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posted by CoolHand on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-in-its-pocketses dept.

Over at ghacks, Martin Brinkmann writes:

Mozilla has added Pocket, a third-party "save for later" service, to Firefox Beta (and other development channels of the browser).

This is based on the proprietary former addon pocket, which is now no longer supported since it is being integrated.

It's only the beta channel, but this has all the hallmarks of a half-baked revenue stream for Mozilla that ultimately sells out user privacy - and what's worse, is opt-out, rather than opt-in.

Sponsored tiles on the new tab page, changing default search settings during updates, surrendering on DRM, and now this... Mozilla keeps finding ways to make it hard to stay a supporter. Here's hoping they hear some feedback on this decision before it gets out of beta!

What are the best available browser options for users wanting to protect their privacy as much as possible, as well as run a bloat-free browser? Pale Moon? Midori?

Related Stories

Mozilla Admits Financial Benefits of Pocket Integration 42 comments

I always found the denials of this to be bizarre:

Given the intrusive nature of government surveillance, Mozilla—with its dedication to privacy and independence from corporate and government interests—should be more vital than ever. But in the age of social media and mobile devices, it has struggled to maintain relevance and failed to transition to a world where the desktop browser is fading in importance. Mozilla hasn't even dented the mobile market with mobile versions of its browser or its Firefox OS smartphone operating system. And the organization has done little to counteract Facebook's expanding influence. What's more, its foothold on the desktop continues to slip as Google Chrome grows in popularity.

[...] The good news is Mozilla has found some partnerships to supplement its search revenue. For example, the company quietly integrated the "read-it-later" service Pocket into Firefox along with a video conferencing feature powered by European telco Telefonica earlier this year. Although the company emphasizes that Pocket and Telefonica didn't pay for placement in the Firefox browser, Mozilla Corp. chief legal and business officer Denelle Dixon-Thayer told WIRED that Mozilla has revenue sharing arrangements with both companies.

Also at Ghacks.

takyon: Mozilla retires Firefox's sponsored tiles, hunts for new revenue streams

Previously: Mozilla Integrates Proprietary Pocket Plugin
Warning - Firefox Has You in the Pocket


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:11PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:11PM (#185654)

    changing default search settings during updates

    Well this is one reason to get Firefox from your distro using its standard package-management system, rather than downloading it directly from Mozilla.

    Honestly, people keep complaining about things with Firefox, but I just am not seeing them. Is it only in the Windows version most of these problems are manifest? Sorry, I don't have much sympathy for you. If you like to use proprietary software so much that you'll even pay good money to use a proprietary OS where you have no idea what it's really doing with your data and who it's copying it to, then why are you complaining about a browser having DRM and trying to make money with an add-on?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Celestial on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:23PM

      by Celestial (4891) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:23PM (#185688) Journal

      I use Windows because it is still the only real choice of OS as a PC gamer. Linux has made great inroads in PC gaming over the past couple of years (mostly thanks to Valve), but it's just not near there yet. Despite using Windows, I try to use as much open source software for everything else as possible.... browser, e-mail client, instant messaging, word processing, coding, etc.

      • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by physicsmajor on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:26PM

        by physicsmajor (1471) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:26PM (#185735)

        Try Vivaldi. Rock solid, fully customizable.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @03:22AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @03:22AM (#185874)

          Closed source, still in early development

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:44AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:44AM (#185965)

      You are being a hole. I have to use windows on my work laptop, because my work software, any of it, does not run on linux. I can't help it.

      Once again someone selfish does not understand what other people have to suffer and makes ignorant comments. Not everything is about you and your choises.

      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday May 22 2015, @04:10PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday May 22 2015, @04:10PM (#186512)

        I'm not being an a-hole, I'm just pointing out that this is futile. If you're using Windows, you've already given up on data security. You don't know what the Windows OS is doing with your data underneath. So why do you care what a browser does with your data? If you're required to use Windows for work, that's fine, just restrict your activities to work-related activities. If your employer's secret data gets leaked, that's their problem and their fault for using Windows. That doesn't mean you have to do the same with your private data.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @01:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @01:52PM (#186016)

      Well, golly gosh, I'm sure glad that my concern that a popular browser is heading in a direction that makes it easier to commodify my data really doesn't depend on whether you're sympathetic to my OS choice.

      Oh, and nice red herring you've got there.

      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday May 22 2015, @04:08PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday May 22 2015, @04:08PM (#186509)

        Your data is already commodified. Your OS is closed-source and you don't know where it's copying your data to. Basically, you're trying to close the barn door after the horses have already escaped.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:16PM (#185656)

    Debian will strip this garbage out of its own builds. This much stuff is worse than a logo with a non-free license which was why Debian forked firefox in the first place.

    • (Score: 2) by bart9h on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:48PM

      by bart9h (767) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:48PM (#185677)

      Does Vimperator works in iceweasel?

      If so, I'm sold.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:44PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:44PM (#185701)

        I don' t use Vimperator, but I use a good number of extensions in Iceweasel and they all work fine.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:08PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:08PM (#185754)

        Iceweasel IS Firefox, just with a different icon (and perhaps in the future without a propietary pocket?). Anything that works in Firefox will work in Iceweasel.

    • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:13PM

      by vux984 (5045) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:13PM (#185726)

      So question for the community:
      What would you suggest for each platform to replace Firefox?

      On linux? Iceweasel Or Konqueror?
      On Windows? Palemoon maybe?
      Android?
      OSX?

      support for adblock and ghostery and other addons is highly desirable; as is free/libre/open source.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by tangomargarine on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:07PM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:07PM (#185752)

        I'm just going to keep saying "they have a Linux build of Pale Moon" until people start noticing.

        -posted from Linux Pale Moon

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
        • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:50PM

          by vux984 (5045) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:50PM (#185772)

          Yeah it exists; i'd discounted it as it looks to a 3rd party build/fork of a project that is already pretty niche. I was skeptical how well it ran as a primary browser as opposed to it being something pretty experimental.

          PaleMoon has android and OSX builds as well... the android page has a note about them not having the resources to maintain it; and invites people to get involved.
          http://www.palemoon.org/palemoon-android.shtml [palemoon.org]

          And the OSX build has a note that its still "very much in development".

          I'm cool with playing around with these sort of things in my spare time; but I want a solid browser I can rely on too; one that isn't wildly experimental or unstable; one that I can install on my mother's PC and walk away with confidence that it'll just work, be easy to keep up to date, etc.

          As much as I am very cheesed about Firefox going freemium; I'm not really sure palemoon is the best possible answer. Plus palemoon seems to me to be a relatively small scale one man show (moonchild); not that that's a bad thing in and of itself; but if the project goes on vacation when he does; or falls off the web when he does... Ideally I'd like something with a bit more backing.

          • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:42PM

            by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @11:42PM (#185795)

            I've been using Pale Moon for around the last year now and if anything it seems *more* stable than Firefox.

            Plus at least your grandmother won't keep getting confused when Mozilla decides to completely rearrange the interface every 6 months or whatever.

            --
            "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
          • (Score: 2) by acharax on Thursday May 21 2015, @12:00AM

            by acharax (4264) on Thursday May 21 2015, @12:00AM (#185806)

            I've been using it in both Windows and Linux for a long time now and never noticed any problems or differences between the two versions. However you might have some trouble with their makeshift Linux installer (they should really set up a repo for it, if there is one by now excuse my ignorance) if you're using a stripped/locked down distro (the information about the issue I was able to find online was misleading at the time but it was nothing that was all too difficult to figure out with some digging).

          • (Score: 2) by kadal on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:46PM

            by kadal (4731) on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:46PM (#186213)

            I've been using PaleMoon for close to two years now. It's great!

            Some addons have trouble because PaleMoon isn't going down the Australis part. BUT NoScript, Tree Style Tabs, BluHell Firewall, Request Policy Enhanced, CleanLinks, RefControl all work.

            There's a fork of HTTPS-Everywhere called Encrypted Web [github.com] that you should use instead. Unfortunately, I don't think Firemacs still works.

        • (Score: 1) by mmh on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:18AM

          by mmh (721) on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:18AM (#185884)

          Seconded! I use Pale Moon for both Linux and Windows as my primary browser, in fact with the same user profile. Everything works the same as Firefox. Only exception I've found is: The addon "TabMixPlus" works perfectly in Windows/Palemoon, doesn't do anything in Linux/Palemoon.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:47AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:47AM (#185919)

            Sounds like it might contain a binary, up until recently Mozilla allowed that.

        • (Score: 1) by termigator on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:30PM

          by termigator (4271) on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:30PM (#186075)

          Does Palemoon still exclude the accessibility features that Firefox has? This is the primary reason I never switched to it.

          • (Score: 2) by kadal on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:53PM

            by kadal (4731) on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:53PM (#186218)

            I don't use those features but here's some info from the main dude [palemoon.org]

            Pale Moon supports full accessibility features as one can expect from a browser, like caret browsing, adaptation to high-contrast themes, etc. -- but what it does not support is specialized hardware for the severely disabled. This has been a choice since day 1 of its publication, and falls in line with another key statement about the Pale Moon browser: that it does not attempt to cater to all possible usage scenarios, but instead tries to find a sane balance between features and performance/stability.

      • (Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:44PM

        by Marand (1081) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:44PM (#185770) Journal

        Linux: I use multiple browsers. For standard "stuff I visit often" sites, I use Debian's firefox builds (iceweasel) with a pile of addons. (If you want newer versions than the ESR ones, install from the experimental repository.) For other things, I mix konqueror (set to use webkit instead of khtml) and chromium (set to start in incognito by default). Konqueror's probably good enough for most purposes; has a lot of things built in but lacking in addons.

        Windows: ick. You've got bigger problems than what the browser's packaging in, solve those first.

        Android: Firefox is only decent mobile browser I've found with useful addons, so there isn't much competition. Even if this integrated feature is a privacy risk, you still have more control over your data and privacy in Firefox than the other browsers, just due to addons.

        • (Score: 1) by Delwin on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:34PM

          by Delwin (4554) on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:34PM (#186139)

          Android: What about Dolphin?

          • (Score: 2) by Marand on Friday May 22 2015, @01:04AM

            by Marand (1081) on Friday May 22 2015, @01:04AM (#186268) Journal

            Android: What about Dolphin?

            Problems with Dolphin:
            * Closed source: could be doing any damn thing and you have no way of knowing. Even though Pocket's a proprietary service, it still has the source easily available, so you can verify that it's not doing anything wrong. Same with the rest of Firefox.

            * Lack of useful privacy and security options (and addons). Privacy options are limited to "remember passwords" and "check for certificate revocation", and the only addons are LastPass and a web-of-trust addon.

            By comparison, Firefox has far more control. Just the android app's settings -- not counting tweaking about:config -- offer coarse cookie controls, data clear on exit and manually (dolphin only does manual clearing), has options to control autoplay of elements, and do-not-track. Then you can also add on addons like self-destructing cookies, various adblockers, tracker blockers like ghostery, and the ever-useful HTTPS Everywhere.

            * Also does the same sort of promoted startpage default thing that Firefox started doing, except it doesn't remove them as you start to visit other sites like a vanilla Firefox install does. If someone seriously finds Firefox's default onerous, there's no way in hell they're going to tolerate Dolphin.

            Hell, just looking at the start page links makes me feel dirty. The default links to both eBay and Amazon contain dolphin affiliate referral tag, and then they also link to some site called "whatsbestbuying.com" (what the fuck is this?) and their own self-hosted list of sponsored android apps or some shit. It's hosted on dolphin-browser.com and all the apps link to some marketing company (glispa.com) that redirects through to play.google.com.

            Knowing that, I reiterate my first point: the app itself is closed-source and you clearly can't trust what they're doing with any data you sent through considering the scummy shit they've got on their launchpage. Not really something that I trust to "read sensitive log data" and "read Home settings and shortcuts", a couple permissions that seem odd for a browser and that neither Firefox nor Chrome require.

            I kind of regret even installing it to check built-in options before replying, now.

            • (Score: 1) by Delwin on Friday June 05 2015, @01:49PM

              by Delwin (4554) on Friday June 05 2015, @01:49PM (#192525)

              ... OK, now I'm going to go uninstall it.

              What about Dolphin Zero? That's what I usually use.

              • (Score: 2) by Marand on Saturday June 06 2015, @08:48PM

                by Marand (1081) on Saturday June 06 2015, @08:48PM (#193001) Journal

                Well, it's the same developer, so I'm not willing to install it to check what it does, but...

                It's still closed source, so you don't know if it's doing what it says it does. Based on the Play store description and screenshots, though, it just sounds like it starts in incognito mode and enables the DNT http header.

                You can get the same results from something open-source more or less and not have to trust the benevolence of someone doing scummy crap with their other browser. Android Firefox, for example, has the DNT option, has a privacy mode, can be configured to clear data on exit if desired, and has the addons I mentioned before (plus uBlock as an alternative to Ghostery, forgot that one)

                Also worth noting: the f-droid repo has both Firefox and a version (Fennec FDroid) that tries to remove anything that might not be FOSS-friendly

                The browser situation on Android* is kind of crap, unfortunately. If I could find an alternative that seemed trustworthy enough, I'd consider switching; I've had to wipe my Firefox data (basically clear profile) a couple times over the years and sometimes its updates are crash-prone. However, I haven't. Browsers are complicated, unwieldy beasts, so most of them are just closed-source frontends for webkit or blink -- Opera included -- that tend to be sorely lacking in privacy features or flexibility, because those things aren't cool enough to attract downloads like other additions will.

                * I don't use iOS to verify, but from what I've heard, it's even worse off because of Apple's control-freak nature.

      • (Score: 1) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday May 21 2015, @02:55AM

        by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <axehandleNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday May 21 2015, @02:55AM (#185869)

        What would you suggest for each platform to replace Firefox?

        On linux? Iceweasel Or Konqueror?

        I'm happy with SeaMonkey - not small, but works well enough.

        --
        It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
        • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:08AM

          by Reziac (2489) on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:08AM (#185911) Homepage

          Another SeaMonkey user here, or rarely, PaleMoon (when some site insists).

          --
          And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:47AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:47AM (#185968)

        I'm testing Qupzilla.

        It does have a adblock and cookie manager, but no noscript type of deal yet. It does have a button ( statusbar icons extension) to enable/disable javascript, but it's all or nothing (for that current tab).

    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @02:27AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @02:27AM (#185857)
      Stripping garbage out of their own builds? Then why is systemd force-installed in Debian Jessie?
    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:35AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:35AM (#185914)

      Will it? it's stuffing the systemd garbage botnet down out throats.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:30PM (#185664)

    Come to the dark side! Pale Moon is the best of firefox without the new crap.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:33PM

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:33PM (#185665) Journal

      But some proprietary plugins won't work with Pale Moon. (Like, say, hangouts video chat). So it's even more like those early days where the corporate shit didn't work on good browsers.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:41PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:41PM (#185670)

        I've got multiple browsers installed. You don't have the do everything in one. Copy-paste isn't hard, when you need some page which doesn't like a specific browser.
        Also, if you have any google plugin, the idea of a privacy-violating extension doesn't seem to phase you, so you can stay on FF.

        • (Score: 4, Informative) by Tork on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:46PM

          by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:46PM (#185676)
          I like multiple browsers so that a fair chunk of the browsing I'm doing isn't on a browser logged in to Google, Facebook, eBay, etc.
          --
          🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
          • (Score: 3, Informative) by Open4D on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:09PM

            by Open4D (371) on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:09PM (#186058) Journal

            Me too.

            It is worth noting that this is also possible without using multiple browsers. I have several Firefox profiles, which can be in use simultaneously. (And it seems that something similar is also possible in Chrome.) http://www.howtogeek.com/209320/how-to-set-up-and-use-multiple-profiles-user-accounts-in-firefox/ [howtogeek.com]

             
            I actually think this kind of website separation should be made a fundamental part of the browsing experience, rather than something only geeks ever do (and only when they can be bothered with the hassle). From a user perspective, just because I'm logged in to Facebook, shouldn't mean that a visit with the same web browser to randomsite.com results in Random Site Inc. or Facebook learning anything extra about me. That kind of thing should only happen if I have a specific or general opt-in.

            • (Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:23PM

              by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:23PM (#186104)
              I learned my lesson when I started seeing ads in Facebook for stuff I searched for on eBay.
              --
              🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:24PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:24PM (#185692)

        I use Pale moon for 95% of what I do with about 50 tabs open at any given time (all being used, don't ask.) For when I need something which can't be done in it (or can't be done b/c of my various blocker extensions) I use chromium. You don't have to just use one browser, but Pale Moon has completely replaced Firefox for me. I even moved my firefox profile to palemoon and it worked right out of the box with minimal tweaks.

      • (Score: 1) by archshade on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:38PM

        by archshade (3664) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:38PM (#185699)

        But some proprietary plugins won't work with Pale Moon. (Like, say, hangouts video chat).

        Hangouts video chat works fine for me*, I'm using palemoon (25.3.2) on arch. Vimperator too (would not be using it if it did not).

        *One slightly weird effect and I'm not sure if it caused by PM or Vimperator hangouts starts in a tab rather than a minimal window (I can force start into a new widow but that's a full window), This leads to my tab bar showing (which I have at the bottom) when in full screen mode. A minor anoyance as I can cope with having tens of pixels eaten by a tab bar.

        YMMV but I have found PM works with every add-on I use (which is not many but enough that my work flow would change radically is I used anything but a firefox derivative.

      • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday May 21 2015, @01:30AM

        by JNCF (4317) on Thursday May 21 2015, @01:30AM (#185838) Journal

        But some proprietary plugins won't work with Pale Moon. (Like, say, hangouts video chat).

        Probably because the video chat uses WebRTC, which the PaleMoon guy removed after polling his user-base. They see it as bloat, and a security issue. I haven't used PaleMoon since realising this; I think peer-to-peer browser communications are fundamentally awesome. Sending your data through a server when you really just want it to go to a peer seems like its own bag of worms.

  • (Score: 2) by gman003 on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:33PM

    by gman003 (4155) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:33PM (#185666)

    Firefox already has synchronized bookmarks across devices. I can't see what this does that that doesn't. Other than RSS bookmarks not loading on mobile, synced bookmarks work fine. And there's even the "save for later" thing on mobile, which does a similar thing.

    So why integrate with a third-party service like this when you're already doing the same job yourself? It was fine as an extension, I've no problem with that, but merging it into the browser proper is crossing a line, particularly when it's obviously a paid feature (meaning Mozilla getting paid, not that it costs users to use it).

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:43PM

      by VLM (445) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:43PM (#185672)

      Firefox already has synchronized bookmarks across devices. I can't see what this does that that doesn't.

      Maybe it works. The old system usually didn't, mostly just created endless duplicates or wouldn't replicate at all. For such a simple task it sure had a rough launch. Of course that was a long time ago, maybe it actually works now. Although the roughness of that rollout might indicate that whatever the heck pocket does, it probably won't work for years anyway so don't worry.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:02PM

      by frojack (1554) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:02PM (#185684) Journal

      Pocket is slightly different than just a list of book marks.

      Pocket stores not only the original URL, which may be gone the next time you need it, but also condensed versions of the entire article. I have no clue how they avoid copyright issues. Any way, it use to work very well on Android and IPhones as a store house for "Read it Later" articles that you think you might want to save. (Read It Later was the original name for the app.) Android version [google.com].

      So it is different, because, you see enough of the article when browsing your pocket to help you find a specific article, even if the source disappears.

      There have been plugins for most browser for a while. And that is exactly the way it should have continued to be operated.

      Building it into Firefox is about as smart as marking an X on the side of the boat from which you caught a big fish.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:10PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:10PM (#185686)

        So it stores a bookmark and tags/copies the page that's already in the cache? That would be a groundbreaking feature in 1997...

        • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:56PM

          by frojack (1554) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:56PM (#185712) Journal

          I have no idea of the details, but it is not cache dependent.

          Pocket soemthing on your phone, its also pocketed on your Computer or your tablet or what have you.
          Also, its just a stripped down version of the article is saved, not a web page.
          There is a "Original View" button which will fetch the web site if possible.

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
          • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:22PM

            by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:22PM (#185731)

            Lazy me would hash the page's address, upload the text part or a screenshot of the page to cloud storage (with deduplication) and to a local cache folder. Add a few tags, a search feature, check the web on open, and voila!, 98% of my read-it-later needs addressed.
            Not trivial, but not very hard for a skilled programmer... and tracking what people actually want to read is considered highly marketable assets.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:51PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:51PM (#185709)

      I do use Pocket (and have since it was called "Read It Later"), although I didn't even realize it had a proprietary sync part to it, since I don't use browser sync features. It definitely belongs in an add-on, not part of the browser. It gives a slightly nicer interface for a specific workflow for a particular kind of bookmark. It seems pretty specialized. The main advantage it gives over having a "read it later" folder in your bookmarks is that it remembers the location in the page, so you can repeatedly go back to a page and read a little more and always be in the right place. This is primarily useful for long blog comment threads that I want to keep up with as new posts come in, but can also be useful for articles too long to read in one sitting.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by vux984 on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:01PM

        by vux984 (5045) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:01PM (#185721)

        It was someone interesting addon at one point. Now its freemium crap with a $45/year tier. If someone wants that functionality; fine... or agrees with freemium products fine, but its the very LAST thing any browser should be integrated with; let alone an open source one.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:37PM (#185668)

    For the "best available browser" with minimal bloat and privacy protection, it's hard to beat Lynx. http://lynx.isc.org/ [isc.org]

    Banner ads? Flash ads? Malicious JavaScript code? Never an issue. YouTube can be a little tricky though...

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:27PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:27PM (#185695)

      You can benefit from using Lynx without using it, spoof your user agent to Lynx, makes some sites like Google load their legacy, HTML-only search interface.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:40AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:40AM (#185915)

        You can achieve the same effect with noscript.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:42PM (#185671)

    Will this "feature" add to bloat?
    If yes then block updates else continue.

    Like Tiles that can never be stopped from calling home, will this feature call home regardless of config settings telling it not to?
    If yes then block updates else continue.

    Folks, you know its just going to get worse from here on regardless of what you say or do.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:45PM (#185674)

      Using that strategy I'm stuck using Opera 12.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:54PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:54PM (#185682)

        Like a time capsule, we are all going to be stuck using old tech.

        What we need is a simple light browser without the mozilla dependencies.

        Keep dreaming.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:11PM

          by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @10:11PM (#185757) Journal

          It'll happen. Firefox was the lightweight answer to the bloat Netscape had become. Something else will be the lightweight answer to the bloat Firefox has become.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:58AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:58AM (#185921)

            Even better. Mozilla was the small browser, that got rid of a lot of the bloat Netscape had. Firefox was the small browser that got rid of a lot of the bloat Mozilla had.

            Yes, we are overdue for a new cycle.

  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:55PM

    by richtopia (3160) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @07:55PM (#185683) Homepage Journal

    I'm paranoid, and I want to stay away from Chrome. However, I'm not paranoid enough to compile Chromium myself. On all of my favourite Linux distros, Chromium is in the repositories making life easy. But I have yet to find a similar solution for Windows.

  • (Score: 1) by Celestial on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:17PM

    by Celestial (4891) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:17PM (#185687) Journal

    Personally, I use Cyberfox [8pecxstudios.com], a 64 bit Firefox variant for Windows. It works really well, and it has some built-in options to disable Mozilla's recent annoyances, (looking at you, Hello).

    • (Score: 1) by termigator on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:35PM

      by termigator (4271) on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:35PM (#186079)

      Too bad their site is crap if you do not have JavaScript enabled. Why can't folks provide a basic functional site when JavaScript is not available?

  • (Score: 2) by t-3 on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:50PM

    by t-3 (4907) on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:50PM (#185708)

    Midori is nice, just a little too beta at the moment.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 20 2015, @08:59PM (#185719)

    I used to use Pocket, back when it was called ReadItLater and they had yet to go full spyware on recording very page you archived.

    Now I use ScrapBook [mozilla.org] which is not as slick as Pocket but is not spyware and doesn't try to save everything to the cloud.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:40PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Wednesday May 20 2015, @09:40PM (#185741) Journal

    Successor to Opera [vivaldi.com]

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by Tramii on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:25PM

      by Tramii (920) on Thursday May 21 2015, @04:25PM (#186072)

      The OP is asking for a bloat-free browser and you suggest one with a built-in email client and note system?

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by novak on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:29AM

    by novak (4683) on Thursday May 21 2015, @06:29AM (#185913) Homepage

    People have already mentioned lynx; I also recommend netsurf.

    Sometimes you want the full weight of a browser like firefox or midori- that's the natural consequence of how awful the web has gotten- you can avoid memory-hogging spy-scripts or you can access much of the content of the web, but you can't do both at once. Noscript helps a little.

    --
    novak
  • (Score: 2) by gringer on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:49AM

    by gringer (962) on Thursday May 21 2015, @09:49AM (#185969)

    I believe it should be "proprietary".

    --
    Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
    • (Score: 2) by CoolHand on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:59PM

      by CoolHand (438) on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:59PM (#186126) Journal
      Thanks, fixed. I can't believe it made it past my spell check, another editor, and almost a day's worth of readers before you caught it.. Just one of those things where the brain mangles it correctly for most people I guess..
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      Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams