Waterfox 52.0.2 with bug fixes.

What’s new in Waterfox 52.0.2?

Attempt to fix future issues with search engine getting replaced upon update. Unfortunately, your search preference will be edited with this update, but hopefully should stop getting overwritten with future updates.

Fully gutted and removed slowStartup, BrowserUITelemetry & UITour, BrowserUsageTelemetry

Update Git repository to include Mozilla commit history, old repo moved to Waterfox-old

Updated to Firefox 52.0.2

Disabled PulseAudio and enabled ALSA for Linux builds

What’s new in Waterfox 52.0.1?

Updated to Firefox 52.0.1

Fixed about:home CSS

Fixed Netflix/Amazon Prime Video/Chase website issues by spoofing Firefox 38 user agent for those sites

Enabled various HTML5 features

What’s new in Waterfox 52.0?

Temporarily reverted to MSVC on Windows

Updated to Firefox 52.0

Removed 64-Bit NPAPI Flash only limiation

Pulled changes that fixed various issues with telemetry, startup performance and more. Big thanks to PandaCodex for their contributions!

There is a small bug on about:home with the logo being misplaced which will be resolved in the next update.

Mozilla are deprecating XUL/XPCOM and moving to WebExtensions. What is the future of Waterfox going to be like?

A discussion was started recently, where you can see what plans I have. These are NOT CONCRETE, but rather ideas of different routes to pursue.

The idea is as follows for varying version of Waterfox as well as a new browser forked from the last usable XUL/XPCOM/Add-on version of Firefox:

Waterfox ESR version of that specific fork, where nothing changes but security patches.

Waterfox RR version that follows the new direction Firefox heads in (Rust features et al.) but removes all telemetry, profiling etc. Similar to Waterfox, but since eventually Rust will replace most of the codebase there won’t be any other ways to differentiate).

A new browser that modernises the existing codebase

Now the issue here is getting developers on board to help develop this new browser. Ideally I’d like to have an organisation that pays skilled developers who want to be associated with such a project and make it full time. I have considered going to seek funding as I’ve had good success with ventures that do social good yet don’t need to bow to pressure of investor demands.

Ideally though, the browser is self sufficient and runs similarly to how Mozilla does without the need of investment. Crowdfunding could be another way, but I’m rather weary the reputation this has - as can be seen by the many scandalous headlines of promises never being met or money just flat out being stolen.

Since I’m based in the U.K., a company constitution could be written which legally sets out what the company must do regardless if it’s a Limited company, organisation etc. This could be on way to make sure that the money doesn’t get misused. One issue though is what returns do users get? Shares in the company? Dividends after X amount of time? There are many routes possible so please join the discussion in the reddit thread of possible ways to get such a large project underway! I’ll update this blog post with further information.

What features does Waterfox currently have?

Compiled with Clang-cl on Windows, Clang+LLVM on Linux

Disabled Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)

Disabled Web Runtime (deprecated as of 2015)

Removed Pocket

Removed Telemetry

Removed data collection

Removed startup profiling

Allow running of all 64-Bit NPAPI plugins

Allow running of unsigned extensions

Removal of Sponsored Tiles on New Tab Page

Addition of Duplicate Tab option (toggle with browser.tabs.duplicateTab, thanks to PandaCodex)

Locale selector in about:preferences > General (further improved by PandaCodex)

N.B.

When using a profile shared by Firefox, sponsored tile and snippet URLs may overwrite default Waterfox settings, enabling them again

Automatic updates will be delayed by 24 hours to make sure there aren’t any pressing issues before seeding to everyone.

Partnership with Ecosia

Waterfox has now partnered with Ecosia as a way to raise funds. When using Ecosia, revenue generated from ads helps plant trees and contributes to Waterfox upkeep costs! If you’d like to help support Waterfox while also doing some good in the world, please help us out by using it!

As always, head to the Downloads page for the latest versions!