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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)?
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday June 10 2018, @04:18AM
Well, I am posting this from Waterfox, and have Pale Moon installed. And Firefox ESR with the Iceweasel Branding plug-in.
Incidentally, I don't have Chrome nor Chromium, but for things that "only work in Chrome" I use the Chromium-derived Yandex Browser. Pretty sure Chrome is the one that doesn't get counted there, but then, I think Yandex Browser, from Google's #1 competition in Russia, is probably conceptually a little further from Chrome than Water-, Palemoon-, Cyber-fox are from Firefox.