Pale Moon

2015-05-03
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Software > Web browsers >

(on Wikipedia)
http://linux.palemoon.org/
http://www.palemoon.org/

A web browser which is essentially a fork of Firefox. Pale Moon keeps the simpler UI before the astonishingly terrible changes Firefox made.

A very good browser. Newer addons targeting the latest Firefox which are addicted to its new interface will not work with Pale Moon, since Pale Moon lacks that interface. Older addons or proper UI-agnostic addons will work fine.

See also:



There was an Android version, but it is abandoned - [ 1 ] was https://web.archive.org/web/20171105211545/http://www.palemoon.org:80/palemoon-android.shtml [ 2 ] see https://forum.palemoon.org/viewforum.php?f=39

For Linux:

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Table of Contents [hide]

2019-10-31 - TODO ∞

Installation ∞

https://software.opensuse.org/download.html?project=home:stevenpusser&package=palemoon

echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/stevenpusser/Debian_10/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:stevenpusser.list
wget -nv https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/stevenpusser/Debian_10/Release.key -O Release.key
apt-key add - < Release.key
apt-get update
apt-get install palemoon

2018-11-16 - 28.2.0 (32-bit)/Linux ∞

For some time I've been pissed off that I can't get popups to work in Private Browsing mode. I have to change the options to allow it for everywhere.

I'm also pissed off that a file selection/upload dialog is considered a popup.

bug 465653 - "Allow pop ups for..." greyed out in Private Browsing mode is the closest thing to related, not that I looked very hard.

2017-03-19 - 27.2.0 (64-bit)/Windows ∞

  • The language-switching issue has finally been fixed, likely because the hunspell spellchecking library was updated to 1.6.0.

2016-11-22 - 27.0.0 (x64)/Windows ∞

Breaks JetPack/SDK extensions

Only a few addons (which I have a page for) were effected:

An earlier note of mine quoted release notes with:

Autoplay of media now has a separate control preference for scripted content as media.autoplay.allowscripted, to block script-initiated autoplay of media.

Even earlier:

Canvas fingerprinting, security:

Canvas anti-fingerprinting option: Pale Moon now includes the option to make canvas fingerprinting much more difficult. By setting the about:config preference canvas.poisondata to true, any data read back from canvas surfaces will be "poisoned" with humanly-imperceptible data changes. By default this is off, because it has a large performance impact on the routines reading this data.

2016-10-17 - 26.5.0 (x64)/Windows ∞

  • Options > General > Downloads

    • If the first option, "save files to" is set to somewhere which no longer exists, the path will be created. This is still true if the set option is instead "Always ask me where to save files". When that second option is set, it should completely ignore the data from the first.

2016-07-07 - 26.3.3 (x86)/Windows ∞

Freezing ∞

I had to disable hardware acceleration due to freezing issues with multiple tabs of webms playing (reproducible via Khan Academy lessons. When playing multiple tabs of them, and closing several of them in rapid succession, the computer freezes and has no video change. The mouse would not move, but I did not test if keyboard activity is respected. Scroll lock didn't work. Pressing the power button performed a regular Windows-shutdown.

Removing graphics drivers entirely made no change, and I reproduced this after a cold boot (several hours of being powered down) to ensure it wasn't a component heat issue.

Advanced > General > [_] Use hardware acceleration when available

.. I have no idea why I have x86. I guess one of its updates decided to stick me with this.

After making the hardware acceleration change I saw the freeze. I don't recall if I restarted the browser after changing that setting.

I installed 26.3.3 (x64)

I saw this problem again without Pale Moon and ended up narrowing it down to a combination of a driver issue and, of all things, a mic issue. It's most likely related to my microphone being able to act as an audio device for zero-latency listening while recording. It has a headphone jack for this.

2016-03-28 - 26.1.1 (x86)/Linux ∞

For Slackware 14.1, I installed Pale Moon using the script at http://linux.palemoon.org/download/mainline/

It was trivial to use. Once installed using that script, Pale Moon will prompt to self-update.

2016-01-28 - 26.0.0 (x64)/Windows ∞

  • Go Parent Folder has been obsoleted.
  • Opening the sidebar no longer changes the presented width of the browser, shifting the content. So I can have any wide web page, control-b and the sidebar overlaps the right side of the page instead of "squeezing" it and jumping where the browser is looking. I really like this change.

  • I cannot disable the awesome bar suggesting bookmarks. I have tried:

    • Tools > Options > Privacy > When using the location bar, suggest: [History]
    • places.frecency.unvisitedBookmarkBonus;0
    • places.frecency.bookmarkVisitBonus;0

  • I had regularly seen a problem where pressing Control+w does not close the tab but instead the window or part of the window seems to flash a little. It's very strange, and I've been unable to predict or reproduce this. I haven't seen this issue in 26.0.0 so far.

2015-05-23 - 25.3.2 (x64)/Windows ∞

  • When pressing enter on the save dialog, it goes away and nothing is downloaded.

    • My downloads are set to always ask. I tested with the WordPress export feature.

2015-05-21 - 25.4.1 (x64)/Linux ∞

  • Working with bookmark preferences in the sidebar will often mess up typing in the location bar. For example, pressing C-l (ell) or typing and then pressing enter won't work.
  • Scrolling through an edit box in WordPress will sometimes not display text unless it is highlighted or additional scrolling is done. This appears to be an issue with spell checking and the squiggly red underlines.

  • Preferences, Tabs > When opening a new tab, show: [A blank page]

    • BUGGED - it defaults to about:logopage. I must manually go to about:config and change browser.newtab.url to about:blank

2015-05-03 - 25.3.2 (x64)/Linux ∞

  • After installing an addon, pale moon constantly blinks its entry in my task bar. It has to be restarted to stop.

    • This is an issue with LXPanel.
    • 2015-05-21 - TO RE TEST
  • An edit box loses focus when tabbing out to the preferences then back to the browser.

  • BAD DEFAULT - The shortcut n for Preferences is non-standard.

    • TODO - I have this fixed with an extension in Firefox.

  • BAD DEFAULT - Placing preferences should be in Tools, even on Linux.

    • TODO - I have this fixed with an extension in Firefox.

  • BAD DEFAULT - Preferences should be called Options.

    • TODO - I have this fixed with an extension in Firefox.

  • BROKEN FUNCTIONALITY - There is no way to not save your profile changes.

    • There should be Cancel / Apply / Ok buttons.
    • RE-TEST - Clicking the preference/options popup's x does not close it and cancel changes.

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