Waterfox

Waterfox v43.0.4 on Windows 7

Waterfox is a web browser which is based on the Firefox browser. This 64-bit web browser is designed to offer a wider range of support for features which Firefox excludes, while still maintaining good performance. Some people use it for these reasons alone, while others use it because they are trying to avoid Firefox for political and religious reasons. In the spring of 2020, Waterfox was bough out by the marketing company System1.^[1]

Advantages[edit]

Waterfox is a fast,^[2] efficient browser. The layout is also nearly identical to Mozilla Firefox, so users familiar with Firefox should have an easy time adapting to Waterfox. It also uses many of the same resource directories as Firefox, which can be advantageous if a user wishes to switch between Firefox and Waterfox. Both will use the same user profile, so history, favorites, addons, and settings will be shared between the two. However, older addons which Firefox blocks are allowed to run on Waterfox.^[3] It also removes the telemetry features and hence does not send any data to developers.

Disadvantages[edit]

This browser is very similar to Firefox in more than just cosmetic ways. It uses Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine and much of the same base code. If something different from Firefox is desired, Waterfox may not be the solution. Waterfox also uses many of the same resource directories as Firefox, which can be a problem if something has been corrupted in one browser's data. Waterfox also has some occasional errors which Firefox does not, usually when playing video content. Another issue a small number of people may encounter, is that Waterfox is only available for 64-bit operating systems; this means that it will not work on some computers, especially older ones. Lastly, Waterfox is now owned by System1, which is a marketing firm.^[1][4]

History[edit]

Waterfox was started in March 2011 by Alex Kontos. From the beginning, he has used Intel's C++ compiler, which he refers to as "one of the most powerful compilers out there." ^[5] In December 2019, Waterfox was taken over by System1, which had been the browser's search syndication partner for some time before that. The announcement was made almost two months later, as which time it was also stated that Alex would continue to work on developing the browser, but would no longer be he only developer.^[6]

References[edit]

See also[edit]

• Pale Moon

External links[edit]

• https://www.waterfoxproject.org