Pale Moon: plans for 2017 and beyond announced
The lead developer of the Pale Moon web browser outlined a development plan today for the web browser for 2017 and beyond.
Pale Moon shares a lot of code with the Firefox web browser. As such, it is affected by Mozilla's decision to cut classic components such as XUL or XPCOM from the Firefox web browser, and replace those with technologies such as WebExtensions or Quantum parts.
We have talked about the consequences of Mozilla's decision already: classic add-ons will stop working when the switch is made, and that is probably the biggest impact for users of the web browser.
Developers who produce browsers that share code with Firefox, Pale Moon, Waterfox, Seamonkey, and also other programs such as the email client Thunderbird, face even tougher challenges.
While they might make the decision to simply use the new code that Mozilla puts out, it means that features will be deprecated in the programs as well.
Pale Moon 2017 and beyond
The Pale Moon team made the decision to avoid this route, and keep on supporting the classic Mozilla platform.
The team plans to create a fork of the Mozilla platform before Mozilla cuts the ties to XUL and other technologies completely with the release of Firefox 57. Since Mozilla will cut out some features early, plans are underway to create the fork at the right point in time; this means that the team needs to find one of the last versions that still supports the old platform to gain the most out of the fork.
Pale Moon's lead developer notes that this fork will be open to anyone. He plans to build a Firefox-based browser from the code and publish it.
Long-term, it will be a different story for any XUL application (not just Pale Moon). Looking over our options, we've come to the conclusion that the only way to maintain a XUL-based browser in 2018 and beyond will be to create a separate (hard) fork of the Mozilla platform code close to the intended change-over -- but not too close since there will be a gradual deprecation of features preparing for the main change -- without Rust, Quantum or the new front-end, and keep aligning that with developments in scripting and rendering as an independent-from-Mozilla platform solution.
The platform itself will be open to other applications, including Pale Moon. Pale Moon won't be switched over right away, but it could be switched over eventually. It is too early to tell if any of the existing Mozilla platform programs will use that platform eventually; seems unlikely at this point in time. It is open to new applications as well however, so that is definitely an option.
Cooperation talks with other application developers, Waterfox and SeaMonkey were named specifically, were not successful. A cooperation would have put more development resources behind the project.
As it stands right now, only the Pale Moon team will work on the fork unless another organization or team starts a similar project earlier, or joins the team after all.
So, this is where we will put in our long-term effort later this year: building a solid, maintainable platform that can serve as a base for a XUL-Firefox derivative, and potentially Pale Moon's application code as well, depending on how things develop on the 'net. It will be a challenge. It will be difficult, but rewarding; it will build something that can offer a future to several applications that are now in peril (even things like a XUL-based WYSIWYG editor, for example).
Most of all, it will be a lot of work - and I do hope that people will continue to help out and chime in with development to make this parallel development of the platform and browser feasible without burning our current developers out.
Closing Words
This is a massive undertaking for the team, and it will be time consuming and difficult to work on Pale Moon and the Mozilla platform fork at the same time.
It is too early to tell whether this will work out well in the long run or not. If it does, it could become the new home for Firefox users who are disillusioned by Mozilla's current strategy for one reason or the other.
Anyway, I wish the team best of luck. If you are a developer and interested in joining the team, head over the Pale Moon site to do so. (thanks Appster)
Now You: Do you think forking the classic Mozilla Platform is a feasible project?
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.