[WGH]

The new OS (called Monterey) will also let everyone disable the tracking pixels in e-mails, so opening an e-mail no longer reports on you back to some marketing/spam outfit. Most people don't even knoe that e-mails they receive can silently disclose information.

The free Mozilla Thunderbird email client has had this feature forever, it blocks remote images by default. It's nice to see Apple dipping a toe into the 21st Century.

The Apple Relay looks like a game changer at $1 a month. A VPN let you stream shows from England or Europe months to years ahead of when it is available in the US. An anonymous VPN like TorGuard will cost $10/month.

[newzooreview]

The free Mozilla Thunderbird email client has had this feature forever, it blocks remote images by default. It's nice to see Apple dipping a toe into the 21st Century.

The Apple Relay looks like a game changer at $1 a month. A VPN let you stream shows from England or Europe months to years ahead of when it is available in the US. An anonymous VPN like TorGuard will cost $10/month.

Apple Mail and Outlook, among others, have allowed blocking of all images or disabling HTML mail for a long while. If I understand what Apple is doing correctly, they will block the tracking but allow the formatting and non-tracking images.

The article mentions what Apple Relay blocks. It seems to amount to the same thing as a VPN service, but it appears to ignore traffic that is already going via https. Since the DNS is going through Apple Relay, that traffic is effectively obscured from the ISP. However, Apple Relay does not provide options for the geographic location of the exit node, so streaming from outside of the country likely will not be possible.

From the article:

What Traffic is Included in iCloud Private Relay?

An iCloud+ user running iOS 15, iPadOS15, or macOS Monterey with Private Relay enabled will have the following traffic routed through Private Relay:

    All Safari browsing
    All DNS queries
    Most App Traffic to insecure websites (aka TCP Port 80, or “http:” traffic).

What’s not included in Private Relay?

Private Relay is bypassed for everything not listed above, including:

    Local Traffic
    Private Domains
    VPNs, Proxies, and other Network Extensions
    Secure, “https:” traffic from your apps.

[WGH]

If I understand what Apple is doing correctly, they will block the tracking but allow the formatting and non-tracking images.

That would be cool instead of the all or nothing approach in Thunderbird.

[FullRangeMan]

Have just uninstalled Mozila Maintenance Service only 320K, will see what happens.

[FullRangeMan]

Just see there is yet other another one more FF new version v90,
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/90.0/releasenotes/
again they are trying take control of your PC from you with this feature:
On Windows, updates can now be applied in the background while Firefox is not running.
Firefox version 90 introduces background updates, a feature that checks for, downloads, and installs updates in the background. This way, you will have the latest version of Firefox available every time you open the browser. Once you’ve enabled background updates, Firefox will check for updates every 7 hours when the browser is not in use.

[WGH]

I thought we went over this on June 3rd (reply #23).

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=176569.msg1860277#msg1860277

[FullRangeMan]

Apparently they are reinforcing it as new in the v90,
probably the adhesion of the users was small. this
option of background update has been around for a
long time.

[SlushPuppy]

If you had issues with Firefox 89/90, you're going to hate Firefox 91. I forgot to disable automatic updates on my back-up laptop and it downloaded and installed the latest version (91.0) this afternoon. I didn't realize it had been updated at first, but after a few minutes I noticed the same tab issues and double-spacing of the bookmarks that I had when I upgraded to 89/90. Those were easily corrected with the following configuration settings:

about:config

search for "browser.proton.enabled" and set to false

search for "browser.proton.contextmenus.enabled" and set to false

Well, those configuration settings are disabled in version 91, even though they still show up under about:config. Users can now only change those settings through a complicated css file. What a pain.....

So, I found a copy of 90.0.2 on "Major Geeks" (Google search: "majorgeeks 90.0.2"). The page gives four download options. I deleted 91 and installed the previous version. It installed perfectly and after syncing all was back to normal. I kept the 90.0.2 install file in case I need it again. I don't know how long that site will keep the previous version, so downloading and saving it might be a good idea.

Unless they make changes in the organization 90.0.2 will likely be my last version of Firefox. It was uploaded just three weeks ago, so it will likely work for a few years without compatibility issues. It does everything I need it to do without feeling the need for a change. If you have absolutely nothing to do you should check-out the Reddit threads on version 91. They will make you glad you didn't upgrade 


Cheers,

Slush

[Doublej]

One could consider using the ESR version which changes far less frequently and is the version preferred by some large enterprises.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/choosing-firefox-update-channel

[FullRangeMan]

Mozila site still are offering option to install older Firefox versions:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-older-version-firefox
    Firefox 87.0 32-bit (US English)
    Firefox 87.0 64-bit (US English)
May have other options here:
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

Also there is other sites offerng it:
http://www.oldversion.com/windows/mozilla-firefox/

https://mozilla_firefox.en.downloadastro.com/old_versions/

https://www.journeybytes.com/old-firefox-versions-official-download-links/

According Wiki FF 75 introduced the certificates system that API architeture allow, so it would the interesting to revert to 74 or older to stay away from this mess and enjoy any rights content that may appear.
Firefox 75 was released on April 7, 2020 for desktop only. Additions included: a number of improvements with Firefox's revamped address bar; the local cache of all trusted Web PKI Certificate Authority certificates known to Mozilla; the availability of Firefox in Flatpak on Linux; and the integration of Direct Composition on Windows.

More info here>:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_version_history#Firefox_68_through_77

[Folsom]

THEY FUCKED IT UP AGAIN.

What the fuck is wrong with these people. I fucking hate this ambiguous shit.

[FullRangeMan]

I suspect the Firefox situation will yet get worse soon, it is clear that they want to harm all their users as this product is free.

[SlushPuppy]

I found this registry hack today to disable Firefox updates in Win10 and it worked perfectly (took less than a minute):

1. Open Registry Editor

2. Create the following Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Mozilla\Firefox

3. Inside create a 32-Bit DWORD DisableAppUpdate, with value 1

4. Restart Firefox

This is my new "About" box:




Edit: Just noticed this was already posted on the first page.

[RPM123]

I deleted that POS browser the other day! Every time I turned off my computer or did a reboot after an update (on anything), I would lose all my favorites and my tabs. Good riddance! I have switched to Microsoft Edge and so far, so good.

[Folsom]

They removed the speaker on the tabs... so you don't know what fucking tab is playing sound... 

[FullRangeMan]

Most revolting.
If you have few favorite bookmarks install a earlier version, max around v85/86.

[andy_c]

They removed the speaker on the tabs... so you don't know what fucking tab is playing sound...

There's a "Playing" indicator on the tab that has video or sound playing. See below.

[FullRangeMan]

There's a "Playing" indicator on the tab that has video or sound playing. See below.

Seems a joke from Mozila, its easier see a bacteria than this indicator.
Its looking like they want make all these current browsers as bad as possible and then launch a paid browser like the extinct Netscape that MS ended up with.

[andy_c]

Seems a joke from Mozila, its easier see a bacteria than this indicator.
Its looking like they want make all these current browsers as bad as possible and then launch a paid browser like the extinct Netscape that MS ended up with.

I'm not happy about these changes either. The default theme just blends toolbar buttons and buttons in the URL bar into indistinguishable elements.  I had to search for quite a while to find a theme whose colors aren't obnoxious, but that still leaves the different UI elements distinguishable from one another.  This theme is what I found, in case anybody's interested.

[WGH]

Unless they make changes in the organization 90.0.2 will likely be my last version of Firefox. It was uploaded just three weeks ago, so it will likely work for a few years without compatibility issues.

It's not compatibility issues but security that should concern you. Storing passwords in a separate password safe with complex passwords instead of in the browser is always a good idea.

Susan Bradley, Ask Woody security guru, writies in their newsletter:

"There are four major things that your Windows computer must have.

"The first is an up-to-date browser. It doesn't matter which browser you prefer — just make sure you're always using the most current version. I can't emphasize this enough, especially given the recent furor over Firefox's new Proton UI. Some users have resolved to keep their version of Firefox "pre-Proton," a dangerous move. This can be especially dangerous where e-commerce, banking, finance, health, or other sensitive activity is concerned. Avoiding Proton at the expense of security is risky. But if you are anti-Proton, use a userchrome.css process to change the look back to the classic Firefox rather than staying on an older, unpatched version."

New format to Firefox annoying you?
https://www.askwoody.com/2021/new-format-to-firefox-annoying-you/