Waterfox 56.2.8: improved web compatibility, security patches, new logo

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 15, 2019
Internet, waterfox
|
51

Waterfox users who waited for a new version of the web browser to come out patiently can now upgrade the browser to version 56.2.8.

Waterfox 56.8.2 was released on March 14, 2019 to the public. The new release is already available via the browser's update checking functionality but also as a standalone download for new users and users who prefer to download the full installer.

Existing Waterfox users may select Menu > Help > About Watefox to run a manual check for update. The new version should be picked up and installed when the about page is opened.

Waterfox 56.2.8

The new Waterfox logo is the first thing that users of the browser may notice. User reactions seem split on the new logo; some users like it, others dislike it and would like to see the old logo being added as an option so that they may switch to it.

More important than the logo are web compatibility improvements. Waterfox identifies as Firefox 60 ESR now in the latest release. The developer notes that many web compatibility issues should be a thing of the past because of this.

Services and sites such as WhatsApp Web, Chase, and others should work fine now in the latest version of Waterfox. Waterfox users who had issues solving captchas will benefit from the new release as well as captcha issues, especially issues with Google's recaptcha system, should be resolved in the new version.

Windows users who use Waterfox to access Gmail on the web should no longer run into issues using the service either. The developer of Waterfox turned off Service Workers by default and that appears to have resolved the issues that users experienced on the Gmail website.

The method Element.scrollIntoView should work as expected now as well in the new Waterfox release. The fix improves compatibility with websites that rely on the method.

Waterfox 58.2.8 is a security release next to that. The developer incorporated the latest Firefox security fixes in the release.

Now You: Do you use Waterfox? What is your take on the overall development?

Summary
Waterfox 56.2.8: improved web compatibility, security patches, new logo
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Waterfox 56.2.8: improved web compatibility, security patches, new logo
Description
Waterfox users who waited for a new version of the web browser to come out patiently can now upgrade the browser to version 56.2.8.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. DXK1 said on June 23, 2019 at 1:24 pm
    Reply

    There is nothing wrong with the older Waterfox logo’s (before the two recent fairy-like upgrades) and users should be allowed to switch back to the old ones if they want. This isn’t rocket science. All it requires is for the properties configurations to be unlocked in Windows. Why you would refuse to permit users the freedom to choose which icon they’d like to use is really asinine to say the least——-Really!

  2. female said on March 27, 2019 at 12:49 pm
    Reply

    the new version does not work on my pc. OS: ubuntu 18.04
    anybody with the same experience?
    and maybe a solution?

  3. crambie said on March 25, 2019 at 3:06 pm
    Reply

    It’s not my fault if you have really low standards.

  4. dood said on March 16, 2019 at 11:06 pm
    Reply

    Legacy extensions only reason one needs. with firefox there is less extensions available, how is that an upgrade. multiple row bookmarks toolbar is a must for me.

    1. delap05 said on March 18, 2019 at 9:59 am
      Reply

      Totally agree. In my case it’s DownThemAll.

      1. Ali said on March 27, 2019 at 8:47 pm
        Reply

        I suggest you to use waterfox or firefox 52 ESR portable for downthemall and use a normal firefox for your main browser.

        There are many zero day vulnerabilities that i think palemoon and waterfox can’t keep up and fix.

        Although i also really miss far lower RAM usage of firefox pre-quantum :(

      2. Anonymous said on March 18, 2019 at 4:02 pm
        Reply

        and Flashgot!

  5. Anonymous said on March 16, 2019 at 4:45 am
    Reply

    “Windows users who use Waterfox to access Gmail on the web should no longer run into issues using the service either. The developer of Waterfox turned off Service Workers by default and that appears to have resolved the issues that users experienced on the Gmail website.”

    Wow.. really? This issue has plagued me for months. I’m now considering to upgrade my legacy Firefox to Waterfox.
    Google can sucks balls for blocking gmail on other browsers.

    1. Anonymous said on March 16, 2019 at 11:00 am
      Reply

      I’ve tried Waterfox for half day after posting my comment above. Waterfox really fixed the gmail loading issue! Good job Waterfox dev! Not only that Waterfox is much faster to open and more responsive too. I’m glad that it has option to import Firefox profile, very easy to migrate! All my legacy addons are still working without problem.

      1. Anonymous said on March 17, 2019 at 7:19 pm
        Reply

        Upcoming ESR 68-based release will only support bootstrapped (restartless) extensions, and they’ll be severely crippled. Switch to actual forks like Basilisk or Pale Moon NOW if you have Overlay or SDK add-ons!

        Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/Waterfoxproject/status/1105938919554719746

      2. Anonymous said on March 25, 2019 at 11:28 am
        Reply

        don’t put things in peoples mouths.

        nowhere was it said that only boot strapped extensions would be the only ones working, XUL compatibility is guaranteed or users will just stop updating entirely.

      3. Anonymous said on March 18, 2019 at 4:17 am
        Reply

        I tried those two but many sites cannot be opened or have errors in them. I’ll just stop updating Waterfox if it also going the Firefox way. I’ll be using Mozilla browser until I can’t no longer open my daily websites anymore(Vivaldi is my next to go)

  6. Anonymous said on March 16, 2019 at 2:11 am
    Reply

    Just a (ugly) gimmick to cover the impending rebase on 68, which will render XUL Overlay and SDK extensions impossible and bootstrapped ones will be severely crippled if even installable. Mark my words.

  7. Oriol Brufau said on March 16, 2019 at 12:40 am
    Reply

    About Element.scrollIntoView, they only imported the fix for https://bugzil.la/1389274, but not the one that I wrote for https://bugzil.la/1416391. So the “nearest” mode is buggy.

  8. John said on March 15, 2019 at 11:24 pm
    Reply

    When are they going to ditch that horrible interface with the curved tabs, the back button welded to the URL bar (Awkward to introduce a forward button that can’t be placed after the back button because the back button is welded to the URL bar), etc.? Firefox finally corrected those mistakes with version 57’s Photon (Which was retro in a good way), and it remains corrected 8 versions later, in Firefox 65. Firefox also added some good options for bookmarking and such to the right of the URL bar, and of course it can still easily be customized to allow file and edit menus, a toolbar, etc..

    It’s kind of odd to see a forked or semi-forked browser like Waterfox hanging on to the interface that drove so many people away from Firefox so long after Mozilla reverted a lot of those changes. Basilik is another Firefox fork that retains it. I don’t get it, really. I suppose there might be an audience for that UI that those browsers are catering to, but for many people, it’s a deal breaker. Pale Moon is I think the only Firefox fork that can easily be customized into a decent UI, which is odd because it’s code base is the furthest from where Firefox is today (Basically, the application code in Pale Moon is using the old old Firefox UI, which is more like the current one than the horrible one in between that WF and Basilik are stuck on).

    I don’t really care what advantages Waterfox may currently have or may develop in the future as long as it’s stuck with that UI. I just can’t see launching that and staring at it several times a day.

    The new logo seems fine, though. No issues there. I am not entirely sure what the watery fox to the left is cuddling with on the right- it might be better if it was just two full watery foxes with heads each pointing outward in different directions from the middle of the W to the two sides- but there’s nothing wrong with it as is. It makes since for WF to try to develop more of a brand identity. The logo looks nice. It’s when one clicks on it the logo and opens the program that it sounds like the UI nightmare starts. ;)

    Are they basically holding off on fixing the UI because of a non-aesthetic reason like that perhaps some of the more recent XUL add-ons wouldn’t work with it if they did? Or do they actually prefer that UI?

    1. anakaneh said on March 19, 2019 at 5:08 am
      Reply

      @John
      People are using CTR with Waterfox so the Australi doesn’t matter. I prefer the old school menu interface than ribbon-like interface. Less clicks and easier access to many things.
      Firefox is just following Chrome’s design, everytime Chrome change the design, Firefox will follow later.

    2. John Fenderson said on March 17, 2019 at 5:23 am
      Reply

      @John: “It’s kind of odd to see a forked or semi-forked browser like Waterfox hanging on to the interface that drove so many people away from Firefox”

      One of the big reasons why I use Waterfox is so that I can use Classic Theme Restorer, which lets me avoid Australis.

      It also lets me fix a number of other user interface problems that persist in the new Firefox. The new Firefox introduces user interface problems as well — but, while you can mitigate much of those problems with the CSS file in the new Firefox, you can’t fix the behavioral ones, and nothing like CTR exists in the new Firefox.

      So when we’re talking about user interfaces, the basic fact is that I can arrange Waterfox to have a UI that I prefer, but I cannot do the same with the new Firefox. So Waterfox wins on this count.

    3. Jody Thornton said on March 16, 2019 at 8:33 pm
      Reply

      When Waterfox re-bases on ESR 68, will it adopt the Photon UI?

      I’m running Firefox ESR v60, and I quite like it. I’m not sure how I’ll like the next ESR release, so when it comes time to upgrade, I wonder if Waterfox will be a contender.

      The Australis interface could be modded with Classic Theme Restorer, so as long as XUL extension could be used, most xFox users liked the pre-Quantum vesrsion since they could separate the back/forward buttons, rearrange tabs below the address bar, bring back the progress bar and status bar, and what not. In the end it looked closer to Firefox 24 and before. (In fact, weren’t the back/forward buttons also combined by default on Firefox 24 and Pale Moon)

      So the reason that most people liked the “Australis” build was because of CTR. Plain and simple. If they adopt Photon as an interface, the CTR and XUL add-ons that are UI related won’t work.

      For me, I like Quantum. Initially, I miss a progress bar down below, but I’m used to it being gone. Plus, the flat look goes so well with Windows 8. And I just don’t need that many plug-ins and add-ons any longer. To me, Quantum looks like a classic browser, but just flat.

  9. Anonymous said on March 15, 2019 at 5:36 pm
    Reply

    About the new logo: probably the owner was afraid with the old of having problems with the new feminist leagues of the vagina, we must be very careful nowadays.

    1. Peter said on March 16, 2019 at 12:08 am
      Reply

      Ha, changing the logo to a cute blue anime, neko, fox would likely attract more new users.

    2. ULBoom said on March 15, 2019 at 8:32 pm
      Reply

      If it’s rotated 120 degrees it looks like someone with happy arms stretching high to the heavens.

      I guess that would be a problem too.

  10. John Fenderson said on March 15, 2019 at 1:57 pm
    Reply

    Waterfox is my daily driver. I haven’t run across any of the issues that this release is fixing, but I’m glad that they addressed them for those who do!

    The new logo is fairly hideous. Fortunately, logos aren’t terribly important.

  11. user17843 said on March 15, 2019 at 12:09 pm
    Reply

    Has the logo change a legal background?

  12. Belga said on March 15, 2019 at 11:50 am
    Reply

    Same here…
    The slight delay in development compared to Firefox does not bother me considering my use.

    “User reactions seem split on the new logo; some users like it, others dislike it and would like to see the old logo being added as an option so that they may switch to it.”

    Those who don’t like the new logo just have to change it (right click – properties – change icon)!
    Not difficult to find one, is it?

    1. Belga said on March 15, 2019 at 1:07 pm
      Reply

      Same here = same as Howard A Pearce… sorry !

  13. crambie said on March 15, 2019 at 11:11 am
    Reply

    That’s one ugly ugly icon. It perhaps wouldn’t be quite so bad if it was drawn well.

    1. Anonymous said on March 17, 2019 at 12:19 am
      Reply

      It doesn’t look not “drawn well” to me. Why don’t you give us a better version. Thanks.

  14. Jozsef said on March 15, 2019 at 10:44 am
    Reply

    I regularly see a lot of comments disparaging various browsers because of a prediction they will work badly sometime in the future. We can predict the outcome very well when we mix two chemicals together at a given temperature and pressure but this is not the case when countless human beings’ choices are involved. In x years, I will use whichever browsers seem the most suitable at that time. A slightly old Pale Moon and the latest Vivaldi do the jobs I need them for right now.

    It may be a nuisance to learn a different interface occasionally but it’s not that big a challenge. Sometimes a good change can even be refreshing.

  15. Howard A Pearce said on March 15, 2019 at 10:33 am
    Reply

    I used Firefox because of the availability of a variety of extensions to do things I wanted.
    The upgrade that essentially banned 1/2 of my extensions drove me away so I looked for an alternative that would be mostly compatible – Waterfox ended up as the browser I chose to satisfy most of my wants/needs in browser functionality

    1. John Fenderson said on March 18, 2019 at 6:28 pm
      Reply

      @Howard A Pearce:

      Well said. Although I only have four extensions that I consider essential, three of them are no longer possible in the new Firefox, and the fourth (NoScript) is not nearly as good in the new form. So my extension loss is, at best, 75%. The new Firefox did not include functionality that can replace those extensions, either.

      While there’s a lot I dislike about the new Firefox, mostly regarding the UI, I could have lived with it if I didn’t suffer a loss in functionality. I did, though, and that is why I switched to Waterfox.

  16. DComedian said on March 15, 2019 at 10:06 am
    Reply

    a) Because Waterfox uses a LOT less memory than the new Firefox?
    b) Because Waterfox will run old extensions that aren’t compatible with the new Firefox?

    I do use Firefox as well as Waterfox, depending on how much RAM I have available and which extensions I want to be running.

    Having said that Vivaldi is actually my default browser! :)

  17. Weilan said on March 15, 2019 at 9:55 am
    Reply

    If they have the time/resources to change their logo so often, then they must have the power to make miracles with this browser… yet I can’t see it for anything more than an outdated Firefox fork.

    I also like the XUL extensions platform and wish Mozilla didn’t deprecate it, but on the other hand, using outdated builds of Firefox will only make it web-incompatible on the long run… I also know that newer isn’t always better (Windows 8, 10; Firefox Quantum), but in this case using the old build will come to bit them in the ass like it’s happening with poor Palemoon already.

    Let’s imagine in 2024 how well will Waterfox handle websites if it keeps using the same build, at that point heavily modified. I’d wager many websites will be utterly broken on it.

    1. Anonymous said on June 23, 2019 at 1:20 pm
      Reply

      There is nothing wrong with the older Waterfox logo’s (the one’s before the 2 recent fairy-like upgrades) and users should be allowed to switch back to the old ones if they want. This isn’t rocket science. All it requires is for the properties configurations to be unlocked in Windows. Why you would refuse to permit users the freedom to choose which icon they would like is really asinine to say the least——-Really!

    2. Anonymous said on March 16, 2019 at 2:17 am
      Reply

      Please point out where Pale Moon, or any UXP browser, is being bitten at. I’ve yet to encounter any web compatibility issue.

    3. Anonymous said on March 15, 2019 at 3:02 pm
      Reply

      1. “to change their logo so often”? I haven’t used Waterfox from its inception, so I don’t know how
      many logos it has used, but I’ve used it for a few years. This is the first time in that period it has
      changed the logo. “so often” equates to 1 in my math.

      2. There’s nothing “poor” about Pale Moon. Don’t like it? Don’t use it. Non-problem solved.

    4. John Fenderson said on March 15, 2019 at 2:00 pm
      Reply

      @Weilan: ” in this case using the old build will come to bit them in the ass ”

      Maybe. But people can always change to a different browser if Waterfox no longer serves their needs. It’s not like browsers have a strong lock-in or anything.

      Personally, that day will come for me when Waterfox stops supporting legacy extensions. When that happens, I’ll just keep using an old version of it until I find a browser that meets my needs better.

    5. Iron Heart said on March 15, 2019 at 10:08 am
      Reply

      In case you didn’t know yet, Waterfox is about to be re-based on Firefox 68 ESR. I’ve got the information from here:

      https://old.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/al8qdn/waterfox_5627_is_all_patched_up_with_security_and/efllqc2/

      Of course Waterfox won’t stay on the Firefox 56 base forever.

      1. AlexVonG said on May 5, 2019 at 5:38 pm
        Reply

        Will that mean that the UI will be the same as FF68 ESR ?
        …Square tabs W/O anti-aliasing ASO…

  18. haha said on March 15, 2019 at 9:26 am
    Reply

    The new logo is so ugly……

    1. Demolitong said on June 23, 2019 at 12:39 pm
      Reply

      The fact that the icon can be changed on whim like that, shows how easy it would be to actually permit users to choose which icon they like. Just like the many icon directories you can find in windows, there’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t be allowed to choose which icon we want, not simply one that we’re told is best for us. That is what dictatorships do, they forcibly subject their own ideas onto the people while at the same time taking away free choice.

      I mean really, we’re talking about the ability to configure a logo, something microsoft itself already permits its users to do. Dang it, and I thought the corporate thugs over at redmond were extremely authoritarian!——-Damn man, this sucks!

    2. AlexVonG said on May 5, 2019 at 5:30 pm
      Reply

      Compared to the old logo, it’s gold.
      With the old one, I wouldn’t even have installed Waterfox (What’s CTR? ;).
      I’m fairly sensitive about colors permanently on the desktop.

    3. TelV said on March 15, 2019 at 4:57 pm
      Reply

      @haha,

      You can change it in CTR.

      I can’t say I’m all that enamoured with the design, but I like the brighter color.

  19. King of Normies said on March 15, 2019 at 9:04 am
    Reply

    Sadly waterfox doesn’t release 32-bit versions anymore so my only (XUL based) choice was either Pale moon or the unofficial but more up to date builds of SeaMonkey (From here: http://www.wg9s.com/)

    1. Iron Heart said on March 15, 2019 at 9:55 am
      Reply

      If you still own a 32 bit PC, you may wish to try Basilisk:

      https://www.basilisk-browser.org/download.shtml

      1. Kubrick said on March 15, 2019 at 2:15 pm
        Reply

        That is only for windows versions.

  20. Paul(us) said on March 15, 2019 at 8:10 am
    Reply

    This newest development is a really good thing because I was parking Waterfox lately on the back bench and it was even surpassed by Vivaldi.
    Still, Firefox is main number one but looking after the latest developments Waterfox is going to be main number two to go to again.
    Hopefully, Waterfox will keep up the phase because I think its a really good project.
    Nice more distinctive logo by the way. I know a lot of people don’t like changes but it stands more out right now next to the other browser on the taskbar.

  21. Watako Tatako said on March 15, 2019 at 7:09 am
    Reply

    Why just not use Firefox? Why use crappy, buggy, unfinished clones?

    1. John Fenderson said on March 15, 2019 at 1:56 pm
      Reply

      @Watako Tatako:

      Because Firefox can’t do for me what Waterfox can.

      1. Reggie said on March 19, 2019 at 11:32 pm
        Reply

        Ditto @John Fenderson. For me it’s the live rss bookmarks and tabmixplus. I use this my live bookmarks multiple times a day. When Firefox stopped this service, I tried third-party extensions and programs. Hated them. I tried Pale Moon but the other extensions I need don’t work on it. Waterfox is a happy medium. My only annoyance with it is that after using it for an hour or so, it slows to unusable and I have to shut it down an open it again. And while sometimes that’s super annoying, it’s a trade-off to have the functionality I need.

    2. Weilan said on March 15, 2019 at 9:57 am
      Reply

      1. Firefox Quantum is a gimped Chrome clone that does less than Chrome, especially in speed and web compatibility
      2. The XUL platform was the only good thing about Firefox and now it’s gone

    3. Iron Heart said on March 15, 2019 at 9:53 am
      Reply

      Because I trust those “buggy, unfinished clones” (they are neither buggy nor unfinished, but regardless) not to sneak in shit like Mr Robot or Cliqz, or to monetize the hell out of me by showing me ads on the new tab page. That’s why.

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