The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

JohnTHaller wrote: ↑Sun Jun 05, 2022 8:54 am Updated. I should split those out to a separate project from the app configs so they're easier to locate.

Thanks John!

There's news from the Firefox dev team regarding support of arcane yet essential tech standards:

The rupture centers on a feature called Web Request, commonly used in ad blockers and crucial for any system that looks to block off a domain wholesale. Google has long had security concerns about Web Request and has worked to cut it out of the most recent extension standard, called Manifest V3, or MV3 for short. But, in a recent blog post, Mozilla made clear that Firefox will maintain support for Web Request, keeping the door open for the most sophisticated forms of ad blocking.

Midas wrote: ↑Tue Jun 14, 2022 7:50 am

The rupture centers on a feature called Web Request, commonly used in ad blockers and crucial for any system that looks to block off a domain wholesale. Google has long had security concerns about Web Request and has worked to cut it out of the most recent extension standard, called Manifest V3, or MV3 for short. But, in a recent blog post, Mozilla made clear that Firefox will maintain support for Web Request, keeping the door open for the most sophisticated forms of ad blocking.

I wonder what it means for Vivaldi. They've stated years ago they'll look into their options once Manifest V3 ships. Oh well - whatever happens, in the worst case I can switch to its built-in ad blocker.

Mozilla has rolled out Total Cookie Protection, which creates a site-specific cookie jar to limit tracking across websites: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/fi ... worldwide/

SYSTEM wrote: ↑I wonder what it means for Vivaldi...

I believe that, although they may be able to wriggle and delay, in the end they'll have little option but to follow suit given big G's juggernaut status...

SYSTEM wrote: ↑Mozilla has rolled out Total Cookie Protection, which creates a site-specific cookie jar to limit tracking across websites...

Yep, saw that, too, and it even caused me to finally update my Android's Firefox Focus.

SYSTEM wrote: ↑Tue Jun 14, 2022 8:22 am ... in the worst case I can switch to its built-in ad blocker.

It sounds like they're going to do their best to throw a wrench into existing ad-blocking tools across the Chromium toolset.

Google announced plans to modify the Chromium extension system last October when the browser maker said it would develop a new set of standards -- collectively known as Manifest V3 ... Google was planning to replace one of the main technology through which extensions interacted with website requests, in favor of one that was far inferior. ... Users protested against Google's decision, and the company came under heavy criticism.

Google backtracked on the change [but] ... made a new announcement in which it said that the old technology that ad blockers were relying on would only be available for Chrome enterprise users, but not for regular users.

This time, Chrome developers seem intent on plowing through with their decisin ... but Google's planned Manifest V3 changes are being added to the Chromium base, meaning they'll also likely impact other Chromium-based browsers as well.

Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/opera-bra ... -codebase/

Midas wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 6:26 am I believe that, although they may be able to wriggle and delay, in the end they'll have little option but to follow suit given big G's juggernaut status...

I don't disagree, but my hope is that Firefox keeps working as a check against Google's bad tech decisions.

Some in-depth analysis of browser competition from the Apple camp, which incidentally provides interesting figures regarding Firefox market share and development costs.

Mozilla's $450 million in annual revenue comes from approximately 8% of the desktop market and negligible mobile share. Browsers are big, big business.

Safari, in particular, is wildly profitable. The New York Times reported in late 2020 that Google now pays Apple between $8-12 billion per year, up from $1 billion in 2014. Other estimates put the current payments in the $15 billion range.

Safari, in particular, is wildly profitable. The New York Times reported in late 2020 that Google now pays Apple between $8-12 billion per year, up from $1 billion in 2014. Other estimates put the current payments in the $15 billion range.

That's outright shocking. Apple is making billions from this deal, and I have the impression they force browsers to use WebKit on iOS only in order to keep control for themselves - all that money is just a bonus.

Wow, this is truly an eye-opening article. Thanks for sharing.

Even though I am somewhat aware of Apple's passive-aggressive tactics wrt iOS WebKit, this article lays bare the extent to which they are leveraging their platform advantage for profit. I can't say I am surprised, and it is still a shocking read.

SYSTEM wrote: ↑I have the impression they force browsers to use WebKit on iOS only in order to keep control for themselves...

Andrew Lee wrote: ↑It is still a shocking read.

My appraisal and reaction, precisely -- normally, I don't pay much attention to Apple coverage, in consequence of how inflated and out there most of it is, but this piece was definitely an eye-opener.

webfork wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:19 pm I was bummed about was the removal of support for OS 10.8 "Mountain Lion" as it's only 4 years old, but Firefox ESR still covers it.

Lately, I found myself using Firefox ESR more and more, just because of how significantly less annoying it is compared to the main version -- but when I looked here, I found hardly any mentions; so here's a couple of links to remediate that...

• portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox-portable-esr

• www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/Mozilla-Firefox-ESR.shtml

• www.softpedia.com
  /get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Internet/Browsers/Portable-Firefox-for-Windows-XP-Vista.shtml

Incidentally, Firefox ESR latest version is v102.1.0 (release notes are at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/notes/).

Midas wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:41 am Incidentally, Firefox ESR latest version is v102.1.0 (release notes are at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/notes/).

There's not going to be that many changes from v102.1.0 and the current v103, so you might as well use the current version unless you value the stability of the ESR branch for one year.

Midas wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:41 am Lately, I found myself using Firefox ESR more and more, just because of how significantly less annoying it is compared to the main version

How is it better? What are the annoyance issues you're running into?

ESR basically fixes the Firefox version for one year. You get security updates for that version and that's it.

By annoyances, I'm guessing the new features or changes that are included in the regular releases.

freakazoid wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 9:41 amThere's not going to be that many changes from v102.1.0 and the current v103, so you might as well use the current version unless you value the stability of the ESR branch for one year.

I do, indeed. I'm still on v91.12.0 here -- and have an older v8x.x elsewhere...

webfork wrote: ↑How is it better? What are the annoyance issues you're running into?

Well, apart from the ungodly memory footprint which has grown to be a standard feature -- I recently had to power cycle one of my laptops (the older one) because it was turning unresponsive and when I checked Process Explorer, Firefox was using an unbelievable 5GB+ -- the rapid changing of UI features and functionalities means that more often than not after one of its many updates, something I've come to rely on is either gone, diminished, changed or just moved somewhere that makes me trawl the web just to find it back. It's a browser, not a productivity suite or any thing like that: it should stay out of the way as much as possible. Or it might just be that I'm getting too old to learn that many new tricks...

Quick example (that ESR doesn't solve): current versions don't allow me to manually change print settings from inches to metric or print date alone (not date/time) in headers/footers...