Update – March 2017 – problems with Firefox

It seems like there have been a a lot of changes to Firefox lately; maybe it’s just my impression.  Recently all of a sudden I could not use Paypal on Ebay.  The Paypal login whirly circle just went round and got nowhere, after some minutes apparently breaking something and leaving an empty box on the screen.  This happened just after the update to Firefox 52.0. I have also had issues with our power providers web site – Mercury Energy. But that’s an old problem and I’m pretty sure it’s just their web site that’s crap.

As I can’t be without Ebay and Paypal, and I’m not spending hours trying to solve a problem with Firefox, which is just a tool, I decided to find another browser to use when Firefox is being a PITA.  Chrome is out as I don’t trust Google not to collect data and push adverts and dodgy extras.  It had to be open source and support script, advert and cookie blocking.  So I have installed Chromium, the open source browser to try for a while.

Chromium add-ons have a very app-store look, which I don’t trust – horrible images of Android trickery and adverts.  But it may be OK as a basic browser with security similar to Firefox and I can do without all the app-store BS.

If Chromium appears to be honest and Firefox becomes more of a PITA to use, you never know, I may drop Firefox.

Update – February 2016

We are still using Firefox exclusively for web browsing, running on Kubuntu, with everything kept up to date.

As of Firefox 44, apparently they have removed the more detailed cookie management; see below.

Why Firefox ?

At the moment I still think it is the lesser of browser evils, and supports NoScript, ABP and Cookie killing. Considering the importance to me of having a reliable PC, it would be crazy to open it up any more than necessary to the evil scum of the interwebs by using a more seriously compromised browser.

Main PC and Firefox

My main PC browses the web, plays some videos and handles most email.  I still have a Android phone and tablet for a couple of technical apps, but hate the stupidity and insecurity of Android.  I still won’t touch anything Apple or Microsoft.

This main PC runs 24/7, so it is important to reduce power draw. It’s not a high performance system, running a dual-core 1.6GHz AMD mini-ITX MB and consumes about 35 watts most of the time.  It would be nice if this could be reduced and may be possible with a newer quad-core ARM system. Unfortunately ARM is not yet well supported for general purpose computing.  Most are still plying with Android and I don’t want a 40″ screen with full keyboard and mouse that still thinks it’s a POS cell-phone.

My general impression is that Firefox has slowly become more bloated and sluggish. It chews up memory and eventually becomes completely bogged down and unresponsive.

My ideal browser would:

• small and efficient
• handles all web formats, files, features etc.
• is open source
• supports at least the features of NoScript, ABP and cookie control
• plug-in or add-on feature support is OK

It must not:

• be closed source
• report to anywhere behind the scenes
• save anything at all when privacy is enabled

Firefox Cookie Management

Cookies have their uses but they are also a problem. You’ve got to wonder about web sites that want to store or edit 30 or more cookies; IMO, they must be up to no good.  I think that if a site can’t get by on 1 or 2 cookies, there is something tricky going on and it should be denied.

Before version 44 I had FF ask if a site was allowed to save cookies.  My web browsing is typically visiting the same few sites regularly and some random jumping all over the place.  The regulars were easily covered by “allowing cookies”, “allowing for the session” or “denying cookies”.  Pretty easy really and didn’t cause browsing issues.  The more random browsing would often pop up a window asking what to do about cookies. I didn’t find this a problem and just manually denied everything; chances were I wouldn’t be back.

As of version 44, this cookie control has gone and FF either accepts all cookies or denies all cookies.  The exception list is still there but seems to be a left over; I don’t know if it still works.  I liked the idea that FF would prevent a site from saving cookies; they never landed on my PC.

As of version 44 a add-on can be used to delete unwanted cookies.  I have installed one called “Self-Destructing Cookies”, that deletes them on “tab-close”, “FF-close” or “never”.  It doesn’t stop the cookies from being stored and I don’t know if this is a potential risk. Worst case the cookies are present while the tab is open and tabs can be open for quite a while.

Therefore I do need to be able to selectively deny cookies from being saved or edited.  I may need another or different add-on that provides better cookie control.  If there was another suitable browser available, that would also be OK.

Add-ons that may be worth looking at

• cookie controller
• advanced cookie manager

Requirements for consideration: must be well used and recently updated.

NOTE: Apparently some add-ons don’t do much more than provide a better user interface to the built in cookie manager. Not much use if the built in manager has been deleted from FF.

Collusion – add-on

Some time ago while listening to a TuxRadar podcast I heard about the “Collusion” Firefox add-on, which I installed to have a look at.

It watches your browsing and draws a visual map of how the sites you visit are tied in with other sites for tracking etc. One of the technical sites I visit was trying to pass info to a glamor (womens clothing) marketing site. Anyone who will pay for information.

Some of the links are OK such as a link to Google because of a map on the page you want to look at.

I’ve been using it for a few hours now and still have a very small and unimpressive chart; which suggests my script, advert and cookie blocking is working.

Firefox – Windows vs Linux

Firefox is open source and runs on Windows and Linux. But the experience is slightly different between the two because the OS provides the user interface experience details. I much prefer the Ubuntu/KDE Firefox over Win-XP Firefox, but they both do the same job.

I have a laptop running Linux most of the time but it also runs Windows XP which I boot up occasionally to use an old development program that dates back to Windows-95 days. It has Firefox installed which is only occasionally used.

When I visited Trantham weather it said I had to install a plug-in for something and did I want to. Yes, why not; but it thought about it for a while and decided there were no suitable plug-ins available.

I looked at the version and it started downloading an update so I let it continue. The update failed the first time and suggested I try again. When it had completed it said it had to install a Java Runtime so I allowed that; which seemed to be a bigger download and took longer than the Firefox update. I had to agree to a license and something else and now have a java task-bar icon.. Yippee. That plug-in problem also disappeared.

With Ubuntu Linux I’m not sure what’s happening with Java but I don’t recall it doing all that. It may have just maintained it since the initial automatic install.