It is widely known that getting balance between integrity of values, many times brings headache.
In this case there are two values that Architects and Devs of the MX system take into account:
A) it is easy to use, all around, daily Linux system, that even grandparents can use
B) it is safe and trustful to use in digital world
According to:
(1) https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/firefox.html
(2) https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/mozilla.html
(3) https://magusz.neocities.org/browsers.html
1)
Spyware Level: High
===================
2)
In fact, over the years they have made several anti-privacy (and generally anti-user) decisions, but this article will focus exclusively on spying. Version tested: 52.5.0, with the default settings. Program used for testing requests: Mitmproxy.
Spyware Level: High
AVOID MOZILLA
=============
3)I've wrote enough to prove my thesis. Last update was on September 15, 2019. Lots of things have happened since then but again, it's pointless to follow Mozilla's every move to try to find more dirt on them. I'd rather focus on finishing actually relevant articles (that won't need to be updated every time a corpo does something) - or write new ones. The message of this report is clear and final - avoid Mozilla and their products!
FIREFOX DESCRIPTION
===================
Mozilla Firefox
The namesake of these browsers. Firefox is shilled to complete and utter death by most guides online as the "alternative, private" browser to Google Chrome. That being said, though... it does not hold up, either as an alternative that actually fights for digital rights or a private browser by default. Granted, it can be configured to be private, as seen here but you have to do this with every single update. It's just not worth it - this browser spies just as much as Chrome does. Now, does the functionality andcustomization hold up? No, not really. It does have a few more features than Chromium by default - built-in proxy settings, built-in DNS over HTTPS (which imo a browser shouldn't need to touch and either way it defaults to Cloudflare,which is the literal opposite of private), etc. but generally it's not much more than Chromium. It also is somewhat slower from my tests. I guess its only real advantage is the greater number of themes that it has, which is not a greatdraw when you consider that GTK gives themes that work for both (and believe me, GTK themes are just as numerous as FF themes). Overall, Firefox is just not very good. Even if you make it private, the slower speed and lack of notable draws over Chromium make it a worse choice. This tends to hold true for all Firefox-based browsers.
SUMUP
=====
IF there is so much evidence that Mozilla Firefox (especially with the default configuration) is a spyware, rather than an alternative to Google Chrome?
How important it is to have Firefox as trustful and default system browser. Is it possible to choose other fork of Firefox or fork of Chrome? Would that could infulence image of MX linux as a easy and user friendly system?
One about the highly recommended default choice is Librewolf.
https://librewolf-community.gitlab.io/
https://librewolf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
LIBREWOLF
=========
Just as Iridium Browser is the ESR of Ungoogled Chromium to me, GNU IceCat and Tor Browser are the two ESRs of LibreWolf! Similarly, Ungoogled Chromium and LibreWolf are community-developed, which make both much better - you can actually have a say in the way its developed. Better yet, it seems to actually be more than just Firefox with some configurations, unlike UC which is explicitly aimed to be just Chromium with some configurations - uBlock Origin is installed by default, there's an extension firewall so you can stop phoning home, etc.. Unfortunately, however, its development has been rocky and only recently restarted. This is no longer an issue now that packages are out but in the case that it does end up stopping development once more I can't recommend it anymore due to unreliability. However, the devs seem to genuinely be dedicated to keeping this up consistently so it's definitely a good choice as of now. 4/5/2020 UPDATE: And it's here! The flatpak and AppImage packages both run fine and are as private as they claim, though they do run DNS over HTTPS through Quad9 (which is run by several unsavoury groups most notably a big corpo in IBM and the Global Cyber Alliance, which is a group of police departments. 4/19/20 UPDATE: They got rid of this by default as per my issue on GitLab. 12/2/2020 UPDATE: There are reports on Gitlab and on UnixSheikh's blog that newer updates don't disable all the surveillance, which renders LibreWolf pointless. Do wait to see if this gets resolved, as it's a good browser with sane defaults, but if it doesn't then don't bother with it.
quote from (3)
ALTERNATIVES
============
Go for UC, Iridium, Vivaldi and LibreWolf
To close the topic, what do you think about it?
