What is best Firefox version for Win-7?

[Jody Thornton]

On 7/11/2019 at 9:23 AM, hydro2duo said:

... and anything past 57, you might as well ignore and use a Chrome-based browser instead.

I don't know why you'd say that.  Quantum can still be customized MORE than Chrome.  And rendering flow can be customized too.  Quantum is a terrific browser.

 

[quadriped]

I've switched to Waterfox(x64) 56.2.12, and on the site where I work, I'm using a Custom User Agent String to make it look like Firefox, in case they have any problem with it.  It's FF without the telemetry but with the security updates, and I've kept all my XUL extensions. The extensions have been preserved on several sites.

https://www.waterfox.net/releases/

SeaMonkey is also a good substitute.

Edited July 16, 2019 by quadriped
added info

[hydro2duo]

On 7/16/2019 at 2:54 PM, Jody Thornton said:

I don't know why you'd say that.  Quantum can still be customized MORE than Chrome.  And rendering flow can be customized too.  Quantum is a terrific browser.

 

Dunno, I just lost faith in FF for years, it feels like they ran out of inspiration since 4.x to do anything original so as to try to attract new users, failing to do so since Chrome was marketed way more easily, then proceeding to alienate all the people sticking with FF for its extensive functionality.

It doesn't feel like it used to, it feels more like a "trend applier" that lags behind the big "trend setter" (Chrome) than anything truly original nowadays, and it's felt like that for me for some years now.

I did give Quantum a go and it worked fine but didn't feel like old FF, felt more targeted to newer users

[quadriped]

Mozilla's no longer on our side, so you have to advocate for yourself. Download Waterfox or Seamonkey, start it to enable the new profile, then copy the contents of your old profile folder into the new folder.  I've kept all my 30 extensions, and I've even added 2. My Waterfox looks exactly as FF did when I left it a month ago. 

If you want to try one just temporarily, use the portable version. You can always go back to something else.

Chrome is just a huge piece of spyware.

Edited July 19, 2019 by quadriped

[UCyborg]

I mostly use 32-bit build of Basilisk, sometimes Waterfox if I encounter something that's not compatible with Basilisk (classic branch, multiprocess option disabled). Have Vivaldi installed in case I want Chromium engine feel. Multi-process browsers are very resource intensive, so I only fire up Vivaldi when I don't intend to open many tabs and/or other applications (have mere 4 GB of RAM to work with).

[vinifera]

I'm also using Waterfox for few years now
no complaints

[VistaLover]

On 7/19/2019 at 1:20 PM, hydro2duo said:

it feels more like a "trend applier" that lags behind the big "trend setter" (Chrome) than anything truly original nowadays, and it's felt like that for me for some years now.

On 7/19/2019 at 4:20 PM, quadriped said:

Chrome is just a huge piece of spyware.

... Couldn't have said it better myself ; been a Firefox user since v2.0.0.16, up until v52.9.1ESR, when the Mozilla wizards cut support for my old OS (Vista SP2); have to use FxESR 60.8.0 for WidevineCDM enabled services, on my sister's Win7 SP1 laptop; has any of you trialed the new FxESR 68.0? How much worse is it to FxESR 60.8.0 (soon to be EoS'd)? ... and I say worse knowingly, because, currently, with each new Fx release useful features/functions are being axed ; e.g. does Fx 68.0 support userContent.css customisations?

 

 

[TELVM]

I switched from Firefox to Pale Moon many moons ago and never looked back.

[UCyborg]

On 7/19/2019 at 9:10 PM, UCyborg said:

I mostly use 32-bit build of Basilisk, sometimes Waterfox if I encounter something that's not compatible with Basilisk

Recently learned Basilisk has WebAssembly support disabled by default, so that's good to know (javascript.options.wasm in about:config).

On 7/24/2019 at 9:15 PM, VistaLover said:

does Fx 68.0 support userContent.css customisations?

AFAIK, they only disabled loading of that and userChrome.css in 69.0 by default to improve startup performance (toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets in about:config).

[WalksInSilence]

I'm using Waterfox portable more and more on my newer PC and enjoying it even though my favourite DownLoadThemAll doesn't display as well as it is meant to it is at least usable. 

I also found a source for legacy Firefox/Waterfox plugins:-

https://legacycollector.org/

and am pleased to say I now have most of my other favourites, like New Tab Homepage, installed and working again. Why that is not a standard Firefox/Waterfox new tab option I do not understand either.

One thing I'm doing though is keeping copies of them and a previous portable version installer for Waterfox so that if any future version update refuses to work with those plugins I can always revert back to that older version.

[erpdude8]

either Firefox 52.x or 60.x ESR is good enough for me on Win7.

oh btw, Mozilla plans to release new Firefox versions every 4 weeks starting next year in 2020:
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/09/moving-firefox-to-a-faster-4-week-release-cycle/

that's even faster than MS releasing 2 feature updates a year for Win10

[AnX]

I'm on Firefox 68 ESR currently, though as a result of the new regimen, I'll be switching to WaterFox once the newest release comes out.

[Tripredacus]

I'd say that I am rather attached to noscript (as well as not updating) so, after finding out that current versions of Palemoon do not work with noscript, it means eventually I will be finding a new browser at home. I had tried to use palemoon on my rebuilt work computer, and found out the plugin incompatibility, so I am using regular old Firefox.

[quadriped]

The other repository of legacy extensions, along with Legacy Collector, is Classic Add-ons Archive, which you can download from here:    https://github.com/JustOff/ca-archive/ 

The support site for Waterfox is:   https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/    Not the best, because of Reddit's peculiar layout, but I've gotten accustomed to it.

 

 

 

[siria]

Addon-archives: as mentioned elsewhere here, but certainly not seen by all, legacycollector.org is closing too.