-
23 votes
-
Incognito mode detection still works in Chrome despite promise to fix
11 votes -
Godot Editor running in a web browser
9 votes -
Min: a minimalist web browser
20 votes -
NewsGuard and Microsoft team up to make NewsGuard free for Microsoft Edge users, Bing integration
5 votes -
Beaker Browser 1.0 Beta
25 votes -
Pushbullet: Let's guess what Google requires in fourteen days or they kill our extension
19 votes -
Chrome to start throttling resource-heavy ads in August
10 votes -
The Beaker "new web" project
10 votes -
Explanation of how a one-line change in the Windows 10 kernel enabled a sandbox escape in Chrome/Edge/Firefox
6 votes -
Microsoft Edge is now second most popular desktop browser, beats Firefox; Chrome at 68% market share
18 votes -
New WebKit features in Safari 13.1
8 votes -
Enhancements to tracking protection in Safari: full third-party cookie blocking, 7-day cap on script-writeable storage, and more
10 votes -
The reckless, infinite scope of web browsers
17 votes -
Brave has filed a formal GDPR complaint against Google for infringing the GDPR “purpose limitation” principle with an internal data free-for-all
12 votes -
The case for limiting your browser extensions
9 votes -
The Waterfox browser has been acquired by System1, the company that purchased a majority stake of Startpage in September 2019
12 votes -
Security researchers partner with Chrome to take down over 500 browser extensions in a fraud network affecting 1.7 million users
12 votes -
Microsoft to forcibly install Bing search extension in Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus users
29 votes -
Add-on support was just merged into Firefox Preview
@aissn: Add-on support was just merged into Firefox Preview. Thanks @gabrielluong https://t.co/cXOCB00tKk
23 votes -
Google sends a unique Chrome browser identifier through Chrome when you visit their websites
14 votes -
Diary of an Engine Diversity Absolutist
7 votes -
The new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser is out of preview and available for download
19 votes -
Close your open tabs - Sometimes, information overload has its limits
14 votes -
Firefox 72.0 release notes
13 votes -
Google Chrome: Behind the Open Source Browser Project (2008)
6 votes -
Opera introduces web browser designed for gamers
21 votes -
What simple features would you want in a new browser?
So, I'm planning on building yet another browser (based on Firefox, since we already have too much Chromium forks around) I'm intending to target the people worried about their privacy, but aren't...
So, I'm planning on building yet another browser (based on Firefox, since we already have too much Chromium forks around)
I'm intending to target the people worried about their privacy, but aren't technical enough to dabble with about:config tweaks and deal with any site breakages.
So, for this project, I'm planning on doing the following modifications to Firefox:
- Tweaked by default to get a balance between increased privacy, and less site breakage
- Tweaks include cutting any "background" communication with Mozilla (while I trust them, some people might not) and Google (safe browsing, geolocation)
- Maybe, possibly, an "advanced privacy settings" menu for more privacy settings in exchange for site breakage?
- Integrated ad blocker (Decided on uBlock Origin, maybe adding Nano Defender to bypass any nag screens)
- Maybe a way to "pretend" to be a Chromium browser, since some sites require that nowadays (More user agent complexity, yay!)
So, this is where this thread comes in. What would you guys want in a (Gecko-based) browser, that I can provide?
I am definitely not planning any substantial under-the-hood changes, since that would
a) make maintaining it a pain
b) be way out of my skill level.I am only looking for stuff that can be applied with some simple source code patches, or an integrated extension, as I will not "fork" the entire FF source. This project is essentially a rebranded patchset. (Also allows for faster updates!)
ps: Please be realistic, and remember that this is a one man thing. I can not make any substantial changes, like bringing XUL add-ons back, if you know what those are.
pps: If you can, and are willing to help with anything, let me know and I'll put up a repo online :)
ppps: Please let me know if I've made a mistake while creating this topic.
15 votes - Tweaked by default to get a balance between increased privacy, and less site breakage
-
Microbrowsers are everywhere
10 votes -
Firefox 71.0 has been released
21 votes -
How Google is building a browser monopoly
17 votes -
Firefox UI is now built with Web Components
21 votes -
Firefox’s fight for the future of the web: With Google’s Chrome dominating the market, not-for-profit rival Mozilla is staking a comeback on its dedication to privacy
49 votes -
Let's Talk: What browser are you using?
Most of my internet browsing is done on mobile and I've used predominantly Firefox and Firefox Focus in the past. I just switched over to Brave now that they've finally implemented their own...
Most of my internet browsing is done on mobile and I've used predominantly Firefox and Firefox Focus in the past. I just switched over to Brave now that they've finally implemented their own crypto currency.
What browser are you using?
Is there a reason for this browser specifically? If so why?
What do you use your browser for?29 votes -
Brave browser 1.0 has been released, and eight million BAT will be distributed to mobile users
11 votes -
Give Firefox a chance for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet
27 votes -
Firefox to hide notification popups by default starting next year
22 votes -
Think you’re anonymous online? A third of popular websites are ‘fingerprinting’ you.
18 votes -
Tor Browser 9.0 is released
13 votes -
Firefox to get page translation feature, like Chrome
11 votes -
Firefox 70 has been released
39 votes -
How safe is Apple’s Safe Browsing?
9 votes -
Privacytools delisted Brave from their website
32 votes -
Safari 13 Release Notes
4 votes -
Moving Firefox to a faster four-week release cycle
10 votes -
Unearthed Arcana: `edbrowse`
I recently happened to mention edbrowse in a throwaway comment, and @ainar-g expressed some interest in it. I took my sweet time, but I finally managed to assemble a short(ish) write-up on it, and...
I recently happened to mention
edbrowse
in a throwaway comment, and @ainar-g expressed some interest in it. I took my sweet time, but I finally managed to assemble a short(ish) write-up on it, and my sleep-addled mind is thinking that this topic - niche, weird tools - could just become recurrent.
Terminal brosers, such as
lynx
,w3m
andelinks
, while still used and under more-or-less active development, are very niche tools.edbrowse
fills a niche within that niche, as it's meant for use by non-sighted people, and thus provides an interface even more bare-bones and arcane than the usual TUI/curses apps that share its space.As per the name,
edbrowse
's interface is heavily inspired byed
's, the standard text editor:edbrowse
, in fact, is not just a web browser, but it combines together a browser, a text editor, a mail client, and - for some reason - a database client. All of these functions are mostly controlled via one-letter commands and, as is tradition, only displaying a single?
on error*.edbrowse
is also unique amongst the terminal browsers because of its support for JavaScript and the DOM. The text it spits out is meant for Braille displays and screen readers, so it lacks niceties like color or aligned tables, but if you were to browse toreddit.com
with it, you would see a perhaps ASCII-art Snoo fill the screen†."Browsing reddit? How‽," you might ask. "How am I supposed to get this thing to stop questioning me? All those
?
are filling me with existential dread, I have no idea what to do!"While it's all there in the manual (but not in the manpages, for some reason), reading through 30k words of text can be a bit of a slog. They do provide a cheatsheet, though, even if it's a bit messy.
So, how do you use
edbrowse
? If you already know howed
works, most commands (especially "movement", search and listing commands) will work as expected - it is also an editor, after all - butedbrowse
adds another handful of them.The most important of them is, perhaps,
b
rowse. It will makeedbrowse
put in an HTTP request, grab the response (if any), and then render it. It will print out the length, in bytes, of the response and of the rendered text, and stop there.$ edbrowse edbrowse ready b https://tildes.net 119201 20083
To actually peruse the page you can use any of the
ed
listing commands (p
rint,l
ist, andn
umber), or thez
command.z
works much likep
, but it prints a number of lines (normally 24) while "remembering" your position within the page.0z10 {Tildes} {Log in} <>Sidebar * {Activity} * {Votes} * {Comments} * {New} * {All activity}
Links are indicated by curly brackets, while form elements (both input elements and buttons) are wrapped in angle brackets. You can follow a link by jumping to the line containing it and issuing a
g
o command (usingg2
to follow the second link on that line,g3
for the third,g$
for the last), but, in normal use, you should probably just search for the link text./{Log in}/g 5886 923 0z10 {Tildes} <>Sidebar Log in Username <> Password <> <-> Keep me logged in <Go>Log in
The same thing goes for form elements, but the command to use, here, is
i
(fori
nteract).i
has actually four different subcommands:i[N]=
, to set the value of a text field,ipass[N]
to prompt for the value of a password field,i[N]*
to press a button‡, andi[N]?
to askedbrowse
what that damned element is supposed to be./Username/ i=mftrhu /Password/ ipass hunter12 /<Go>/i* submitting form 124579 20049
You can jump back to the previous page with
^
, and refresh the current page withrf
.Of course,
edbrowse
can do much more - can be configured to do much more, via.ebrc
, as it possessed (very) rudimentary programming facilities. It can edit its own configuration file, and reload it withconfig
, so - rejoice. You won't ever need to leave it.And, after seeing just how aesthetically pleasing its configuration language can be, I'm confident that you won't ever want to leave it.
# Switch to a new editing session e2 no file e ~/.ebrc # Show the last lines of the configuration file $100,113n 100 function+google { 101 b http://www.google.com 102 /<>/ i=~0 103 /</ i1* 104 /^About/+2 105 } 106 function+ddg { 107 b https://duckduckgo.com 108 /<>/ i=~0 109 i2* 110 /<Go secure>/+1 111 /<Go secure>/+2 112 z24 113 }
As I said earlier, while
edbrowse
does possess some programming facilities, they are very rudimentary. Functions are nothing more than sequences ofedbrowse
commands with some flow control constructs: they can do everything an user could do, which means that they are often convoluted and overly terse.The
ddg
function, for example (which is invoked via<ddg [PARAMS]
), firstb
rowses to duckduckgo.com. The DuckDuckGo home page, as rendered byedbrowse
, only contains a link followed by the search form:{About DuckDuckGo Duck it!} <> <S secure> <X>
So the function looks for the (first) empty text field (
/<>/
), fills it in with the parameters passed to it (i~=0
), activates the second form element on that line (i2*
) and, once the results page has loaded, skips the initial boilerplate (/<Go secure>/+1,+2
) and prints the first 24 lines of results (z24
).Sure. It could be replaced by a single line, replacing all the form interaction with a simple
b https://duckduckgo.com/?q=~0
, but where would be the !!FUN!! in that?
* This is not completely true, as
edbrowse
will show more long-form error messages, but it's pretty inconsistent with them.
† Iff you have JS enabled in your current session. It can be toggled on and off with thejs
command.
‡ I had no luck with the Tildes buttons (e.g., sidebar toggle, upvote button), though, at least not with the version ofedbrowse
that Debian bundles up.10 votes -
Firefox 69.0 released
22 votes -
Usage share of desktop internet browsers 1996–2019
20 votes -
Mozilla’s Manifest v3 FAQ
5 votes -
New & Experimental CSS Tools in Firefox
8 votes