Waterfox 56 is out
Alex Kontos, the developer of the Firefox fork Waterfox has released a test build of version 56 of the web browser to the public.
Update: The final version of Waterfox 56.0 is now available.
Waterfox 56.0 is a major new release as it paves the way for future versions of the web browser. The release marks the beginning of a transition period that moves Waterfox to the Firefox ESR branch.
Firefox ESR, Extended Support Release, is a special version of Firefox designed for organizations and users that can't or don't want to upgrade to a new version every six or so weeks.
Moving Waterfox development to Firefox ESR buys some time to develop a new version of Waterfox that combines some of the strengths of classic Firefox with the functionality of the new Firefox.
In short, the future version of Waterfox will support XUL and XPCOM, and as such legacy add-ons, but also new technologies such as WebExtensions or the multi-process architecture.
Waterfox 56.0 is based on the Firefox 56.0.2 release, and includes the security patches of Firefox 57.
Alex posted a to-do list, community requests and project goals on Reddit that has some unique feature listings. Here are my favorites from the list that he posted:
- Re-implement a cookie prompt that is displayed whenever sites attempt to save cookies on the system.
- Improve Android version of Waterfox.
- Switch for signed add-ons (I assume enable / disable).
- Global disabling of web notifications.
- Remove all telemetry.
- Modernize the Australis interface.
- Look into JavaScript image decoders.
One interesting tidbit that you find listed there is that Alex looks into implementing a private network similar to VPNs as a way to potentially finance the development of Waterfox.
Waterfox users who would like to try the new build can download it from the Reddit thread. Users who don't want to help with the development may want to wait until the final version of Waterfox 56.0 is released instead.
Closing Words
Alex Kontos' Waterfox plans are very ambitious, and it remains to be seen if he can drum up enough support -- development, financial and other -- to not fall behind too much.
If he succeeds, Waterfox will support Firefox legacy add-ons and new features that Mozilla introduced and introduces in recent versions of the browser. This could boost the attractiveness of the browser significantly.
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.