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posted by janrinok on Sunday June 10 2018, @02:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the but-you-might-not-be-able-to-tell dept.

After years of talk, Tor may finally be integrated with the main Firefox browser soon:

The Tor Project announced that it's working with Mozilla to integrate Tor into Firefox. Eventually, this should completely eliminate the need for the Tor Browser, as most of its features would be merged into Firefox's new "super-private mode."

The Tor Browser is based on the Extended Support Release (ESR) version of Firefox, because it's a more stable development cycle that only patches bugs and doesn't add new features for 11 months or so. This means it doesn't disrupt how the Tor Browser works too much, and the Tor Project developers don't have to integrate many new features into their browser every few weeks.

Despite this, the Tor Project developers said that it takes a lot of time to rebase Tor Browser patches to new versions of Firefox. This is why Mozilla has started integrating Tor's patches into Firefox on its own through the "Tor Uplift Project."

Firefox has also adopted new security features from the Tor Browser such as first party isolation (which prevents cookies from tracking you across domains) and fingerprint resistance (which blocks user tracking through canvas elements). However, first party isolation is off by default in Firefox and fingerprint resistance can break some websites. You can enable first party isolation in about:config or by installing this add-on for it.

[...] The developers said all these features would enable a "real" private mode in Firefox, which could completely replace the need for the Tor Browser to exist. This "super-private mode" could be used by hundreds of millions of users eventually, which is why Mozilla first needs to ensure that the Tor network can scale with such usage. That means more people will need to run Tor relays. Mozilla may be able to help here by donating money to nonprofits that can run Tor relays.

Could this be the way to get Firefox above 10% market share (except that if it's done correctly, nobody will be able to measure it)?

Fusion Project overview


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  • (Score: 1) by DeVilla on Sunday June 10 2018, @03:19AM (1 child)

    by DeVilla (5354) on Sunday June 10 2018, @03:19AM (#691020)

    I'm glad you mentioned cyberfox. I hadn't heard of that one. I like that it appears to debugger firefox like palemoon, but lets me keep the new theme. I know people don't like the new theme and the way the familiar UI was tanked. I was able to use the new theme to put only indicators by the address bar, hide a bunch of crap I don't want to see all the time in the hamberger button and discard the rest of the crap. I can still get normal menus by hitting tab.

    Of course, since I found it good, Firefox had to kill that and replace the hamburger button with a menu full for crap I have no use for and I can't get ride of the "search bar" any more without making the "url bar" into a "search bar". Seems firefox is just out to scorch earth sometimes.

    So thanks for the tip. I'll have to see if cyberfox works for me. Palemoon seems to have thrown out a little too much with the bath water for me.

    And yes, they are probably "firefox" as much as Ubuntu & Mint are "Debian".

  • (Score: 1, Redundant) by requerdanos on Sunday June 10 2018, @04:22AM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 10 2018, @04:22AM (#691034) Journal

    as much as Ubuntu & Mint are "Debian".

    Ubuntu is not Debian. Mint is not Ubuntu. Mint is not Debian.

    They are not only not Debian, they are not remotely Debian. (Though Mint Debian Edition is much closer.)

    So, they aren't Firefox, even if they are fiery-foxy.