Presenting Plasmafox

[anon23612428]

Presenting Plasmafox

This is a first release of Plasmafox, the rebranded firefox-kde.
Everything is work-in-progress, and more work is still needed. Release numbers starting with v0. are considered test/beta/crap quality.

You should be able to install it alongside your existing Firefox.
Note that it will start with a new, blank profile, but you should be able to simply copy the existing Firefox profile over from ~/.mozilla/firefox/name-of-profile to ~/.plasmafox.

Maybe I will look at adapting the profile migration tool at a later stage. Probably not though...

Make sure you have a backup of your profile!

You will also need kplasmafoxhelper, which is simply an adapted kmozillahelper.

Download links below Read the disclaimer before you download!
Browsers are critical for security, so you will want to verify the signature that comes with the package.
Please report back any issues you might encounter.

Disclaimer

You use this software at your own risk, if it blows up your computer, it's your fault.
If you have any doubts, then do not use it.
There will be no guarantee that this software gets unlimited support.
Updates might not come as fast as those for the regular Firefox, or even not at all.
Support and development may be stopped at any time.
I'm not a coder or developer and have only extremely limited knowledge of FF.

Credits

@SGS for the icons
Waterfox for inspiration

---

Known issues

20190524:
Telemetry Toolkit enabled and locked by mistake;
Not built in a clean chroot as my buildpkg locks up (unrelated to Plasmafox);
User agent reports as "plasmafox", which could break some websites, the workaround is to enable general.useragent.compatMode.firefox in about:config, or use a User Agent extension.

20190603:
Depending on the size, icons might not show correctly, you might see the default blue globe instead. Didn't have time to investigate

---

Plasmafox: https://github.com/torvic9/plasmafox/releases
Kplasmafoxhelper: https://github.com/torvic9/kplasmafoxhelper/releases

[klorax]

This is awesome, thanks! (Haven't had time to try it yet).

@anon23612428

~/.plasmafox

Since you have changed the default, would it be possible to change it to ~/.local/share/plasmafox? A good start to make it respect XDG Base Directory Specification, a bug/feature request that Firefox has delayed for very long (15 years ), profile migration being one of the big hurdles.

Even better would be to place it in $XDG_DATA_HOME (default is ~/.local/share/). Full implementation is probably way beyond a quick fix, it would require to split the profile into $XDG_CACHE_HOME and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME as well.

[anon23612428]

The thing is, I don't know what exactly changed the default profile dir... I didn't explicitly change it, it was rather a result of other changes.

Also noticed that the private browsing window still shows Firefox.
Will be fixed with the next release later today.

[anon23612428]

Update (v0.5)
set update channel to release instead of default
disable telemetry
fix missing 'Plasmafox' wordmark in private browsing window

[anon23612428]

Thank you Really good work for your 1st try!

[dglt]

nice, whats different about plasmafox in comparison to firefox/firefox-kde-opensuse? i dont currently have kde installed but i still find this interesting.

[Librewish]

although i dont know if its possible or even suitable
its just only a suggestion may be a request
can you add librefox settings to the plasma fox???

intika/Librefox

though this project isnt active for 4 months so may be some changes are needed.
okay there is fork of this thing
https://gitlab.com/librevixen

and here also
https://github.com/librevixen/LibreVixen

[klorax]

@dglt

whats different about plasmafox in comparison to firefox/firefox-kde-opensuse?

Only the branding (unless change of plans) due to the issues mentioned here.

[anon23612428]

There is already some basic privacy additions, like e.g. disabled telemetry/healthreport/Pocket/Sync.
For more, use the included user.js for additional protection, or ghacks' version for even more.

On a sidenote, the current build does not include EME, NFC, or WebRTC.
I don't know how much potential users would need those.

[anon23612428]

@klorax, I thought about the icons, I will keep sgs' icons for the application, but I will take one of yours for the "about" screen.
That way, the work of both of you will be "rewarded"

@sgs, do you also want to put your work under the CC license? I still have to update the LICENSE for the artwork.

[SGS]

No, it's just a remix of the existing FF and Plasma logos.

[klorax]

@anon23612428

There is already some basic privacy additions, like e.g. disabled telemetry/healthreport/Pocket/Sync.
...
On a sidenote, the current build does not include EME, NFC, or WebRTC.
I don't know how much potential users would need those.

Is there any technical reason for this (personally I use sync)? I wish/recommend (if I may) that you only add the patches and branding. I guess changing some of the defaults doesn't hurt much, but I think keeping it as pure as possible would allow for the broadest adoption while still having the best possible privacy (save Tor for anonymity, but it lacks features and add-ons).

[anon23612428]

Not really, except maybe to reduce compilation time (37 minutes is the best I can get, with ccache) and package size.
Personally I don't use any of these services, and because this is not an official build, I don't want it to use official services.
If you need Sync, I could add it back, but disable it by default.
We'll see

[klorax]

@anon23612428

I don't want it to use official services.

Ok, I can understand that, especially telemetry/healthreport and NFC that is not part of W3C standard. Do you know if EME used for Netflix/HBO and the like? I personally don't use that and don't want to support DRM at all, but I know they are popular and have some people near me that use them.

@anon23612428

If you need Sync, I could add it back, but disable it by default.

That would be great!

Would it be possible to include disabled Pocket/WebRTC too? Pocket will hopefully be completely open soon and since it is included by default there is no Firefox add-on , also WebRTC is used by some FLOSS applications like riot.im. Would this increase compile time significantly?

What about WebGL?

How do I enable disabled components?

[anon23612428]

@klorax

How do I enable disabled components?

Components which are disabled at compilation time cannot be enabled.

Pocket is (or should be?) included as I didn't disable it explicitly (see extensions.pocket.enabled).

WebRTC can leak real IP addresses when using VPNs under some circumstances, that's why I disabled it altogether, although it can also be done by about:config or by using the protection of uBlock.

[klorax]

@anon23612428

Components which are disabled at compilation time cannot be enabled.

Of course, but you wrote:

@anon23612428

If you need Sync, I could add it back, but disable it by default.

So I wondered how to enable it, is it in about:config?

@anon23612428

WebRTC can leak real IP addresses when using VPNs under some circumstances

Yes, I have it semi disabled to avoid the leak but still use it if needed. I don't mind it being fully disabled (but included) by default though ... please?

[anon23612428]

@klorax

So I wondered how to enable it, is it in about:config ?

Hmm well I checked again, and actually I think that I did not disable it altogether as it produced compilation errors.
Go to about:config and check for "sync" and "fxaccounts" (identity.fxaccounts.enabled). It may well be there.

[shaneramone]

This is very good idea. Great project.

[anon23612428]

I will take a break from the forum.
If you encounter issues, report them on GitHub, as I won't read here.
Thanks!

[anon23612428]

67.0.1 will be up later today if everything goes well.
No big changes, only slightly different icons from sgs.

Btw, I won't take a complete break from the forum (see above), but I will be less active.