Kelson Reviews Stuff - Page 11

More than Waterfox or LibreWolf, IceCat can be described as “Firefox Minus Firefox,” as its primary purpose is to remove the branding, connections to Mozilla services, and any non-Free-with-a-capital-F add-ons.

At present, IceCat is based on an older Firefox ESR release (115) than Waterfox (128), but it does appear to still be maintained.

Syncless and Add-Ons

Like Ungoogled Chromium, all the sync and Mozilla website/service connections have been removed, though you can still go to the Firefox add-ons site yourself or install add-ons manually. There’s also a GNU-curated collection of add-ons, but it doesn’t seem to have been updated since mid-2023 (and the link from the application settings is broken), so you’re better off using the GNU site to vet license compatibility, then go to the Firefox site to get the current version of the add-on.

KeePassXC-Browser is on their list, though I would’ve tried it anyway – and I was able to connect the native Fedora package of IceCat using the “Firefox” settings on KeePassXC.

JavaScript License Checks

IceCat also adds GNU LibreJS, an add-on that blocks JavaScript that isn’t known to be or labeled as GPL-compatibly licensed (unless it’s really small). That’s an interesting ideological take, but the free your JavaScript spec hasn’t made a dent in the growing web application landscape in the decade it’s been online. I had to whitelist my entire Nextcloud server on LibreJS to get it to function, and Nextcloud is AGPL3 licensed!

Availability

GNU doesn’t distribute installers themselves, just scripts to build it from Firefox’s source code. Fedora packages a version of it with some additional add-ons that do things like add alternatives to some of the specific scripts that are blocked by LibreJS.

Overkill

I would only recommend IceCat if you’re really serious about using only free-as-in-libre software. (And in that case, I assume you’re not running on Windows or macOS in the first place.) Even then, I’d suggest LibreWolf, which has similar goals but is more up to date capability-wise and appears to be better maintained. And if you really want to block non-Free JavaScript, well, you can always install LibreJS on there.

A Firefox fork aimed at improved performance and privacy, without sacrificing usability to the extent that LibreWolf does. Follows the extended support releases, so it can be little behind on features while still up to date on bug fixes. Similar concept to Ungoogled Chromium, but Waterfox is a complete application instead of leaving gaps in functionality.

Using it is about the same as using Firefox, except that it doesn’t phone home or try to load a full screen of Pocket recommendations. I haven’t run into any broken sites like I have with LibreWolf (which disables features like WebGL as part of its security hardening), and it can play DRM-controlled video. I also like their implementation of vertical tabs with thumbnails better than the tabs on Arc or Zen (or Firefox 136, for that matter), though when I open multiple tabs on the same site, sometimes it’s hard to tell at a glance which one I have open.

As with LibreWolf, some documentation seems to be missing, with settings or notices linking to pages that should have been copied over, or describing things (like installing through the system package manager on Linux) that only apply to upstream Firefox. (It’s also worth considering your threat model and the fact that small projects still depend on Mozilla for finding and fixing vulnerabilities.)

Sync and Extensions

Waterfox is compatible with all Firefox Add-ons, and can sync settings and bookmarks through Firefox Sync (which is encrypted). I already use Floccus (which lets you bring your own storage) to sync bookmarks with other browsers (including Chromium ones), and it works just fine on here.

KeePassXC-Browser needs you to copy or symlink the Native Messaging directory to connect to the password manager. I’ve gotten it to work on macOS with nothing more than just linking that folder and restarting KeePassXC. But I still haven’t managed to get it to work through Flatpak on Linux.

Mobile

Unlike LibreWolf, Waterfox is also available on Android! (It’s in the Google Play store.) The mobile version is basically the same as mobile Firefox as far as using it goes, minus data collection. Also minus in-browser translations for some reason. IronFox has them, but Waterfox doesn’t.

Availability

Normal installers are offered for Windows and macOS, with auto-updates. There’s a Flatpak and a binary tarball for Linux. The macOS version runs natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon hardware. The Windows version is currently x86_64 only, but seems to run fine on Arm64 using Windows 11’s emulation. The Linux version is also x86_64-only, at least for now.

Desktop browser for the small internet, including the Gemini protocol, Gopher and Finger. Cross-platform, as long as you’re comfortable using build tools: I’ve gotten it running on Linux (BSDs should work about the same) and macOS, and it’s supposed to run on Windows and Haiku as well.

Uses Qt instead of a custom UI kit like Lagrange does, so it’s a little faster and blends in a bit better with each environment. Supports bookmarks and client certificates, but doesn’t seem to handle subscriptions. Lagrange offers more capabilities as well as a more appealing design.

Hasn’t been updated in a few years - but then again, the Gemini protocol itself is pretty simple to begin with!

You can turn on HTTP(S) support and it’ll let you view a stripped-down version of the web - basically what you’d see in Gemini, plus inline links. I wouldn’t call it a web browser, but it’s convenient when you just need to follow one web link from a Gemini or Gopher page.

Simple desktop Gemini Protocol client with bookmarks. Polished, fits well with any Linux desktop but especially GNOME. Fast, no frills. Does not appear to handle subscriptions, client certificates, or other “small web” protocols like Lagrange (my favorite Gemini client) or Kristall do.

I was surprised to find that NetSurf is still around and being developed! It’s another independent browser like Dillo that goes waaaay back (as you might guess from its website), but never caught on outside a small niche.

It is, however, fast and light – and while it doesn’t support the full range of website capabilities that a modern Chromium, Gecko or WebKit browser does, it’s got some minimal JavaScript support (off by default) and can handle enough CSS to display older websites and sites that aren’t too complex. (And unlike Dillo, it seems to handle emoji consistently on Linux!)

For the most part, sites that are still mainly documents tend to be readable at least (even if they don’t look right), while sites that are mainly applications…well, I can’t even log into Nextcloud, Dropbox, or GMail even after enabling JavaScript. I can log into Wallabag and read saved articles, but can’t add new ones. Flickr confuses it terribly, and it doesn’t even know where to start with OpenStreetMap. My WordPress/ClassicPress theme (SemPress) displays fine, but I can’t log into the dashboard.

Ironically, I couldn’t sign up for the NetSurf users mailing list using NetSurf. The list provider thought I was a bot!

There are a few incomplete features that can be frustrating. For example, you can edit the name of a bookmark, but I haven’t found a way to edit where it points to. I was really hoping I could use bookmarklets for a few things since there aren’t any extensions.

Overall it’s a little more capable than Dillo, but a bit slower. Either would be good to keep on hand for low-spec hardware, with a more “mainstream” browser when you need it. (Falkon’s a good choice, since it’s light for a Chromium browser and available on most of the same platforms.)

The web would be more usable overall if more developers tested their sites in a browser like this one.

Availability

NetSurf started out on RISC-OS, and the ports to Linux/Unix, AmigaOS and Haiku are all active, though the Haiku port is missing a few features like being able to change settings (which means you can’t turn on JavaScript). Debian still includes it in their native repository, and there’s a Flatpak with the latest version for other Linux distros.