Waterfox web browser sold to System1

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ForgottenSeer 85179

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It appears that the Waterfox web browser has been sold to System1 recently, the same company that bought the Startpage search engine some time ago. To be precise, Startpage was bought by Privacy One Group Ltd which System1 owns. System1 is an advertising company that tries to "make advertising better and safer, while respecting consumer privacy".
Privacy expert Liz McIntyre, who was involved with Startpage prior to the ownership change, noticed in October 2019 that System1 was looking to hire a web browser developer. She decided to keep an eye on potential web browser sales as it was likely that System1 was interested in buying an established web browser with a user base instead of building one from scratch.

The job description provides insight on the potential target: It revealed that development would focus on the Mozilla platform and that a key goal was to keep a classic version of the browser up-to-date.
System1 is hiring a Web Browser Developer to join our team. This is a diverse role that will involve “hacking” on the Mozilla platform, mostly on the backend. You will work with experts who know the Mozilla platform inside-out, while being a key contributor to novel open-source products which already have a passionate and growing user base.
Key goals for this role: Keep a “classic” version of the browser up-to-date with security patches; update components where possible and create better compatibility with legacy add-ons for the newer version of the platform that supports them. Build system work is required for this role sometimes, but that’s one of the fun parts!
There are not that many browsers that match the description which made the most popular ones, Waterfox and Pale Moon, the most likely target for a sale.
She discovered an ownership change in Waterfox Limited on December 13, 2019. Michael Bland was appointed director of Waterfox Limited on that day and Alexandros Kontos' role as director was terminated. System1 lists Michael Blend (note the e in the lastname) as chairman and co-founder.
No announcement has been made yet on the official Waterfox website or by System1. A thread on Reddit provides insights on the deal.
Alex mentioned in the thread that he planned to publish a post on the Waterfox blog about the change in ownership. According to his replies, "nothing is going to change for Waterfox". He is going to help with the development of the web browser according to his replies.
The blog post that he plans to publish later today may reveal additional information and insight.

 

South Park

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When I tried Waterfox again last year, many of the legacy add-ons (notably uBO) and even some of the WE add-ons seemed to install but didn't work. Waterfox also used about 30% more RAM on my laptop than even the memory-hungry Firefox 64-bit. I hope the acquisition means more resources will be put into Waterfox to make it work properly with both the old and new extensions.
 
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ForgottenSeer 85179

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When I tried Waterfox again last year, many of the legacy add-ons (notably uBO) and even some of the WE add-ons seemed to install but didn't work. Waterfox also used about 30% more RAM on my laptop than even the memory-hungry Firefox 64-bit. I hope the acquisition means more resources will be put into Waterfox to make it work properly with both the old and new extensions.
And this browser is also less secure.
 

South Park

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I've found alternatives for most of the legacy add-ons, though I have to use an external download manager to replace legacy DTA. (It's FDM portable, which integrates automatically with Firefox portable.) Waterfox was a good concept before Firefox 64-bit, but I think WF is done at this point. Pale Moon has also seen better days, but I digress :D
 
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Stopspying

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I've used WaterFox as a back up browser for a while now, usually for when I can't accesss a site due most likely to my security settings and extensions in Firefox preventing that site from loading properly. For times when I really didn't want to change any of the settings in Firefox. I'd previously used CyberFox in a similar role, until that stopped being developed. I used to use StartPage as a back up search engine until I heard it had been bought by a company that deals with ads, irrespective of them being good, slightly bad or worse ads, I just don't want to use a search engine that has any links to the advertising industry. I won't use WaterFox any more now that its owned by the same company as StartPage, not sure what I'll replace it with at the moment though.
 

Divine_Barakah

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I've used WaterFox as a back up browser for a while now, usually for when I can't accesss a site due most likely to my security settings and extensions in Firefox preventing that site from loading properly. For times when I really didn't want to change any of the settings in Firefox. I'd previously used CyberFox in a similar role, until that stopped being developed. I used to use StartPage as a back up search engine until I heard it had been bought by a company that deals with ads, irrespective of them being good, slightly bad or worse ads, I just don't want to use a search engine that has any links to the advertising industry. I won't use WaterFox any more now that its owned by the same company as StartPage, not sure what I'll replace it with at the moment though.
Maybe Comoro Icedragon? Have not used it for a while though.
 
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Stopspying

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Maybe Comoro Icedragon? Have not used it for a while though.
I haven't used any Comodo products for a while either, I did use IceDragon for a while though, I may go back and check it out, thanks. There were some concerns about what was happening with data when using some Comodo products - I can't recall what they were exactly at the moment, but that is why I moved away from using their browsers, firewall etc
 
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Graham Perrin

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Feb 19, 2020
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… I won't use WaterFox any more now that its owned by the same company as StartPage, …



There's some confusion (and sadly, at least two people in positions of supposed authority have made efforts to increase confusion). …

I politely encourage readers to consider Alex's comments overview for MrAlex94, which may go some way to reverse the worst of the misinformation.

Thank you
 

Stopspying

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I politely encourage readers to consider Alex's comments overview for MrAlex94, which may go some way to reverse the worst of the misinformation.

Thank you

I'd like to be able to give the founder of Waterfox the benefit of doubt, I liked how it was when I used it regularly. But, for the time being the link between an advertising company(even if it claims to be more user-friendly than rivals), a privacy respecting browser and a privacy respecting search engine currently doesn't look very appealing from here. I watch how things pan out with interest.
 
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