I’m more worried about the updates not happening in a timely fashion. Is it just a passion project by a handful of devs, or is there some kind of funding?
I used IronFox for a couple years and it suddenly stopped getting updates, and it took me a few months to realize and switch to something else. I don’t want that to happen again.
I like the idea of librewolf, especially that it’s just a patch set on top of Firefox, but someone needs to maintain that patch set. This would be fine for simpler software, but browsers are complex and I just worry that updates will stall out with little warning.
Certainly a valid concern, but it’s true with any software. I think enough people (techies especially) are using LibreWolf that a lack of updates would be visible quickly.
Perhaps. But a browser is something I’d prefer to just forget about and not track updates. So it’s very likely that I won’t check if it has gotten updates for a few months.
I’ve been using IronFox since it came out and I don’t think it has been out for 2 years yet… are you thinking of Mull from which it was forked when DivestOS stop being maintained?
Also, I’ve been using Librewolf since its early days too, and their updates are always only 1 to 2 days behind an updated Firefox. I know cuz ai update daily on my Artix Linux machine and have both browsers. Whenever Firefox is updated its usually the same day or a day later that Librewolf is also updated to the same version number.
I get the concern, but honestly the Librewolf devs have proven themselves at keeping pace with the upstream for quite a few years now. Hopefully the Ironfox devs can do the same.
Yes, mull. My bad. IronFox is the replacement that I’m using now.
And that’s part of my point. Once my browser is installed, I don’t really care about it, so I’m unlikely to notice it not receiving updates unless someone calls it out on SM or something.
as I understand their build system is automatic. updates are not, but they have an update checker companion thing, and flathub too can manage that if you install from there
I’m not a contributor to LibreWolf so I can’t speak with authority on it but I can’t imagine that they are so different from Firefox that they wouldn’t be able to just merge 99% of updates from FF with minimal effort.
From looking at the repo, it looks like it’s simply a set of patches that get applied to the Firefox source code. They don’t maintain a fork, just a set of changes that get applied before building.
I’m more worried about the updates not happening in a timely fashion. Is it just a passion project by a handful of devs, or is there some kind of funding?
Update frequency/latency hasn’t been an issue in the 2 years I’ve been using it.
https://librewolf.net/#what-is-librewolf
Sure, but what about in 2 years from now?
I used IronFox for a couple years and it suddenly stopped getting updates, and it took me a few months to realize and switch to something else. I don’t want that to happen again.
I like the idea of librewolf, especially that it’s just a patch set on top of Firefox, but someone needs to maintain that patch set. This would be fine for simpler software, but browsers are complex and I just worry that updates will stall out with little warning.
Certainly a valid concern, but it’s true with any software. I think enough people (techies especially) are using LibreWolf that a lack of updates would be visible quickly.
Perhaps. But a browser is something I’d prefer to just forget about and not track updates. So it’s very likely that I won’t check if it has gotten updates for a few months.
I’ve been using IronFox since it came out and I don’t think it has been out for 2 years yet… are you thinking of Mull from which it was forked when DivestOS stop being maintained?
Also, I’ve been using Librewolf since its early days too, and their updates are always only 1 to 2 days behind an updated Firefox. I know cuz ai update daily on my Artix Linux machine and have both browsers. Whenever Firefox is updated its usually the same day or a day later that Librewolf is also updated to the same version number.
I get the concern, but honestly the Librewolf devs have proven themselves at keeping pace with the upstream for quite a few years now. Hopefully the Ironfox devs can do the same.
Yes, mull. My bad. IronFox is the replacement that I’m using now.
And that’s part of my point. Once my browser is installed, I don’t really care about it, so I’m unlikely to notice it not receiving updates unless someone calls it out on SM or something.
Two years is enough time for Firefox itself to cease to exist. Cross that bridge when you burn it
Maybe? It’s a lot less likely for FF to disappear than LibreWolf.
Agreed. But it’s still too far of a timeframe to be worried about imo
Yeah, perhaps I’ll try it out. I’ve made most of the changes they did in my config though.
Do you use Firefox sync already?
Yup. Switching won’t be a big deal.
as I understand their build system is automatic. updates are not, but they have an update checker companion thing, and flathub too can manage that if you install from there
I’m not a contributor to LibreWolf so I can’t speak with authority on it but I can’t imagine that they are so different from Firefox that they wouldn’t be able to just merge 99% of updates from FF with minimal effort.
From looking at the repo, it looks like it’s simply a set of patches that get applied to the Firefox source code. They don’t maintain a fork, just a set of changes that get applied before building.