Recently I've been using Firefox on a WIN XP system because honestly, I needed *something* that works. The system has just IE 7 and for as far as I know IE 8 is no longer available. I didn't like it anyway. My old Opera favorite has stopped working on many sites, and there isn't much else. IE 7 mostly doesn't work anymore. Or perhaps that is because I customized it and it has been updated over and over ... So I picked Firefox. I'm not sure what it does, but it seems to bypass the HOSTS file somehow. It has an excellent memory of whatever you typed. It lowers Flash security settings. It seems that it needs access to something else (DNS?) to even be able to browse the web. Possibly these issues can be addressed through various settings, I don't know. Am I the only one who is a bit wary of Firefox for privacy and possibly security reasons ? And who is the Mozilla foundation, really ? I mean, really ?
Hi Fly, Firefox is very customizable - that's a good thing. After all the Tor Browser and JondoFox are based on Firefox for a reason. However, the default settings need some tweaking.
Code: Dislike Firefox because of privacy concerns? Don't you have privacy concerns when it comes to Chrome?
One configuration that can make FF a little more private: How to Disable Silent Pre-Connections in Firefox http://news.softpedia.com/news/how-to-disable-silent-pre-connections-in-firefox-489327.shtml
http://www.ghacks.net/2013/04/27/firefox-prefetching-what-you-need-to-know/ http://www.ghacks.net/overview-firefox-aboutconfig-security-privacy-preferences/
Not wanting to sidetrack the issue, but have you considered SeaMonkey? It utilises the Firefox rendering engine (Gecko) but isn't an official Mozilla release. http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
Firefox is one of the "least worse" when it comes to big players. Just remember to disable your connection when opening FF for the first time or you'll get a Google tracking cookie. Than disable 'referrer', pre-fetch, and install a few of the most popular privacy and security addons. I installed SeaMonkey and I have to say it might become my next Browser. It's VERY customizable, probably the most customizable browser I've seen in m whole life.
I'm using Seamonkey of a WIN 7 system. Perhaps I should give that a try, but I rarely use the XP box these days. FF is slow, indeed. And it can be huge (memory).
I'm currently using Firefox, Seamonkey, Opera 10 and 12 Presto and a very customized install of Opera blink. My system is highly compartimentilized and each browser has its place in the compartment it's in. Opera 12 is even more customizable than Seamonkey but is slowly developing more and more compatibility issues. Even unsupported, I'll still be using it for years to come. Firefox and Seamonkey gain a bit more trust due to being made by a non profit foundation with no direct connection to a for profit corporation that provides other products and services. Chrome these days is no different that IE in the 90s. It is part of a corporate strategy of dominance. Google has a huge footprint in server code and I don't feel it should dominate the client end as well any more than I felt that the dominant OS should provide the dominant browser. Firefox was developed as an alternative to IE when it was the dominant browser and it is still a decent alternative to Chrome now that it is the dominant browser.
Does anyone dislike [insert application name here] because of privacy concerns? At least in Mozilla, you can do something, quite a lot, about:it (get it?). I like this toolbar button extension for on-the-fly changes without having to open about:config or Options. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-settings/ Shown here running in Cyberfox 40.0.3 x64-Intel Portable: The Web is peppered with privacy tweaks for about:config which can get overwhelming so it's a good idea to take notes. Backing up your prefs.js files before making major changes is also a Good Idea. In addition to Minimalist's posting #5 re network.http.speculative-parallel-limit, I also set network.predictor.enabled, network.prefetch-next and beacon.enabled all to false. Regards.
Set network.dns.disablePrefetch to true. Set network.dns.disablePrefetchFromHTTPS and set to true; this might not exist so you'll have to create it.
Hit Ctrl-Shift-Delete, change Time range to Everything, check all the stuff in Details (those will be remembered) and hit Clear Now. Repeat often.
