from the better-than-deleting-your-profile dept.
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Mozilla Firefox may reset custom browser preferences when the web browser is updated to a newer version so that the preference is set to its default value.
I was contacted by two Ghacks readers in the past two weeks about Firefox resetting preferences of the web browser during updates.
Jern informed me that Firefox reset the block lists setting of the browser's Tracking Protection feature from strict to basic when the browser was updated to version 50 from Firefox 49.0.2.
Basic protection is the recommended and default value of the setting. It does not block as many trackers as the strict blocking list. I confirmed that the upgrade to Firefox 50 did indeed reset the preference.
Michel told me a week later that a recent Firefox update (to 50.0.1 or 50.0.2) did reset another preference. This time an URL string that Michel modified on Firefox's about:config page.
Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2016/12/05/beware-firefox-updates-may-reset-preferences/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:09AM
Why do we do this? Because we know what's good for you.
Now go back to watching ads and buying stuff you don't really need.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:12AM
Is it something that is downloaded locally and checked against or is it something that gets pinged for every domain a request is made for?
If the former: I'm ok with it; if the latter, then that's an issue because now you're telling a third party about every single domain(/site/page?) you go to...
Can someone explain and/or point me to the source code for this feature?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:29AM
That's why you use a Firefox fork like SeaMonkey or Pale Moon. Sticking with ordinary Firefox at this point is just asking to be screwed over.
(Score: 2) by xpda on Wednesday December 07 2016, @12:27AM
I just tried Pale Moon (again), but uninstalled after half a day because of a couple of bugs. Clicking on a link in Fark or Slashdot (new window) brings up a window that is not maximized like it's supposed to be. (Yes, I am a dinosaur with a single monitor, and I don't use tabs.) Second, the only cookie whitelist extension I could find won't work with Pale Moon on Garmin Connect and a couple of other sites. So, I'm back with Firefox. I stopped upgrading Firefox some time ago, so my settings are safe.
(Score: 2) by purple_cobra on Friday December 09 2016, @12:38PM
Ditto. I usually use uBlock Origin and uMatrix to keep the worst of the nasties out of the browser, but in Pale Moon the buttons disappear from the toolbar after closing/re-opening the browser. Looking on the PM forum, it seems this isn't an isolated incident and a few others are reporting it; Ghostery is named as a potential cause but as neither I nor some of the others complaining about this bug don't have it installed, that doesn't seem to be the issue. The PM teams response has been "works for me" or "blame the author", so not entirely helpful. One thing I haven't done is tested it on Linux so I'll do that later. Trying to get the uBlock options screen via the plugin popup doesn't work either; what it should do is open a local html file that gives you access to the plugin's options, what it actually does is open a blank tab with the correct path in the tab title but not in the URL bar. I'll just try it again in another six months.
(Score: 2) by xpda on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:34AM
Stop screwing with the settings! We know what's best for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @04:22AM
Is this why I can no longer select whether to allow or disallow, or allow for session, cookies on my Firefox browser? I have to install an add-on, and still I end up with a bunch of cookies. Do the think that I am going to trust a "do not track" request to the very people who want to track me? And I am only a dog, on the internet, where no one is supposed to know you are a dog, on the internet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you're_a_dog [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by coolgopher on Tuesday December 06 2016, @05:48AM
Seriously, FireFox, you're going out of your way to alienate your long-term users. You've already gotten me to the point where I don't bother installing you on systems I do little browsing on. FFS I use IE on Win10 without missing you very much!
On my frequent-browsing systems I still use and like you, but largely because of your add-ons, and the configurability via about:config and userChrome.css. If you're going to be actively working against me in that field too (the other being mindless copying bad features from Chrome & co), then really, we're going to have to go our separate ways.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:58AM
going out of your way to alienate your long-term users.
Long term. There's the problem right there.
Why would you be loyal to a browser? Its just a tool. And in the case of firefox its a very dull tool.
Ive been playing with Vivaldi lately. (Chromium based, even runs Chromium plugins like Ublock Origin). Built by the guys that sold Opera to the Chinese. Its pretty impressive.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:34AM
> Long term. There's the problem right there.
Well, no. It still does what I need it to do, better than the alternatives. Barely. But there isn't anything available out there that makes me actively go out of my way to switch. Last I checked the Vivaldi people financed themselves by selling user histories, so no thanks. Chrome/chromium I trust about as much on that front these days as well. IE is cripple-ware, but less than it used to (besides not being available on Linux). Safari is weird and crippled (and also not available on Linux). Don't get me started on Edge. The UI people must've been taking some weird stuff to come up with that interface...
When the day comes, I expect Pale Moon will be the first alternative that gets evaluated. I see there's a Linux build available these days.
The sad thing is that FireFox used to be such a sharp tool, and it used to do things really well (other than not leak memory).
But for sticking with a tool that does the job, why on earth wouldn't I?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:07AM
Chromium is opensource. All of it.
Vivaldi financed themselves by selling Opera.
Vivaldi privacy [vivaldi.com] statement reads surprisingly similar to Firefox's.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:49AM
But it's proprietary software with open source components; that makes it a no-go for me.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:25PM
Assuming that "proprietary software" is the reason why it's "a no-go": Is the microcode in your computer's CPU free software? If so, which make and model of computer do you use?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11 2016, @02:50PM
Yes, the microcode problem is nearly impossible to avoid. However, don't argue that because the situation isn't perfect that we should make it worse by adding even more proprietary software into the mix; that's a nirvana fallacy. I will minimize the amount of proprietary software and firmware on my machines as much as possible.
There are also issues with hard drive firmware and plenty of other things. The situation is a mess, but simply giving up is one of the worse possible actions one could take.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Tuesday December 06 2016, @09:07AM
Reason 1: Because it is better than the alternatives. Which Firefox for a long time was. And most unwanted changes in Firefox could be reversed by installing the right extensions.
Reason 2: Because there would be a considerable cost of switching. I'm using a heavily customized Firefox. So any switch would not only come with the cost of relearning things, it would also come with the cost of finding adequate replacements for all the extensions I've installed. A switch only makes sense if the cost of switching is larger than the cost of staying.
Firefox mass-invalidating extensions soon is the reason I'm now seriously considering a switch. I'm just not yet sure to which browser.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by driven on Wednesday December 07 2016, @01:56AM
On Vivaldi, double-check your search settings [tldrlegal.com].
(Score: 2) by riT-k0MA on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:40AM
Try SRWare Iron [srware.net]. It's Chrome with all the tracking stuff removed.
One Iron thing I don't like is they redirect you to a competitor to the chrome store, which makes installing plugins a bit of a nuisance. The chrome store still works perfectly for the browser, if you access it via URL.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @08:59AM
> On my frequent-browsing systems I still use and like you, but largely because of your add-ons....
Oh you like add-ons, we HEAR you. That's why we're changing the API again for the 3rd time and requiring registration of authors and the signing of a pledge to support the Mozilla Foundation. This will temporarily make all existing add-ons incompatible while the add-on authors finish jumping thru hoops and doing busy-work. Congratulations on choosing Firefox!
PS. We know you're going to enjoy our new feature "Browser Theme U Love And Can't Disable" that we just hardcoded in for you, brought to you by our partners iWillBreakYourWillAndSellYourDataMuthaFucker.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Hyperturtle on Tuesday December 06 2016, @12:19PM
You know -- they have done this repeatedly over the years. It's like new people find firefox as an alternative and experience what used to be new people to firefox complained about a few years previously.
Ever since the bloat of netscape navigator 4.x or whatever it was that included just about everything a developer and high powered internet warrior could need -- in the browser being suggested as a suitable replacement for nursing home pc centers and our parents and young children who couldn't be trusted with IE's incredibly poor handling of the security needs of the era -- they have bloated and distended their core functions in order to... improve the product, I suppose.
Firefox came out of the ashes of that. And soon repeated the same successes, but this time it figured out how to appropriately fund itself. As a result, some of the inherent safeguards of learning from past mistakes were dismantled, because the money existed to incorporate bad ideas in a new way--all over again, as you've noticed.
That's not to mention aping Chrome and so on and taking the savvy IT person's browser and turning it into something else, with less control over time... but people keep installing it, proving the model as effective and successful.
Anyway, I suggest you go your seperate way, I left FF a while back (when the 24.5 extended release version was no longer useful). I mentioned in another thread some alternatives to try; I'll repeat them here...
Note that I am not endorsing these because of GPL licensing or any particular enthusiasm for the methods and tactics of the developers--just that I liked the end result of product.
Ice Weasel - on some servers I manage and linux workstations
Sea Monkey - on some VMs I have
Palemoon - my primary browser for day to day use
And of course.. Lynx, the tradtionalist's text based browser.
Also check out the "portable" versions of the browsers. They can run off a USB stick or network share or self contained in their own folder, they don't do an install (meaning, no additional registry entries in Windows) and overall can provide a superior experience to many default browsers integrated into various OSes one might encounter.
The portable versions also generally will work when lacking root/administrator/supervisor rights, and it is far easier to keep a collection of sequential versions of the portable distributions -- it may be some versions work better than others, for whatever reason.
Many of the installs are 30MB or less, which is large to me compared to ye olde days of web surfing, but really small when you think of what bloat means nowadays.
Give some of those a shot, you should be able to adjust pretty easily to one or more of them if you are comfortable with about:config changes and add-ons.
(Score: 2) by dlb on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:53PM
And of course.. Lynx, the tradtionalist's text based browser.
One of my toys is an older Acer laptop running NetBSD, and occasionally I launch Lynx and surf some of my favorite web sites. It is refreshing to have content minus the GUI clutter.
That said, text-based browsers have their frustrations. Most web pages begin with many links usually hidden in drop-down menus, that when expanded, can fill up two or three screens one has to page through before getting to the substance. And until one develops a second nature for key-stroke navigation, getting around is at least a little painful.
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:51PM
So what would you recommend for Android, if anything??
I like Pale Moon for Android for the left-hand tab sidebar (I don't know what it's called, so I can't duplicate it in other Firefox variants), but PM4A is no longer developed;
Icecat for Android crashes constantly (seems to have something to do with multiple same-site tabs);
even Firefox for Android lacks some of the basic security/usability extensions I rely on in the desktop version.
Is there anything out there that has the security-with-flexibility that I need from a browser?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @06:36AM
These days I’m waiting for it to crash and burn so it can be reborn again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @10:15AM
Mosaic>Netscape>Firefox>???
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @10:52AM
You omitted Mozilla (the suite), which was a complete rewrite of Netscape. So it's
Mosaic → Netscape → Mozilla → Firefox → ???
Although the first succession isn't exactly like the others because Netscape was not based on Mosaic, but was an independent development. Indeed, the direct descendant of Mosaic was Internet Explorer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:47PM
Yeah, it should rise like a thunderbird or phoenix out of the ashes...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @09:03AM
As that would be instantly obvious for the victim...
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:10PM
I literally can't recall the last time anything about FF actually improved for me. Yet just a few years ago I could compile it under Gentoo on a very old x86 system, and now it somehow requires 8 GB of RAM [mozilla.org] to compile. Bloat seems to be the goal as far as I can see. It's like they're trying to be the Windows OS of browsers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @07:43PM
when you could just install umatrix, it blocks all those trackers by default since it acts like a host file but way better