitude is that which is turning out the lights on humanity itself. I envision an un-announced visit to your labs with slight analysis of your works in math and logic are flawed just like Obamacare and Medicaid -the numbers don’t work, you are likely FAILING THE EXPONENTS AS WELL.
When the electricity goes off cause you thought that global warming needed the SAG/SRM op’s it will be too late to redeem yourself, which is I REFUSE To let it get to that fucking point in the first place, and I START ASKING WHY WE AREN’T SHOOTING THESE JETS DOWN!?
Not to mention the SHIT that is the current proxy settings in firefox circa 37x. theres a reason for foxyproxy or the older better proxyselect/torbutton circa v 3.6 right there. Oh yeah, do you even use TOR? No? But other people do. Sure you could set your proxy settings in your AUSTRALIS 37 with no extensions or addons, BUT WHY!? Is it the Flouride? The 6 pack a day habbit? THe Heroin? What? TELL ME… Maybe god said only use TAILS or only use WHONIX or only torbrowser can be used and that’s the LAW. OBEY IT HACKERS..
and I am just saying without tryin to rag on ya. I mean really you can’t even Identify the difference between plugins and extensions and you want them all banished–Sorry–Go pound sand idiot, here’s your gun, here’s your parachute go fight that fuckin war on terror you keep harping about and leave us all the fuck alone.
Yes I took the time to write about you this. I am sick of this kind of attitude.
It’s what makes Firefox suck shit after a decade.
Your comments contribute nothing to the discussion here.
Please kindly cut out the foul language!
Back to the topic we’re hear to discuss.
I use Firefox and PaleMoon and am quite happy with both.
welcome to the internet :)
A browser of value if you do not like Australis and dislike to add additional add-ons to make Australis customizable again.
Downside: No Australis add-on works with Pale Moon.
it’s one of my my back up browsers for checking sites out and also getting around things like the firefox auto-delete of downloads that I know to be from a trusted source.
Any browser that forces you to use plugins is a pathetic waste of disk space. I got sick of wearing out my drives scanning for malware. I’ll be happy when all plugins are a distant memory.
Usually, the key to that problem exists between chair and keyboard, not in the browser…
Pale Moon 25.4.1 is out.
lol how mozilla spying on you? Please stop spreading FUD. Chrome is one of the offender that uploads all you browsing habits to clouds. When you don’t know anything, its best to shut your mouth.
Google is probably the specialist, but Mozilla takes a lot of data too.
https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7788
Respectfully disagree with that statement.
Haven’t found that at all in the many, many years I’ve been using Firefox.
And I feel very secure whilst using it.
Now Google Chrome is a browser I wouldn’t use on my computer!
Hi
I to hate Australis but that´s only one reason that made me
move to Palemoon. There’s been so many changes to Firefox
that it’s not the same animal I began using when it came out.
It takes more mouse clicks and trawling deeper in to sub menues
to get the job done .
The fact that Mozilla is spying on me, selling me out just like Google
doesn´t exactly help things up.
If by spying you mean the Telemetry feature, Martin posted something two years about why you might want to enable it: https://www.ghacks.net/2013/08/21/why-you-may-want-to-enable-firefox-telemetry-data/ Additionally, Telemetry and other communications can be easily disabled and isn’t turned on while in private browsing mode: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2011/09/firefox-7-telemetry/
I’ve seen over time a greater respect for user privacy from Mozilla than other browser companies, though I of course wish they would use a different default search engine (duckduckgo for example: https://www.ghacks.net/2013/06/14/it-may-be-time-to-switch-to-duckduckgo-or-startpage-for-web-search/). Still, they’ve got to make money somehow.
Martin’s point was that enabling telemetry while using features Mozilla planned to delete could help to avoid their deletion.
The reasonning was probably good, but since then these features were deleted…
“(e.g. TSL 1.2).” I think you probably meant “TLS.” :)
is there an add-on to make it look like firefox 37 (or higher, depending on when this is read) ?
By contrast, I may be going back to Palemoon. The latest Firefox v37 update killed both Flash And HTML5 playback. Spent WAY too much time trying to find extensions / themes to restore detail and color to icons. Not bloody amused !!
That’s weird. I haven’t had that problem with any of the Firefox updates.
Nor have I experienced the issues you have been having.
SeaMonkey is also an excellent alternative as well.
Also Waterfox and Cyberfox are good too.
A big part of the appeal of Pale Moon is to get it NOT to look like Firefox 37 =)
I liked PaleMoon for a good long while, but it is too divergent now and I can live with Australis (and a few other niggles).
I recently switched back to Firefox (after 2-3 years with Chrome) and have been very happy. I just tried Pale Moon, and it seems nice and all, but it disabled about 90% of my FF extensions, saying they were incompatible. Is there some kind of compatibility check override that can be done?
And what is the benefit, in your opinion, of Pale Moon vs FF? (if any).
“…it disabled about 90% of my FF extensions…”.
Jeff,
can you make a list of these FF extensions
that do not work in your Pale Moon?
I have about 50+ FF extensions,
all working perfectly in my Pale Moon browser…
– Pale Moon 25.4 and FF 37.0.2
– Ubuntu Linux 12.04 (32-bit)
– Samsung Tablet Galaxy Tab3 / Android 4.2.2
More secure, less nonsense (like “we remove the status bar for vertical space reasons but we force big icons, integrated videocalls we collect data from and share them with third parties, on you because we don’t care about users opinion”).
As far as add-ons is concerned, you may find this page helpful: https://addons.palemoon.org/resources/incompatible/
It lists the two major reasons why add-ons are not compatible with Pale Moon right away. There is a link to a forum where you can report incompatibilities and also a list of forked add-ons that you can install right away.
For differences, check the following page: http://www.palemoon.org/technical.shtml
Also, at the moment and for a while, Pale Moon has been based on the Firefox 24 series application with newer Gecko engine.
Most oftentimes, one should try to select a version of extension compatible with Firefox 24.
Thank you Martin. I’ll read up on those now.
For me personally, I hate the new firefox interface, it’s extremely confusing to try to customize. That and I like what moonchild is accomplishing with Pale moon, so I am going to support his products.
Without Mozilla and Firefox there would be no Pale Moon browser.
A lot of the Pale Moon browser is still based on Firefox code.
Am not saying Pale Moon is a bad browser. It’s pretty good.
It’s just I prefer Firefox and am happily using it with Classic Theme Restorer.
I agree and I had dumped FF back when Australis came out. But now I have complete control over the look & feel with a really great extension called “Classic Theme Restorer”. It is absolutely loaded with options:
screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/3odxvPX.jpg
I also use Menu Wizard 2.08 which gives me complete control over all of FF’s menu items, including right click context menus.
With a few great extensions, you can now make FF look how you want it, and move just about anything anywhere, or get rid of unwanted components of the UI.
Pale Moon is the only piece of software (that I am aware of) that is getting smaller and smaller :) Getting close to half the size of Firefox. And still, I miss nothing.