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[Moderator note: this thread was split from Pale Moon (another unofficial version of Firefox) so some posts reference both.]

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Those interested in a CPU-optimized version of Firefox may also be interested in Waterfox, compiled for 64-bit CPUs. No portable version, but since the code is very similar, it seems one could easily be created.

• Main site
  http://waterfoxproj.sourceforge.net/
  
  Betanews article
  http://betanews.com/2011/11/17/cant-wai ... aterfox-8/
  
  Softpedia
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/B ... rfox.shtml

Yes, the icon is far too similar to the official Firefox logo and probably not legal.

Anything using either "Fire" or "fox" in the name is infringing on Mozilla's registered trademark by naming it too similarly. And the icon for Waterfox is just a modified version of the Firefox icon, so definitely infringement.

Anything using either "Fire" or "fox" in the name is infringing on Mozilla's registered trademark by naming it too similarly.

Really? Trademark law is not so specific. "Too similar" is entirely open to court's interpretation.
Though if I were a judge, I would probably find Waterfox infringing too.

m^(2) wrote:

Anything using either "Fire" or "fox" in the name is infringing on Mozilla's registered trademark by naming it too similarly.

Really? Trademark law is not so specific. "Too similar" is entirely open to court's interpretation.
Though if I were a judge, I would probably find Waterfox infringing too.

Right. The IANAL acronym is important here.

The (admittedly vague) breakdown from cases I've followed is that if there is a chance that it could create confusion, its violating the law. Changing the icon color and the first part of the word of the program seems a bad way to declare a difference. Despite this, it is up to the intellectual property holder to move on this, which they certainly could. If Pepsi and Coke can both copyright individual colors and Chick-Fil-A can own the phrase "eat more ___" then I think Mozilla has an asteroid-proof case here.

For reasons I've gone into before, Mozilla is not and probably will not be litigious in this regard. Ask Oracle what developing a reputation for taking things to court has done for their PR. Fortunately there's a built-in balancing factor here: Waterfox is also subject to a community and that's very likely where this will all get worked out.

webfork wrote:The IANAL acronym is important here.

True.
IANAL either.

Although not portable (yet?) this specialized x64 Firefox fork is claiming to be even faster than Pale Moon: http://waterfoxproject.org/

Midas wrote:Although not portable (yet?) this specialized x64 Firefox fork is claiming to be even faster than Pale Moon: http://waterfoxproject.org/

It claims to be faster based on certain benchmarks:
http://waterfoxproject.org/benchmarks

Interesting results. According to their benchmarks, looks like native Firefox blows away both Waterfox and Pale Moon on V8.

What is V8?

The Sunspider results are peculiar, too...

Waterfox was compiled with Intel's C++ Compiler with the following optimisations: Intel's Math Library, SSE3, AVX for supported Intel processors, jemalloc, Profile-Guided Optimisation and the /O3 switch.

Intel compiler is known to generate code that's crippled on non-Intel CPUs. There are fixes for this (patching the compiler or the binaries), but if you're using AMD or VIA or whatever, take care.

Waterfox 15 now supports a portable version... (untested!) Check http://waterfoxproject.org/downloads/

Midas wrote:Waterfox 15 now supports a portable version... (untested!) Check http://waterfoxproject.org/downloads/

Not portable. Shares Firefox's profile in APPDATA.

@webfork - Perhaps fork the Waterfox discussion into another thread? Starting from this post?
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 737#p44737

freakazoid wrote:@webfork - Perhaps fork the Waterfox discussion into another thread? Starting from this post?
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 737#p44737

I agree.

freakazoid wrote:@webfork - Perhaps fork the Waterfox discussion into another thread? Starting from this post?
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 737#p44737

Good call

Just a passing note to point that there seems to be a portable 15.0 version @ http://sourceforge.net/projects/waterfo ... /portable/