Which browser should one use if one is after stability and support for existing features?
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I am a translator!
As you know Trisquel's recent releases (6 and 7 and the upcoming 8) are long term releases.
These releases tend to offer software which does not receive version updates for the available packages, however they do offer version updates for the main Mozilla browser.
Many of the browsers provided by Trisquel have changed dramatically over the past few years, so finding a browser which one can update regularly without breaking exiting features (similar to a new video player which offers support for new codecs while retaining support for older codecs) is a difficult task. I'll cover the main issues with the popular browsers.
Mozilla based (Abrowser/IceCat): Mozilla's decision to switch to web extensions will break many legacy add-ons. In addition, support for ALSA was dropped in recent versions and NPAPI based plugins which enabled playback of video using players such as VLC (instead of using HTML5) no longer work. At the moment IceCat is based on an older ESR (extended support release) version of Firefox which still supports these features, however they will probably be dropped in the next version. Firefox forks such as Waterfox (which currently supports ALSA) might rectify some of the issues (the latest version fails to playback video using an external player).
Seamonkey based (Seamonkey/Iceape): Currently the browsers unction the same as in the past, but they will probably change as well as they base their code on newer versions of Firefox. Another Firefox fork called Pale Moon (which looks very similar to Seamonkey with the Sea Fox and GNOMErunner add-ons) promises to offer support for older features, but the browser is currently incompatible with many Mozilla add-ons (a task the developers are addressing).
WebKit based: Midori hasn't seen a new release since 2015 and was recently removed by Hyperbola. When I last tested it it suffered from stability issues (it sometimes unexpectedly crashed). Epiphany/Web has changed dramatically over the years: the old extensions no longer work after the browser switched to a newer WebKit engine, JavaScript can no longer be disabled in the settings or through dconf-editor (since the developers thought this was a pointless feature to offer) and add-ons are now integrated in the browser (at the moment mostly adblock). On the bright side, ALSA is still supported, the browser can be used to access LibreCMC router's web interface which does not support SSL, and since it is part of GNOME it is actively developed. The browser might still support NPAPI plugins (they appear under about:plugins), although I couldn't test my configuration, as I use ViewTube which requires Greasemonkey which is currently missing (the developers might integrate it into a future release). NPAPI plugin support might depend on whether Apple supports it in the future in their WebKit based desktop browser (they currently do).
Others: I haven't tested anything else. Other browsers might be worth checking out, however note that several are blacklisted by libre distributions due to severe issues (not just recommending non-free add-ons), such as Konquerer due to qt5-webengine being non-free. I'm not sure Iridium (Chromium based) is considered free at the moment.
Official Website: https://www.waterfoxproject.org/
Repo: https://www.waterfoxproject.org/downloads
Note: also you can download manually the compressed package from official website and install it, this build has automatic upgrade tool activated, if you download Waterfox from the repo, this tool is not activated and i don't recommend to use it because this build is updated from the repo when it is released a new build.
I am a translator!
>you can download manually the compressed package from official website and install it
not install but rather extract it and then run the executable, just pointing out.
>this build has automatic upgrade tool activated
It doesn't work sadly, well.. it does, partially in that it alerts of a new version but then u need to download the archive and extract it anew.. meh, no biggie, and thanks again for bringing up waterfox, mate citoplasmax, great browser!
I use Firefox ESR. Works fine for now, but it will break legacy extensions at some point next year.
It is not like NPAPI, XUL and XPCOM are dropped with no reason.
NPAPI "plugins are a source of performance problems, crashes, and security incidents": https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2015/10/08/npapi-plugins-in-firefox/
WebExtensions' API does not expose Firefox's internals as much as XUL/XPCOM, eases developers' life (almost no work to port from Chrome to Firefox) and, as a consequence, will get us more add-ons.
By dropping these old technologies, which are tightly coupled with Firefox's core (unlike the codecs in video players), ground-breaking changes of that core (e.g., a multi-process Firefox) become possible: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2015/08/21/the-future-of-developing-firefox-add-ons/
Users who have tried Firefix 57 say it is the first version where those ground-breaking changes start to make a clearly visible difference in terms of performance.
As for opening files (e.g., videos) with specialized applications, you can still use the download feature or open the URL from the application in question.
I am a translator!
NPAPI "plugins are a source of performance problems, crashes, and security incidents": https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2015/10/08/npapi-plugins-in-firefox/
Mozilla didn't remove the entire NPAPI code base. They still support Adobe Flash. If the stability and security bothered them so much, they would have removed the entire NPAPI code base. You can watch videos in the browser using HTML5 and Flash alternatives like Gnash (if they work) but you cannot use VLC or mpv. The reason Mozilla supports HTML5 and Flash is not due to security but rather in order not to break websites which require these technologies so that users will not leave them. If they cared so much about NPAPI security, they could have improved the security of the relevant code in their browser (and worked with free software NPAPI add-ons as well so that they would be secure as well). They removed partial support for NPAPI because they didn't want to support it anymore (and because only a minority of users use NPAPI plugins which aren't Flash) and because other browsers did it as well. It's the same reason why they added H264 and DRM to the browser - other browsers did it and they were afraid users would leave them if these features weren't implemented.
WebExtensions' API does not expose Firefox's internals as much as XUL/XPCOM, eases developers' life (almost no work to port from Chrome to Firefox) and, as a consequence, will get us more add-ons.
Removing web extensions is more likely to alienate existing add-on developers who will switch to other browsers and not bother to create new addons (which might not even be possible). Mozilla doesn't lack add-ons, so it doesn't need add-on developers to port add-ons from other browsers. The chances are that for most users several existing add-ons will break, and they will simply switch to other browsers such as Google's browser, which will reduce Mozilla's browser's market share even further.
I can imagine users refusing to install Mozilla's browser if they do not wish to use PulseAudio, since it is the only main browser not to support ALSA. GNU/Linux users already lost sound when they upgraded Mozilla's browser (you can read about it here: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/03/17/1644211/firefox-goes-pulseaudio-only-leaves-alsa-users-with-no-sound ) and chances are they simply switched browsers if they couldn't be bothered to (or refused to) install PulseAudio. The reason Mozilla dropped support for ALSA was because it requires more work to support than Pulseaudio (and because much more work is required to support sound as Mozilla added support to new audio and video formats in recent years), so they preferred to drop support so they could focus on other features in the browser.
As far as I understand, Mozilla's main point is how these technologies prevent Firefox's core from easily evolving, especially performance-wise.
An exception was made for Flash but it is easier to maintain NPAPI working for Flash than for any plugin. That said, I had rather see Flash support dropped today (the same holds for EME, of course). Flash support will be dropped soon since Adobe "will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020": https://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2017/07/adobe-flash-update.html
As for "add-on developers who will switch to other browsers", they would switch to Chrome/Chromium, which unfortunately dominates the market: http://gs.statcounter.com
In fact, I believe most add-ons for Firefox exist for Chrome. Their developers love the API change. Since it is that of Chrome, they have far less porting work. For those only developing for Firefox or Chrome, they will probably start supporting the other browser (again, it is little work) and I see little reason to stop supporting the browser they come from.
Old unmaintained add-ons will indeed break. But it looks like a reasonable price to pay for improved performance. After all, if nobody wants to maintain the add-on, it is probably not that useful.
The reasons you report to drop sound support on GNU/Linux without PulseAudio ("requires more work to support than Pulseaudio", "focus on other features in the browser"), combined with the overwhelming dominance of PulseAudio in modern GNU/Linux distributions, make a good argument, don't they?
I am a translator!
ALSA is part of Linux, the kernel, so it is probably more common than the optional sound server PulseAudio.
It is already old-school to still be mentioning Midori, and LXQt has been in the cutting edge for the Gtk+, Xfce, KDE refugees since 2014, so LXQt related QupZilla has been also in the WebKit cutting edge.
WebKit based: Midori hasn't seen a new release since 2015 and was recently removed by Hyperbola. When I last tested it it suffered from stability issues (it sometimes unexpectedly crashed). Epiphany/Web has changed dramatically over the years: the old extensions no longer work after the browser switched to a newer WebKit engine, JavaScript can no longer be disabled in the settings or through dconf-editor (since the developers thought this was a pointless feature to offer) and add-ons are now integrated in the browser (at the moment mostly adblock). On the bright side, ALSA is still supported, the browser can be used to access LibreCMC router's web interface which does not support SSL, and since it is part of GNOME it is actively developed. The browser might still support NPAPI plugins (they appear under about:plugins), although I couldn't test my configuration, as I use ViewTube which requires Greasemonkey which is currently missing (the developers might integrate it into a future release). NPAPI plugin support might depend on whether Apple supports it in the future in their WebKit based desktop browser (they currently do).
If I recall correctly, isn't GNU IceCat constantly being updated also in
Trisquel?
I noticed this to be true because when I inspect the version of the
package in the repositories, I get the same version I'm using now from
GNU Guix. So I vote for sticking with GNU IceCat from Trisquel.
Alternativelly, you can go the longer route: after installing Trisquel,
install GNU Guix package manager, and from it install GNU IceCat.
Comparing the common advice of adding a repository/PPA to your package
manager, and the GNU Guix way suggested above: the second has the
advantage of having GNU FSDG-committed repositories and community by
default, having focus on reproducibility and a free/libre software
community.
2017-11-01T18:09:28+0100 name at domain wrote:
> As you know Trisquel's recent releases (6 and 7 and the upcoming 8)
> are long term releases.
>
> These releases tend to offer software which does not receive version
> updates for the available packages, however they do offer version
> updates for the main Mozilla browser.
>
> Many of the browsers provided by Trisquel have changed dramatically
> over the past few years, so finding a browser which one can update
> regularly without breaking exiting features (similar to a new video
> player which offers support for new codecs while retaining support for
> older codecs) is a difficult task. I'll cover the main issues with the
> popular browsers.
>
> Mozilla based (Abrowser/IceCat): Mozilla's decision to switch to web
> extensions will break many legacy add-ons. In addition, support for
> ALSA was dropped in recent versions and NPAPI based plugins which
> enabled playback of video using players such as VLC (instead of using
> HTML5) no longer work. At the moment IceCat is based on an older ESR
> (extended support release) version of Firefox which still supports
> these features, however they will probably be dropped in the next
> version. Firefox forks such as Waterfox (which currently supports
> ALSA) might rectify some of the issues (the latest version fails to
> playback video using an external player).
>
> Seamonkey based (Seamonkey/Iceape): Currently the browsers unction the
> same as in the past, but they will probably change as well as they
> base their code on newer versions of Firefox. Another Firefox fork
> called Pale Moon (which looks very similar to Seamonkey with the Sea
> Fox and GNOMErunner add-ons) promises to offer support for older
> features, but the browser is currently incompatible with many Mozilla
> add-ons (a task the developers are addressing).
>
> WebKit based: Midori hasn't seen a new release since 2015 and was
> recently removed by Hyperbola. When I last tested it it suffered from
> stability issues (it sometimes unexpectedly crashed). Epiphany/Web has
> changed dramatically over the years: the old extensions no longer work
> after the browser switched to a newer WebKit engine, JavaScript can no
> longer be disabled in the settings or through dconf-editor (since the
> developers thought this was a pointless feature to offer) and add-ons
> are now integrated in the browser (at the moment mostly adblock). On
> the bright side, ALSA is still supported, the browser can be used to
> access LibreCMC router's web interface which does not support SSL, and
> since it is part of GNOME it is actively developed. The browser might
> still support NPAPI plugins (they appear under about:plugins),
> although I couldn't test my configuration, as I use ViewTube which
> requires Greasemonkey which is currently missing (the developers might
> integrate it into a future release). NPAPI plugin support might depend
> on whether Apple supports it in the future in their WebKit based
> desktop browser (they currently do).
>
> Others: I haven't tested anything else. Other browsers might be worth
> checking out, however note that several are blacklisted by libre
> distributions due to severe issues (not just recommending non-free
> add-ons), such as Konquerer due to qt5-webengine being non-free. I'm
> not sure Iridium (Chromium based) is considered free at the moment.
>
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