c627627 wrote:Do you see Mozilla ever issuing future emergency security updates to Fx 52 ESR
No.
alternatives
SeaMonkey (of course)
.
Pale Moon
Waterfox
FF 52/56
Can't really think of anything else that is viable.
state of their plans to switch to Quantum based
SeaMonkey.
With manpower & will, suppose it's possible.
Nothing in the foreseeable, though.
Pale Moon.
Never.
Waterfox.
Hard to get a feel, on that end (due to what I see as lack of a proper support forum area), but the, from what I can gather, intention is to support both XUL & webextensions to their ability to do so. Whether that is possible, somewhat possible, or ever comes to fruition... ?
FF 52/56.
If you can do without updates, security updates in particular, then you're done
.
And speaking of done, IMO, FF without extensions, & I don't really consider the current state of webextensions as extensions, makes FF (Quantum) itself relatively, done. (Or if you can live with the sorry state of webextensions, then FF Quantum is an alternative.)
Brummelchen wrote:waterfox
Waterfox, even at its present level, has issues with some extensions.
So what may or may not work, currently, or in the future...
Waterfox is x64 only, if that matters to you (IOW it will not run on a 32-bit OS), & runs multi-process - by default (can be disabled, as in FF 56).
Multi-process exacerbates some extension issues in Waterfox.
But is also not the sole issue with extensions in Waterfox.
For Windows XP users, note that SeaMonkey 2.49 / FF 52 are likely the last browsers, at all, to run on XP.
allande wrote:Basilisk ... Tor Browser
From what I understand, Basilisk is never intended to be a "release" project, but a perpetual WIP.
And Tor is going Quantum.
c627627 wrote:do you really see the developer or developers coming up with security patches all by themselves?
No, except for perhaps Pale Moon, & not even them, particularly.
Basically what happens is that they backport security patches from more recent FF.
Pale Moon, at times, has taken pro-active steps, putting in mitigations even before exploits have become known.
Nonetheless, it's not an end-all.
Waterfox was late, well given the time-frame between FF release, & Waterfox accounting for the same, in getting its last round of security fixes out.
how are they going to all by themselves be doing future Patching from scratch
They're not.
why people abandoned ESR for them
One reason might be FF 56 is more advanced then ESR. So 56, Waterfox in this case, might have features, that comes with 56, that may be of importance to a user, such as increased browser startup/shotdown speed, or whatever other efficiencies came about between 52 & 56. (Extension) signing (requirements) & similar nonsense that FF imposes, IOW, giving a user more latitude to do what they want to do with their browser then the limitations imposed by FF is another reason. (Hey, remember the days when FF was a free-spirit, & users could do what they wanted to do, & Mozilla was thriving [even if not in a $$ sense], & all was good
.)
it's over for all non-Quantum based browsers
I believe what Mozilla has done, of late, & not solely specific to extensions, has doomed all Mozilla based browsers - including Quantum.
Waterfox is switching to Fx60 base too
From what I understand, their
desire is to also support XUL extensions to - to their ability to do so.
Anyhow, if they go to 60, remains to be seen. If they can still do something with XUL is an even greater leap, IMO.
They will find out the hard way how long before access is cut off due to 'a no longer supported browser.'
From what I am seeing (from "talk" around the net), it is mostly Pale Moon users being affected by this, at this time.
It is an irreplaceable experience to be in full personal control of a fully customizable actual Mozilla browser, not a fork. To be able to use extensions
I mentioned something to that effect, above
.
somehow also be able to use extensions that are not usable on actual Firefox 60+?
If so then it would be just a matter of seeing if your individual old extensions run.
The problem, as frg pointed out, is that there is so much ongoing code removal, change, replacement, that you cannot even know what will or will not work from one version of Quantum to the next, much less in any fork of Mozilla. Some (web)extension authors even have had to go so far as to mark
particular versions of their extensions as being valid for only a single version of Quantum.
So extension version 1 works in FF 57 - but not FF 58.
Likewise extension version 2 will work in 58 but not in 57.
Ridiculous, IMO.
But then as once 58 is out, 57 is EOL, so no one needs to care any more (about 57). (And then once 59 is out... And then once 60 is out...)
frg wrote:Palemoon forked at 52
No, I
believe Pale Moon is actually FF 38 based.
It's Basilisk might be a 52?
tomatoshadow2 wrote:Quantum, really brought Firefox back for many people who left it in the past, to try it again
Just what in Quantum could possibly entice a person to return to FF?
Never say never,
https://images.fineartamerica.com/image ... argraf.jpg.
Fire 750, bring back 250.
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