Firefox Alternative
Charlie down at the "Transfer your Home Movies to DVD" shop offers an Alternative to Firefox?
Charlie reports he was tired of Mozilla Firefox's Nag Screen that keep popping up, over and over and over? Concerned over privacy issues with Chrome or Internet Explorer? The Nag Screen was the final straw.
Well, Mozilla says Charlie, if I wanted to update Firefox, I would, but I don't, and I'll tell you why -- Mozilla Firefox, you tend to break things on a regular basis and could care less, at least that's how it seems.
You push updates that radically change the way Firefox looks, works, acts or disables our Add-ons without warning and little, if any recourse. Many of us rely on internet access to make our living and if we have a time sensitive project and you effectively shut us down for a few days, or even a few hours while we try to discover a work-a-round, just so we can browse the internet, it's a serious issue. Shame on you Mozilla!
Anyway, after looking at a number of possible Firefox Replacement Browsers, I ran across Pale Moon. It has the feel of the Firefox I'm familiar with, well, at least reasonably so, it took a few tweaks to move things to where I expected them to be, but it is easily customizeable. Once I moved the Tabs to the top, and move my Bookmarks over, it felt like home.
Once I'd set it up on one computer, downloaded their Backup Tool (close Pale Moon BEFORE you backup!), I copied the install program and that backup to my other computer, installed P.M., closed it and hit the backup/restore program. I had to set my backup directory location (and hence where to look for the restore file), closed it, and reopened the backup program, hit restore and voila, the second computer now has an identical copy, complete with all add-ons. Did I mention that they also have a "Synchronize between computers program" to keep your bookmarks in sync.
I tend to research heavily and I have not done that here. I've only spent the past month researching sporadically and have tried a number of different browsers. All required a learning curve and none really felt right, until I found Pale Moon. It feels comfortable, and familiar.
From what I've gathered, it looks like a number of Firefox developers became disgusted with Mozilla when the major change to Firefox with Austrailis (Version 29) came about. It appears they broke off and began maintaining and updating their own version, named Pale Moon. Their concept appears to be to make changes, updates and improvements, but just not to force those changes on an unsuspecting public.
I can greatly appreciate that philosophy! I humbly offer for your consideration, Pale Moon as a possible Mozilla Firefox Browser Replacement.
Pale Moon (Site)
From their site: "Pale Moon is, and will always be, completely FREE to download and use! (Open Source and Freeware)." They do have a place where you may support them if desired, but it's not required.
If you decide to try it, there are a couple of things you should be aware of. First, on their main mage, they have a number of Tools, the Backup and Restore Program and one that is a Profile Migration Assistant, that will import your existing Firefox Profile complete with bookmarks.
Second, if you're using Mozbackup for backing up Firefox, there appear to be some known flaws, so be sure to manually Backup AND Export your Bookmarks, just in case. Backup will save the bookmarks in JSON file format while Export will save them in HTML format. The difference in functionality is that if you wish to Merge bookmarks from say, two different computers and Import in HTML format, they will merge. If you import in JSON format, then import from the other computer, rather than Merge, the second will Overwrite the first.
One other thing I should mention is that not all your Add-ons are going to work, but Pale Moon has a page devoted to offering suggestions for any that might not be compatible. It's not perfect, but so far, I've been able to recreate the functionality of everything that I had on Firefox (and I'm a fairly heavy add-on user), again, your mileage may vary, but all in all I'm fairly excited about Pale Moon.
As Andy Halford told Mozilla:
Goodbye Mozilla, and thanks for all the fish! *
*This is a reference to what the dolphins said to the humans just before the humans were wiped out. From my favourite book: HHGG (the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)
https://www.andyhalford.com/
So long Mozilla, and thanks for all the fish* - June 2012
If you are here looking for any of my add-ons (SyncPlaces, SortPlaces, CheckPlaces or SearchPlaces) then I'm sad to inform you that these are no longer available.
Unfortunately I do not have the time or the motivation to continue to support these in light of the organisation that Mozilla has become. Apparently spending 1000's of hours promoting their products and providing add-ons to fill the gaps in their product and repair bookmarks destroyed by Firefox Sync, counts for little and does not deserve any flexibility or support from them. Whatever they may claim, add-on developers are actually second-class citizens that are seen as obstructing the development of Firefox. Surprising, as many like myself believe that add-ons are the main USP of Firefox. I've seen many popular and useful add-ons die as authors give up trying to keep up with their constant changes or just get hacked-off with their holier than thou treatment. The stats appear to reflect this misjudgement as the use of Firefox is in decline, no doubt driven in part by users moving away as their favourite add-ons disappear, or former add-on authors suggest alternatives to family, friends, and colleagues.
My decision was taken after a series of problems with them the last one being the final straw. I will not be answering any further emails on this matter as I do not wish to waste any more of my time on this. Also, as I no longer wish in any way to promote Mozilla's products, I will not be hosting or providing these extensions to anyone.
Thanks for all the emails of support. Unfortunately, too many to respond to individually. Thanks also for the many positive suggestions as to where my time and effort may be more appreciated and I am already investigating several of these.
*This is a reference to what the dolphins said to the humans just before the humans were wiped out. From my favourite book: HHGG
If you remembered Andy and liked his programs, Daniel Lange is keeping them alive at
At this writing, I have not tried them with PaleMoon.
Additional Firefox Alternatives:
How to Geek - 6 Alternative Browsers based on Mozilla Firefox Click Here
SmashingMagazine's Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Edge? Impressive Web Browser Alternatives Click Here
Liliputing.com - Unhappy with Chrome and Firefox? Here are some alternate web browsers Click Here
Here's another review of Pale Moon by Consuming Experience Click Here