abrowser why no update option in menu?
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firefox 93 -> about firefox.
Selecting about firefox will display if
a new update is available.
abrowser 93 -> about abrowser
abrowser_93.0+build1-0ubuntu0.18.04.1+9.0trisquel84_amd64.deb
On debian 10 selecting about abrowser will not
display if a new abrowser update is available. Why is
that so? Is the update feature difficult to get
into abrowser? Thanks.
Abrowser removes all the privacy violating "phone-home" behavior of Firefox, including the constant pinging of the Mozilla update server. Auto update info is used to track the user in a lot of instances. Abrowser removes that capability to track users.
> removes all the privacy violating "phone-home" behavior
which is the right decision. Palemoon in its menu has
an check for updates option. Suggesting that
palemoon does not connect to any servers, if not
permitted by the user. If there are no
technical obstacles for such a solution then that is
the option abrowser should get. Anything else
would be patronizing.
Has abrowser enabled a simple option
to update through tor?
>"Has abrowser enabled a simple option
to update through tor?”
Not that I'm aware of. But I showed you how you can add the trisquel repo to Debian and do apt pinning to update abrowser regularly, didn't I?
> do apt pinning to update abrowser
I do not have the technical insight to fully understand
about apt pinning. Following your instructions I
might get updating abrowser working. But that is not
what my posts here are about.
In order to get as many people to utilize abrowser,
I agree about the critique regarding firefox, as
possible, abrowser should make itself a
simple sell. Part of that is no apt pinning or suchlike
for updating abrowser. The simplest solution I think
is the check for updates option. Do you know to whom I
can suggest implementing the check for updates
option in abrowser?
About updating through tor.
Your instructions on how to get abrowser
to update, does that not result in servers getting
data about the abrowser user? Isn't tor browser
the only effective option if you want to get updates
anonymously?
>"The simplest solution I think
is the check for updates option. Do you know to whom I
can suggest implementing the check for updates
option in abrowser?"
Trisquel's developers have clearly taken update pinging out from abrowser for a reason. And they are developing abrowser for Trisquel users, not for a wide audience. I see no reason to believe they would be interested in adding update pinging back into it in order to popularize abrowser.
IIRC Ubuntu's Firefox doesn't have update pinging either. Same with the Flatpak version. I think update pinging is only in the official build from mozilla.org.
there's a "firefox-esr" in debian, which may have that anti-feature turned off by default?
can be turned off via about:config or about:policies?
mozilla turned off the option for manual update checking?
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/master/README.md
adding lines like,
pref("app.update.enabled", false, locked);
pref("app.update.url", "", locked);
pref("app.update.auto", false, locked);
to
/etc/firefox-esr/firefox-esr.js
appears to work at least with firefox-esr?
https://wiki.debian.org/Firefox#Disabling_automatic_connections
Firefox has far more privacy problems than the update pinger. You can spend weeks chasing up all the privacy issues and blocking them. Thus, abrowser becomes very valuable.
Forgot to mention that can be kinda annoying switching from esr to a more later firefox version the (non-documented in manpage?) option something like?
firefox-esr -allow-downgrade
Usually will work, but may want to backup just in case?
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/CommandLineOptions#-allow-downgrade
I would have thought that updates for Abrowser are provided by the distributions it comes with through system updates, and thus automated if the corresponding option is checked for system updates. That's what I am witnessing on Trisquel 9.
I understand that on a "non native" system some apt pinning might be necessary in order to get the same behavior.
But maybe you meant that your user case requires manual updates?
The Firefox version in Debian does not allow updates through the menu, because it is installed through apt. I think this is the same in all distros.
Debian disables telemetry and OpenH264, but it still presents the UI for enabling DRM, and has the Pocket and sponsored stuff. I have the following 3 lines in /etc/firefox/firefox.js to ensure that it can't be enabled through the UI and won't ever ask me to do so.
pref("browser.eme.ui.enabled", false, locked);
pref("media.eme.enabled", false, locked);
pref("media.gmp-widevinecdm.enabled", false, locked);
In addition to that, the following prefs will disable Pocket, and all the suggested/sponsored stuff:
pref("extensions.pocket.enabled", false);
pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.section.topstories", false);
pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsored", false);
pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsoredTopSites", false);
pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest", false);
pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.sponsored", false);
Isn't Firefox pushing Amazon advertising through its URL bar now? Or are they still testing that in certain markets or something?
I haven't used it in awhile now. I used to work on different ways to secure the privacy in Firefox and post about it here, but once I figured out how much better abrowser was I pretty much gave up on Firefox.
That's what I've read, and the sponsored suggestions were enabled by default when I updated Firefox, but I didn't actually see any such suggestions.
By the way, here are the prefs that Debian sets by default:
// Disable openh264.
pref("media.gmp-gmpopenh264.enabled", false);
// Default to classic view for about:newtab
pref("browser.newtabpage.enhanced", false, sticky);
// Disable health report upload
pref("datareporting.healthreport.uploadEnabled", false);
// Default to no suggestions in the urlbar. This still brings a panel asking
// the user whether they want to opt-in on first use.
pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.searches", false);
I also set media.gmp-gmpopenh264.visible to false to disable the UI for enabling OpenH264.
EDIT: I should also add that from what I've read, the suggestions (sponsored and un-sponsored) that are enabled by default do not involve sending any personal data to Mozilla. I think Firefox just downloads a list every day, so it might not really be a privacy issue. Still, in some places there is the option of sending your data to Mozilla for suggestions, and either way, I don't want advertising in my browser.
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