[HN Gopher] Iceraven - Firefox for Android fork with more add-on...
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Iceraven - Firefox for Android fork with more add-ons and
configuration options
Author : mmwelt
Score : 144 points
Date : 2022-01-04 16:07 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| nick__m wrote:
| About a year ago, I used to use Iceraven but I switched back to
| FF nightly when support for custom addons list was added back.
|
| Even though I like the project, I consider that it's what FF for
| Android should have been, I returned to FF because nowadays a
| browser needs frequent security updates and Iceraven is not
| staffed to have frequent releases.
| LanternLight83 wrote:
| It's a shame that this is the case for 99% of alternative
| browsers and forks. Sometimes I think the only solution would
| be to embrace something like Gopher, where hostile sites aren't
| feasible and browsers are free to diversify without constant
| maintenance.
| SubzeroCarnage wrote:
| I maintain the Mull fork and also help maintain Fennec F-Droid.
| (Currently compiling 96.1.0 as I type this).
|
| Both are fully compiled from source and available on F-Droid.
|
| I personally cannot recommend Iceraven as it is consistently
| behind updates, something you don't want for a browser.
|
| https://divestos.org/misc/ffa-dates.txt
| [deleted]
| igorstellar wrote:
| Perhaps offtop, Is there at least 1 browser for Android that
| supports per-page zoom? Safari does it on iOS with a super simple
| setting, but the only way to increase font size in ANY of Android
| browsers is to increase scale in Accessibility which will break
| some websites with larger fonts. I feel like this is super basic
| feature that I can't find.
| jsmith99 wrote:
| If you just want extension support without a whitelist, Firefox
| Nightly for Android lets you supply a custom list of extensions
| (called an AMO) which you can add any extension to.
|
| https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...
| brnt wrote:
| So now I need to create accounts and lists, where I really just
| wanted one particular add-on. Its a workaround at best.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| You can also use Iceraven's custom extension collection on
| firefox nightly.
|
| userid: 16201230
|
| name: What-I-want-on-Fenix
| gkoberger wrote:
| Small nitpick, but AMO is just our internal acronym for
| addons.mozilla.org, which is where all the extensions come
| from!
| m4rtink wrote:
| Thats a lot of fragile manual steps, not to mention needing a
| user account and being dependent on Mozilla infra. Hardly
| straightforward + not to mention addons on Android Firefox
| overall still barely working in the new Android version, with
| no visible progress to fix that.
| asimops wrote:
| The question is, why I would want to install a nightly just for
| add-ons? To my knowledge you f.e. need an add-on to block a
| specific cookie, because FF Android doesn't have this option...
| The question is when/if the product manager at Mozilla will
| realize the state of the browser at some point :/ I can just
| say that as far as I am concerned, the only thing that is
| keeping me with FF Android is the vendor lock-in with FF Sync.
| mod50ack wrote:
| Yeah, this is dumb as hell. Thankfully, Fennec F-Droid
| enables it for stable builds.
| jaynetics wrote:
| Yeah, just do these 5 steps in FF, then register at that
| website, and do a bunch of steps there for every single
| extension you want to install.
|
| Or rather, if you just want extension support, don't use FF. (I
| for one am very happy with Kiwi. OP fork also sounds nice.)
| jsmith99 wrote:
| It's a bit inconvenient but you only need to do it once. I
| like Kiwi as well and it seems to get frequent updates now,
| at least as github releases (play store version is updated
| less often).
| brnt wrote:
| No, I'll forever need to register my Firefoxes on mobile,
| and fight any 'inadvertent' changes that store personal
| data in the future.
|
| I prefer my software stateless, having me register accounts
| adds work and seems to me to be at best a silly workaround.
| colordrops wrote:
| I've gone the opposite direction and installed Firefox Focus.
|
| I found myself accumulating 100s of tabs that I would supposedly
| get back to, and it was causing anxiety. Firefox focus is
| ephemeral and your tabs will disappear. It doesn't permanently
| store cookies. It has a built in ad blocker. It's perfect to keep
| me "focused" on the task at hand.
| user_7832 wrote:
| The repeated "accept cookies" pop ups are what make me switch
| back every time I use FF though. Is there any fix for it?
| brnt wrote:
| Skip those user hostile sites.
| brink wrote:
| It's only 95% of the internet.
| dendrite9 wrote:
| I use incognito for most browsing, every so often I lose my
| tabs. And it is ok. If I care, and remember the site, I'll open
| it normally and make a bookmark. If not it isn't the end of the
| world.
|
| I keep about 20 tabs open in normal browsing for easy
| reference. Incognito for most browsing. And Firefox Focus for
| even more ephemeral stuff, copied links I don't want to touch
| my other browsing, and screenshots. It sounds a little crazy to
| write it out, but it works for me.
| donio wrote:
| Firefox on Android has an option to auto-close tabs after a
| while, I have that set to "close after a day" to keep things
| tidy.
| lelandfe wrote:
| For Safari iOS: Settings > Safari > Close Tabs > After One
| Day/Week/Month
| xanaxagoras wrote:
| Does "more add-ons" mean it's still a whitelist? I'm trying to
| find a mobile browser I can use floccus with. So far I've only
| been able to find Kiwi which is not privacy oriented.
| danielEM wrote:
| nice, but what I really need now for my mobile with display port
| is a 1 to 1 desktop Firefox browser
| therealmarv wrote:
| Containers in Iceraven, somebody got them working? How can I open
| a new container tab? I cannot figure out on how to use them on
| this mobile browser. Maybe this extension + a mobile Firefox is
| not compatible to each other.
| causality0 wrote:
| If I can have a genuine user agent switcher I'll throw you a damn
| parade.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| There are two addons in the fork's whitelist that allow you to
| change the UA.
| bordercontrol wrote:
| That's possible. Install Firefox Nightly, create a custom addon
| collection on the Firefox addon site, add an user agent
| switcher to the collection, add the collection to Firefox
| Nightly. You now owe me a parade.
| NikolaeVarius wrote:
| Why the hell would you use this product. It has caveats a mile
| long
| jeroenhd wrote:
| To use a stable version of Firefox with about:config and more
| than the ten addons that Mozilla have supported in the last two
| years.
|
| I'm not sure if this is the fork you want, but to get some of
| the features that Firefox used to have for years you can't use
| the normal stable build anymore.
| tyingq wrote:
| An android browser that supports extensions is hard to find. I
| assume the ones you can find all have caveats.
| webmobdev wrote:
| It mentions that it is an alpha version - that's why the long
| list of caveat. And as Firefox becomes a spyware / adware,
| forks like these are welcome news.
| kadoban wrote:
| What leads you to call (or predict?) Firefox spyware/adware?
| webmobdev wrote:
| Firefox's address bar has ads now -
| https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715179/firefox-
| suggest-...
| morsch wrote:
| So does the new tab page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-
| US/kb/sponsor-privacy
|
| And of course they've always sold access to the list of
| default search engines.
| kadoban wrote:
| Thanks. As long as they can be turned off easily, I
| personally don't mind that much, but yeah, hard to argue
| against your wording given that.
| toastal wrote:
| Fennec exists and its already on the F-Droid. Goals are different
| but probably close enough.
|
| The biggest thing I miss is full add-on support. Not having
| CleanURLs and an AMP redirector suck despite add-ons existing for
| desktop that don't really need a mobile UI.
| asimops wrote:
| For half of what CleanURLs does, you can use uBlock Origin. It
| has a filterlist that removes tracking parameters, etc. It will
| not however clean links on copy.
| gruez wrote:
| >It has a filterlist that removes tracking parameters, etc.
|
| Which filter list is this? I didn't realize ublock has link
| rewriting functionality.
| asimops wrote:
| It's AdGuard URL Tracking Protection under privacy. This
| uses https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-
| issues/issues/1356
| mod50ack wrote:
| I use Fennec and both those extensions.
|
| https://blog.dbmiller.org/2021-08-19-using-fennec-or-mull-fo...
|
| Fennec is also great because it doesn't include Mozilla's
| sponsored stuff as well.
| worble wrote:
| If you're on Fennec you can already use a custom addon
| collection where you can add anything you want.
| brnt wrote:
| I use Fennec but have no idea what a 'custom addon
| collection' is. I'd like to install one particular addon
| thats currently not available.
| input_sh wrote:
| The way supported add-ons work right now is that there's a
| list (AKA a collection) of supported add-ons maintained by
| Mozilla that you see on a phone by default.
|
| You can create a custom collection on a desktop and then
| override that Mozilla's collection within mobile Firefox's
| settings:
| https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-
| extensio...
|
| You can install any add-on available on the desktop like
| that, but your mileage may vary of course.
| dblohm7 wrote:
| > he way supported add-ons work right now is that there's
| a list (AKA a collection) of supported add-ons maintained
| by Mozilla that you see on a phone by default.
|
| They're not maintained by Mozilla, but they're
| "recommended" and are reviewed more thoroughly.
|
| (I used to work on Firefox for Android)
| blibble wrote:
| is there a way to do this with the official build of the
| stable version?
|
| I would assume running nightly is less than ideal for
| regular browsing
| dblohm7 wrote:
| Unfortunately custom collections are limited to Nightly.
| brnt wrote:
| Thanks. I don't wish to use a Firefox account however. It
| seems a bit arbitrary to not allow direct installs, but
| allow them through this workaround.
| input_sh wrote:
| They allow direct installs of add-ons that they _know_
| were tested properly and work fine on a phone, not those
| where they can 't guarantee that level of stability
| (while still giving you that as an option if you feel
| like experimenting).
|
| I don't see how that's arbitrary, I see it as a well
| thought out process, even if I wish more add-ons were
| added to that collection.
| dblohm7 wrote:
| (Former Firefox for Android engineer here)
|
| I agree that there should be more allowed add-ons.
| Engineering didn't put in all the effort to implement the
| add-ons APIs on Mobile only for it to be restricted to
| such a small set. Unfortunately that's a product
| decision.
| donio wrote:
| Yep, I use this to get vimium-FF on Fennec. It's a little
| fiddly to setup but it's just another item on the long list
| of tweaks to make Android tolerable.
| ARandomerDude wrote:
| What are HN's thoughts about the security of F-Droid? I always
| see neat app ideas like the one in the parent comment, but I've
| been afraid of what I don't know security wise.
| dvdkon wrote:
| Everything being built centrally and transparently by an
| established group puts it leagues ahead of any other app
| store in my mind. Installing other people's software will
| always be a potential security problem, but that is
| unavoidable now.
| zauguin wrote:
| Do the new configuration options allow accessing the list of
| trusted CAs? Or if doubting the CA trust decisions from our
| Mozilla overlords is considered too much blasphemy, can we at
| least see details of the certificate for the current site?
| asimops wrote:
| If you are rooted, you can also force your own add-ons into
| stable firefox like so: USER=16201230
| COLLECTION=What-I-want-on-Fenix cd
| /data/data/org.mozilla.mozilla.firefox/files curl -o
| mozilla_components_addon_collection_*.json "https://addons.mozill
| a.org/api/v4/accounts/account/$USER/collections/$COLLECTION/addon
| s/?page_size=50&sort=-added" touch -a -m -t 203012300130.00
| mozilla_components_addon_collection_*.json
|
| edit: remove fennec fdroid because TIL that it already has the
| same add-on override that the FF nightly has. So there is no need
| for this hack if you have fennec.
| [deleted]
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(page generated 2022-01-04 23:00 UTC)