Browsers: Vivaldi, SlimBrowser, Pale Moon

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by razorboy, Aug 11, 2017.

  1. razorboy

    razorboy Registered Member

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    I wish to move to a new browser, and I think the list above shows my options. I do normal browsing stuff and don't worry about the CIA and don't do dark stuff. If anyone can suggest a choice between the three, please do. Thank you.
     
  2. Stigg

    Stigg Registered Member

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    Vivaldi. Fast, featureful, and more likely to be around for longer than the other two.
    I think Vivaldi is here for the long haul. You won't believe the speed after using other browsers.
     
  3. pegas

    pegas Registered Member

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    Hmmm, I wonder why you have set up your option list containing advanced browsers when you're gonna use either one in a ordinary way. All the three are pretty tweakable and usually they form the option for geeks or those who cares especially for things which you don't care about. But if I should choose one of the mentioned I would take Vivaldi.
     
  4. razorboy

    razorboy Registered Member

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    That's a good observation and question, but the truth is that I did not even know that they are regarded as 'advanced!' I had simply made the observation that they are (a) not the Big Guys, whom I avoid for reasons unmentioned, (b) not Chinese or Russian, and (c) seem well regarded and normal.
     
  5. pegas

    pegas Registered Member

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    Yeah, then it makes sense. :)
     
  6. rossnixon

    rossnixon Registered Member

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    Try Brave. Good concept, but not quite ready for 'prime time'. Sometimes I have to switch to another browser when something doesn't work.
     
  7. pegas

    pegas Registered Member

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    Some useful information and discussion about Brave can be found in this thread.
     
  8. ellison64

    ellison64 Registered Member

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    After years of firefox use i got sick of the constant updating and opted for palemoon.All my addons from firefox work and its quicker.Never looked back
     
  9. NormanF

    NormanF Registered Member

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    Firefox ESR and Cyberfox 52xx based on it don't update every cycle. They're a stable release. Same is true with Waterfox, a FF x64 build.
     
  10. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Yes I agree.

    I didn't even know that Pale Moon used its own browser engine, so it's not a true Firefox clone, interesting.
     
  11. Compu KTed

    Compu KTed Registered Member

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    Pale Moon's layout/rendering engine (Goanna) debuted in version 26 of the browser that was forked off from
    Gecko engine back in 2016. The dev apparently didn't like the direction Mozilla/Firefox was going and made
    major changes to the Pale Moon browser.
     
  12. The Seeker

    The Seeker Registered Member

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    Vivaldi, for the Blink engine.
     
  13. razorboy

    razorboy Registered Member

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    Thanks for those replies. I have read about K-Meleon with interest. Is it 'ready for prime time,'
    so to speak?
     
  14. Compu KTed

    Compu KTed Registered Member

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    K-Meleon is based on the Gecko layout engine developed by Mozilla and latest stable release
    is K-Meleon 75.1 (2015-09-19)
    K-Meleon version 75 is based on Mozilla 31

    Latest developement release is K-Meleon 76 RC (2016-07-01).
    K-Meleon version 76 is based on Mozilla 38

    NOTE: Mozilla Firefox current stable release version 55/52ESR. K-Meleon hasn't been updated
    to a stable release in quite sometime. If your familiar with SeaMonkey browser it's settings
    is similar to that of K-Meleon. Be prepared to go through a ton of browser preference
    settings in K-Meleon if you decide to tweak it. Same for SeaMonkey.

    Pale Moon browser settings on the other hand seem much easier to configure IMO. Has much less
    options to go through, but that may change with newer version releases.

    Also K-Meleon under custom install gives you option to store your profile folder inside
    K-Meleon folder. (need write permission) If box is unchecked then profile folder installs
    in appdata folder.

    Another thing I noticed if you uninstall K-Meleon from it's uninstaller wizard (helper.exe)
    check the box: remove my K-Meleon personal data and customizations it leaves the K-Meleon
    default profile folder intact. Not exactly a clean uninstall.

    I would recommend if using any of these browsers to "sandbox" them with Sandboxie for
    better security/privacy.
     
  15. pegas

    pegas Registered Member

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    @Compu KTed Thanks for thorough information and feedback. My main objection to these browsers and not limited to only these is that they're not kept regularly updated, so the're prone to be vulnerable. Hence, as you said, they need to be sanboxed.

    @razorboy While your query seemed pretty simple it turns out to be quite the contrary. Even though you reject the browsers for masses (FF, Chrome, Opera), they suit to your needs at best, I honestly think. But choice is yours :)
     
  16. The Red Moon

    The Red Moon Registered Member

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    If we look at for example chrome which receives "fixes" regularly it would appear the chrome code is in a state of permanent flux in regard to vulneralbilities.Even the latest version is vulnerable to situations which are at best conjectural to say the least.Every release it receives dozens of "fixes" so in this regard most if not ALL browsers are in a vulnerable position.
    Pale moon receives fixes for potential code changes and situations where a vulnerability "may" occur.I have used pale moon for months with no issues.
     
  17. summerheat

    summerheat Registered Member

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    Its rendering engine is based on Gecko. And I doubt that they will be able to maintain it in the long run.

    @The Red Moon : Every browser - not only Chrome - fixes numerous vulnerabilities with each release. So does Firefox - and Palemoon is also affected as Goanna is based on Gecko. Hence, if it's really true that "Pale moon receives fixes for potential code changes and situations where a vulnerability "may" occur", this probably means that they don't fix (all) existing vulnerabilities. As I wrote in the post linked above I seriouly doubt that a handful of people can properly maintain a code base that consists of 15 million code lines (as Moonchild himself wrote).
     
  18. summerheat

    summerheat Registered Member

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    I've tested Vivaldi, and while I think that is has some usability advantages over Chromium it's not faster for me than FF57 Nightly. Hence, I don't see any benefits of using it as FF will still be much more configurable through countless switches in about:config. And by using, e.g., the gHacks user.js and by the Tor browser patches which are being added to Firefox it is much better privacy-wise than any Chromium-based browser.
     
  19. Compu KTed

    Compu KTed Registered Member

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    Your Welcome.

    SlimBrowser was last updated to version 8 on 7/19/2017. I don't know how often it get's updated.
    Vivaldi browser latest version 1.11 (8/10/2017) seems to get updated every month or so since
    version 1.0 according to wikipedia version history.
    Pale Moon browser is updated regularly and latest version is 27.4.1 (8/3/2017)

    Any browser can be vulnerable and that's why it's good to check for security fixes and not just cosmetic
    changes or added new features.
     
  20. NiteRanger

    NiteRanger Registered Member

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    Using Privacy Settings add-on in FF is much easier than using gHacks user.js and those Tor browser patches, right?
     
  21. summerheat

    summerheat Registered Member

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    Unfortunately the Privacy Settings add-on won't work with FF57+ (as of today - this may change if necessary APIs will be added) but user.js will. The Tor browser patches will go much further. Many of them are already completed in FF but there are still quite a number left. I guess that they will also be covered by the gHacks user.js. I doubt that there will be a GUI for this as enabling all those settings is for users who know exactly what they are doing.
     
  22. NiteRanger

    NiteRanger Registered Member

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    Sure but how do you know that the developer is not already preparing one for FF 57?

    Actually, someone can just take those tweaks from gHacks user.js and make a similar extension to Privacy Settings. It'll be very much easir to use. Just select the level of security/privacy/anonymity will do. It can follow the format of Privacy Settings with an additional column for customization meant for advanced users.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2017
  23. summerheat

    summerheat Registered Member

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    It's actually already available as a so-called Embedded WebExtension. However, this type of add-on will no longer be supported from FF57 onwards. That's why the developer wrote:
    The thing is that so far legacy add-ons had unlimited write permission for about:config which often caused trouble/incompatibilities in the past which in turn made FF less stable. Webextensions are going to change this - they won't have access to about:config which will make FF more stable in the future. If an add-on wants to change specific settings, this will only be possible if associated APIs will be available. A lot of missing APIs will be added and more of them are on the aganda. So - who knows?
     
  24. sukarof

    sukarof Registered Member

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    I would recommend Vivaldi. I switched from Palemoon since it didn't accept for me essential extensions for Firefox. I find Vivaldi really fast when browsing and it has many native possibilities for customization where you dont need extra extensions. Nowadays I only have need of 12 extensions thanks to that. The only, very minor, drawback is that initial loading is a bit slow, for me it takes about 3 seconds, a bit slower than Chrome and a lot slower than Edge. But I´ve learned to live with it :)
     
  25. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Yes, I suppose developing a browser engine is a lot of work, that's why Opera dropped Presto.

    I guess it's comparable to what Chrome did with the Blink engine, which was also a fork. Is it faster and does it work correctly on most sites?
     
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