Possible Mull replacement spotted: Ironfox (Mull fork) #665
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Why do we need a Mull fork? I couldn't find that answered in the gitlab for Ironfox. I'd kind of like to know that before I'd use it or have it added to FFupdater. Update: I just think I found the answer to my own question. 😢 #662 I would like to see how maintained this fork is before deciding on anything. First of all there is already Firefox 134.0 but no Fennec 134.0 and no Ironfox134.0. What good is a fork that can't be maintained. There are already too many buggy chromium based browsers because they don't keep current with the upstream project. Do we really want the same problem with Firefox forks (just a thought). |
Sorry to have been the bearer of bad news 🤣
Again, this feature request is for the future, read again and I said IF they manage to prove themselves as reliable as the Mull maintainer. Adding Ironfox now is pre-mature even for me, but this is still worth keeping tabs, if the developers prove the in the next months to be as reliable and fast like Mull, because Firefox has trackers and Fennec does not come pre-hardened (not to mention Fennec updates too slowly, Mull was always faster and more secure.) Also WTF are you located, or are you using a beta? Firefox stable is still 133.0.3 for us Europeans and the official calendar (https://whattrainisitnow.com/) still shows 134 to be released tomorrow...and the calendar is global. |
Sorry I must have missed that or misunderstood. I agree with you on this.
Must be something strange with Mozilla and the Google Play store. I received the 134 update about a week ago (December 30th) in the United States but FFupdater still shows the most current version for it as being 133.0.3. I probably should disable the Auto updater in the play store. I only keep Firefox for version comparisons and seldom use it. My primary browser is brave. I did recently install Ironfox to test it out and to see how maintained it will be. So far it seems to be quicker then the same mull version. Could be do to a fresh install rather than a upgrade (or possible other factors). |
No problem, I might also not have written it well enough, English is not my primary language.
This is weird as hell and sketchy... Please do disable it if possible, I couldn't no matter how I changed the settings and that is why I disabled it and update my non-foss app through Aurora... Mull (and as of now Firefox, until Ironfox proves itself) was used mainly to create custom filters with uBlock, and to compare as well. Until a sandbox for processes is still missing I too will continue to use mainly nonspyware Chromium on android for security reasons. |
👍🏻 FYI: I'm query https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/fenix/releases/ for Firefox updates and there is only 134 beta, no real release available. |
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A heads up that IronFox released 134 two days ago |
I saw that. Almost a day after the official Firefox. I'm still playing around with it. I make some about:config changes because I find Firefox to be way too slow on Android by default. I say if they continue to release just as fast that we go ahead and add it to FFupdater |
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I've only noticed now but it's going to be interesting how it will probably slightly do it own thing.
If they keep this pace and properly introduce this, we could potentially have the first mobile browser with private safe browsing support. For those who don't know, safe browsing leaks to google in every android browser, including Brave, due to either trackers, direct connection and/or google play dependency. This may not be big for us tech literate people but for normal people who can't tell the difference between blatant malware/phishing and safe sites/downloads, this is rather significant. Ironfox could be the first browser to have anonymized safe browsing in android, that's wild. |
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their f-droid repo is now unavailable for ffupdater: Stacktrace: Logs: Device information:
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Our F-Droid repo was acting funny, though it should be sorted. I wonder if it works now? FYI: We're also publishing the Please let me know if there's anything we can do to help or make this easier for you :) |
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Mull dev was so responsible person, that he discontinued the app only after latest release and given the time to come forward other dev to continue. Hat's off to him 🫡 IF dev team rapidly released the current version and continuing updates like Mull, so users should not be out of protection. Morning shows the day - isn't often true? Let's follow the journey optimistically. 🙋 |
Agreed. I try to do it at the weekend |
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related #658 so far ironfox looks great, but it still has 4 trackers as seen in "app manager" |
It doesn't. We stub the proprietary/tracking libraries, just as Mull did and Fennec F-Droid does. Since the libraries are stubbed, naive 'tracker' scanning apps may falsely claim the libraries are still present, when in reality they aren't. |
that sounds awesome. i'm going to use it then |
Would you mind sharing your about:config changes to increase the speed of the browser on Android? Also, I've been playing with Iron Fox for the past week and I also believe it's faster than Mull. Otherwise, it appears to be very similar. Since both Mull and Mulch have gone EOL, I think Iron Fox would be a great addition to ffupdater. I'm currently using Obtainium for Iron Fox, but all my other browsers are updated through ffupdater. It's driving my OCD crazy! |
Agreed. It was a one-man show, and he did a great job keeping both Mull and Mulch up to date. Iron Fox has a 3-person team at this time, and the lead dev seems to be committed to the project. I hope it works out, and Iron Fox remains updated for the foreseeable future. I like it so far. |
btw iron fox is on neo store as well, fixed my ocd :) |
Most of these I found through Google and AI searching. I can't guarantee their privacy. That's probably why in some cases they're turned off or on but then they make the browser so slow (For example, allowing prefetching. You would also need to turn off disable prefetching in ublock origin) One needs to be adjusted to allow Instagram photos and came from an issue with Mull.
Any other suggestions to allow a faster smoother Firefox or Iron Fox on Android would be great. Load times are still slower than chromium-based browsers. I use Brave as my default and have Firefox based browser as a backup. Chromium ones can load a page in an average of less than 5 seconds. Well Firefox based ones usually take 15 seconds or more. I just wish Mozilla would spend just as much time on their mobile version as they do their desktop version. |
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The LibreWolf developers now recommend to use IronFox. |
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
No.
Describe the solution you'd like
In the future, if the developers show reasonable update speeds and reliability like the Mull developer, adding Ironfox to the browser selection.
Additional context
https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox
A developer was spotted in this topic:
https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/ironfox-a-new-mull-fork/23638
Something to keep and eye for in the future, for those who want an easy hardened Firefox install instead of suffering manually changing every single value in Fennec.
Edit: forgot to delete template text.
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