Browser Fiddling, Firefox, Vivaldi, CSS

[Deleted member 197709]

I was a Firefox user for years but after seeing how easily customizable Vivaldi is via the settings page I switched to it.

Hi. I was same way, but then was inspired to learn to customize Firefox. I can't really say Vivaldi is more customizable than Firefox anymore. Just perhaps easier for the average user. I'm torn a little between them as far as which one I want to be default. Firefox being Open source I guess makes me learn towards it more. At any rate, it's good to have at least two different browsers rather than relying on just one I think.

 

[Condobloke]

I was a Firefox user for years but after seeing how easily customizable Vivaldi is via the settings page I switched to it.

Seeing Vivaldi is Chrome based, be sure to apply the latest security update for it

Update Chrome Immediately to Fix This Zero-Day Exploit

It always pays to top up your browser security.

au.lifehacker.com

 

[Deleted member 197709]

Updated my original post with info on how to enable CSS mods in Firefox, Waterfox, Librewolf, for anyone who didn't know how, and fixed some typos. I'm such a dyslexic goober!

 

[PuppyHome]

I was a Firefox user for years but after seeing how easily customizable Vivaldi is via the settings page I switched to it.

Vivaldi is ok but personally I found there are easier ways to configure a browser to accommodate my preferences.

But I just caught myself STILL using Watefox after 'just testing it for a while'... it's great! It just works, not breaking any sites because of 'enhanced privacy policies', it feels snappy and stable and only ONE extension is needed to get rid of those pesky YT ads and probably some other annoyances I'm not even aware of.

 

[wizardfromoz]

I've been using Waterfox since 2014, and it is on all 90 or so of my distros, along with Firefox (pays to have 2 browsers in case one goes bung).

Its maker, Alex Kontos, was a 16-year old student when he forked it from Firefox in 2011, and he had 3 million users by the time I came along. Alex went to work for System 1, and he relinquished control of Waterfox to them from 2019 to 2023 but then "bought back the farm".

I have always enjoyed it, and its Profile is easier to port from one distro to another than is Firefox's.

Wiz

 

[wizardfromoz]

BTW I don't think it has been mentioned that Waterfox is based on Firefox-ESR (Extended Support Release), ala like Debian.

So its current version, 6.6.9 is based on the FF-ESR 140.* series.

HTH

 

[Deleted member 197709]

BTW I don't think it has been mentioned that Waterfox is based on Firefox-ESR (Extended Support Release), ala like Debian.

So its current version, 6.6.9 is based on the FF-ESR 140.* series.

HTH

Usually when I mention Firefox, I'm referring to it in a general sense, including the many forks. I know each one has their differences. I try not to single each one out, despite preferring one over another. They all function in a similar way to me. I know there's differences though, especially in the settings, and changes to the source.

Good info about Waterfox! Thanks

 

[Deleted member 197709]

A browser that fascinates me somewhat is Seamonkey. It was a contender and rather popular back in the old Netscape Navigator days when I was a kid. I think it's still maintained, or was, up to a year or so ago. I don't know much about it's history. I did install it a while back, and it felt too ancient with performance, although it was usable. I could be wrong, but I think it was part of Firefox coming about back then. It was my go to browser when i was a snot nosed brat breaking my linux daily haha!

Reading on the Seamonkey page, It looks like one of the main developers recently passed away. :::sigh:::

So sad. Maybe somehow, It can get poofed back up into the ranks as it once was with some great developers. That would be cool. I never messed with its email integration that made it popular back then, but it was cool and spurred on a few other browsers to do the same.

To me anyway, Seamonkey screams Linux, especially back in the early 2000's.

 

[KGIII]

To me anyway, Seamonkey screams Linux, especially back in the early 2000's.

As I recall, they're from 2006 and are a fork (maybe 'continuation' would be a better word) of the Mozilla Application Suite. I just checked, and they had a release in October.

 

[Deleted member 197709]

I guess my memory isn't that great! haha .. I wasn't that far off though. I used it a lot back then. It had a theme called Pinball that looked so cool, and as a static build, would use the system color.

To tell you the truth, I can't even remember too many browsers from long ago, late 90's and 2000's. Seamonkey I do remember, and before it, my mind kinna goes blank. I didn't really start using firefox till recently, but was kinda use to it as I got it installed on Dad's windows machine quite some time ago. I remember Opera before it kinna weirded out these days. I was rather absent from linux for a decade caring for Dad. I had it, but it was a default install that I never had time to fiddle with. I used it to watch science documentaries to fall asleep to at 3am. ... I was such a busy beaver for a decade!

 

[KGIII]

I used it a lot back then

They appear to be security-focused. However, I'm not sure how accurate that is. They haven't released anything since October of last year and don't appear to release stuff very often. The code in a browser (their parent browser being old Mozilla code) is changed all the time because of security problems. So, I'm not sure how secure they are.

I too played with it back in the day.

 

[Deleted member 197709]

I use Linux and my mediocre knowledge of it to escape these days. I blame my frazzled brain on some relationships I had. They weren't evil women, but so managed to traumatize me. Dad was constantly saving my ass, saying... You stupid boy!! Will I ever stop growing you up? LOL

My own fault. Ugh ... Certainly not meant to offend any of the gals out there!

Yay for Linux! <3

 

[Deleted member 197709]

Vivaldi Browser. I tend to really like it over firefox and it's forks. It's such a dang shame it's so preoccupied with tiny tabs, as if everyone likes to have a gazillion tabs open. I don't get the fascination with that! It's a killer for me, having to edit a JS file to allow me to have a reasonable tab length every time Vivaldi updates. That's just one reason I use firefox as default now. Ugh...

Yay for open source! Vivaldi comes so dang close, but they spend way too much time on a gazillion new features, verses just plain fine tuning the ones that matter.

Just my opinion.

 

[KGIII]

Vivaldi comes so dang close, but they spend way too much time on a gazillion new features,

Have you tried Brave? That's the browser I use for YouTube (almost exclusively). It's a fine browser, but I use other browsers for other things. Yes, I use multiple browsers, each for a similar set of tasks.

As for open tabs, you don't want to know.

117 in Chrome
105 in Chromium
75 in Firefox
62 in Brave

They are almost all tabs for something I find interesting and will return to later, tabs that I use on a regular basis, or tabs where I need to check on something.

While I have plenty of RAM, all of those sites being open at one time would slow my computer to a crawl. So, I use an extension known as 'Auto Tab Discard', which unloads unused tabs from memory. It's highly configurable, and I have a saved settings file that I can just use on any other computer out there.

Do I need that many open tabs? Nope. I just don't care to bookmark many of those sites. Bookmarks are (for me) what I use when I mistakenly close a tab and can't remember the URL or find the URL in my history.

 

[Deleted member 197709]

As for open tabs, you don't want to know.

117 in Chrome
105 in Chromium
75 in Firefox
62 in Brave

haha! Everyone is different and I guess I can see the apeal.

For me, just the tabs I'm using is all i want, usually no more than 3 at any one time. I like to selectively allow scripts to run to make a site usable, normally blocking some that the site wants to run, but isn't needed. When I'm done with a sight, I resume blocking the scripts I previously allowed.

With a ton of tabs, keeping track wouldn't be feasible, or practical for me. Less open tabs, the less security i have to worry about. I've gotten used to browsing this way, and am sure many may call it an overkill. When I'm done, I double check for zero cookies and zero exceptions to anything, nothing saved or open. Makes me feel more secure anyway

Bookmarks are enough for me to revisite sites I frequently use. I organize them pretty well.

 

[KGIII]

I like to selectively allow scripts to run to make a site usable, normally blocking some that the site wants to run, but isn't needed.

Raymond Gorhill, the author of uBlock Origin, used to have a plugin called uMatrix. Last I knew, it was unmaintained, but still worked.

Basically, it was like a software firewall -- but for your browser. The learning curve was a bit steep. Once configured, it was excellent. It allowed you to selectively allow and disallow scripts on a per-site basis. You could set the defaults as tight as you wanted and then adjust each site as needed/desired. You could block first party, second party, locally hosted, etc...

It's sort of like NoScript, but far more involved. Once you had the sites you regularly used configured, you seldom had to touch it again -- unless you went to new sites and wanted to allow those sites to run scripts.

 

[Deleted member 197709]

Raymond Gorhill, the author of uBlock Origin, used to have a plugin called uMatrix. Last I knew, it was unmaintained, but still worked.

Basically, it was like a software firewall -- but for your browser. The learning curve was a bit steep. Once configured, it was excellent. It allowed you to selectively allow and disallow scripts on a per-site basis. You could set the defaults as tight as you wanted and then adjust each site as needed/desired. You could block first party, second party, locally hosted, etc...

It's sort of like NoScript, but far more involved. Once you had the sites you regularly used configured, you seldom had to touch it again -- unless you went to new sites and wanted to allow those sites to run scripts.

I tried lots of alternatives to NoScript. Some I like alot. I never allow scripts other than temporarily allow. So when i'm done with a website, or browsing, zero scripts are allowed. Starting fresh each time I open my browser or site. Noscript just works great for me in doing this, with how I use it. Others could too, but I don't like having scripts always allowed as like an exception to the rule kinda thing. All is just temp allowed for me. I instinctively wipe everything out when I leave a site.

Like this forum site, I'm usually blocking 3 or 4 scripts it wants to run, but works fine without them running, I have to temp allow one alongside top level when watching videos in the forum I think, but easy enough to do when needed. Top level being temp allowed is usually enough.

I guess I'm weird that way

I hate being monitored on the web without knowing it. So i minimize it, always as best I can. Keeping tons of tabs open, for me anyway, just wouldn't be practical, with how I browse.

 

[KGIII]

I guess I'm weird that way

There was a time that I cared. Though computers were less secure back then. These days, I don't bother putting the effort into blocking scripts. I did use script blocking as a tool the other day. We were defaced on this site. They injected a couple of scripts into the page, which was fairly obvious. So, I fired up Firefox, installed NoScript, and then loaded the site again so that I could see the HTML (to find the scripts).

 

[Deleted member 197709]

There was a time that I cared. Though computers were less secure back then. These days, I don't bother putting the effort into blocking scripts. I did use script blocking as a tool the other day. We were defaced on this site. They injected a couple of scripts into the page, which was fairly obvious. So, I fired up Firefox, installed NoScript, and then loaded the site again so that I could see the HTML (to find the scripts).

I have always been security conscious concerning the net, hence this being the only online account I have, Never did, or do, social media, or created a youtube account. I'm actually surprised we're still able to use youtube without logging into it, as blocking the nags to log in are never ending. The more anonymous I can stay on the web, the better I feel

In that regard, blocking scripts and only temp allowing during a session, is a must for me. hehe

 

[KGIII]

I'm actually surprised we're still able to use youtube without logging into it,

For now...