[HN Gopher] Show HN: Fast Transition from Firefox to Librewolf
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Show HN: Fast Transition from Firefox to Librewolf
After looking at various browser alternatives to Firefox (my daily
driver for years), I decided to try LibreWolf and the transition
was trivial on a Debian based system (by HN standards). My
extensions even ran without logging in (YMMV). First install
LibreWolf: sudo apt update && sudo apt install extrepo -y sudo
extrepo enable librewolf sudo apt update && sudo apt install
librewolf -y Second: After closing Firefox, copy Firefox profile
(in ~/.mozilla/firefox/) to Librevox profile (in ~/.librewolf/).
Note: I copied the profile into the default profile (as seen in
about:profiles) not default-default. I then launched the profile
and all my tabs were restored, bookmarks, logins, etc. I will
update if something seems broken.
Author : biomcgary
Score : 38 points
Date : 2025-03-02 18:14 UTC (4 hours ago)
| sshine wrote:
| Sounds great.
|
| Related: Self-Hosting a Firefox Sync Server
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43214294
| 28304283409234 wrote:
| Do note that LW deletes all cookies upon exit. This default
| setting can be changed of course, but it tripped me up.
| _benj wrote:
| It tripped me up too initially, but they added a nice
| workaround to it so one doesn't need to disable the deleting
| cookies completely.
|
| On the pages where you want to stay logged in like in HN, click
| the lock icon left of the URL and toggle "LibreWolf: Always
| store cookies/data for this site" and that's it.
|
| There's certainly something refreshing about knowing exactly
| for which sites I'm storing cookies (so far kagi, HN, gmail,
| YT...)
| rsolva wrote:
| I found deleting all cookies upon exit to be really nice, in
| combination with a whitelist with some often used and trusted
| sites. The address/search bar is much more responsive and
| useful! I also adapted the practice of bookmarking anything and
| everything that I might want to find back later, throwing
| everything in one folder - only adding a few top-of-the head
| tags. It has become my second brain, and has made it super easy
| to fetch back stuff that I only vaguely remember.
|
| Cleaning out all my browser history after every exit really has
| changed my relationship with the address bar.
|
| Another way of looking at this method is as an antidote to
| ending up with hundreds of open tabs - I just bookmark it and
| close it, knowing I'll find it back later when I actually need
| it :)
| nicklaf wrote:
| Interesting. This is actually behavior that I already prefer
| and enable in Firefox. It makes sense when you leave browser
| instances open for long periods of time (with multi-account
| containers for a large number of tabs that you save and restore
| the session of) and use a password manager to sign in when you
| do restart.
| cookiengineer wrote:
| Careful with following these instructions, because the profile
| contains the user settings file. You are effectively nullifying
| librewolfs changes to the standard settings which are there to
| disable firefox's tracking/suggestion/analytics features.
| spudlyo wrote:
| If you're interested in moving over to LibreWolf, I also
| submitted a thread[0] to /r/LibreWolf for recent Firefox refugees
| asking for suggestions and comments on how people dealt with the
| transition. It has nearly 100 comments, and some good info.
|
| [0]:https://old.reddit.com/r/LibreWolf/comments/1j0ckr9/recent_f.
| ..
| lazyeye wrote:
| Note: there is also the Mullvad browser which is based on the Tor
| browser (with the Tor bit removed). It works fine without a VPN.
|
| https://mullvad.net/en/browser
| diabllicseagull wrote:
| I had a bit of a failed transition while hoping for a fast one. I
| gave the app image for Macos a try. the available binaries are
| for Intel only, and 120Hz scrolling isn't working despite
| matching the final Firefox version to the point. I can't tell
| what else is missed out from Firefox. I didn't have much luck
| with the Homebrew version either. It doesn't run at all.
|
| Anyone got better luck on Mac?
| d3Xt3r wrote:
| If you're on macOS, Floorp and Zen Browser are good
| alternatives.
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| apt get install librewolf
|
| on sid currently fails when following the installation
| instructions from their website.
| p_ing wrote:
| Librewolf isn't going to be practical for macOS users. It isn't
| signed appropriately and will not run unless you xattr -c on the
| app package. That's unfortunate. I'm not sure if an update will
| re-establish the macOS quarantine flags or not.
| e2le wrote:
| > sudo apt update && sudo apt install extrepo -y sudo extrepo
| enable librewolf sudo apt update && sudo apt install librewolf -y
|
| The problem, at least for me, is that it requires confidence and
| trust to give away what is root access to my system and my life
| and hope they don't intentionally or unintentionally abuse it
| (malware). I'm sure they are trustworthy people but I would be
| lying if I said it didn't fill me with anxiety.
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(page generated 2025-03-02 23:00 UTC)