Waterfox Anyone?

Have any of you ever tried Waterfox?

Excerpt from web site...

Waterfox is a high performance browser based on the Mozilla Firefox source code. Waterfox is specifically for 64-bit systems, with one thing in mind: speed.​

I'm new to 64bit computers, and now I see Mozilla is offering a 64bit browser to match.

 

I don't think Waterfox is a Mozilla product ... it's just based on the FF code, which is open-source. I tried Waterfox when it was first introduced, but saw little difference in performance between it and 32-bit FF. I'm currently using 64-bit Pale Moon as my primary browser, as it too is based on FF. Perhaps it's time to give Waterfox another try.

 

Yes, I saw your post about Pale Moon and Shockwave player. I wanted to talk a little about PM, but I didn't for fear of hijacking the thread.

Are the 64bit browsers really faster than their 32bit counterparts?

 

Truthfully, I don't think the average user could see the difference. I have FF, PM, and WF installed, and they all seem the same to me. If PM and WF are, indeed, faster, it must only be by milliseconds.

 

Do your 64bit Mozilla browsers share the same profile with Firefox?

 

Each browser has its own profile, but the profiles are identical.

 

Out of curiosity, I installed Waterfox on my Windows 7 machine, but to my dismay my Roboform toolbar was not compatible with the 64bit browser (bummer ). Waterfox also imported all of my extensions and plugins from Firefox as well. The missing Roboform toolbar was a deal breaker for me. (I use it to hold all of my logins and safenotes)

After removing Waterfox, I had to reinstall Roboform.

 

Well, sir, now my tabs won't close because the X is missing. I can right-click on a tab and close it with the context menu though.

I ran Firefox in the safe mode, and the tab Xs reappeared, so it must be a problem related to an addon, but I didn't have this issue until I uninstalled Waterfox. Weird.

 

Thinking that my profile may be corrupted, I removed Firefox along with my profile, but that didn't help either.


Apparently, this missing x problem has something to do with the "Hide Tab Bar with One Tab" extension. The author is aware of this, but I am still having a problem after installing the latest version of it. The x is now on the right hand side of the browser if I have more than one tab open.

EDIT: The author replied and said that version 2 should move the x back to the upper right corner of the tab.

 

Update...

I found a substitute for the "Hide Tab Bar with One Tab" extension called SettingSanity.

Excerpt from author...

About this Add-on
SettingSanity is a solution to the inane removal of some of the most useful features in Firefox. It also adds the option of toolbar buttons for toggling Images and JavaScript without opening the Options window.​

I hate my initial topic has strayed so much, but the tabs issue caught me off guard. I never got much of a chance to test Waterfox due to the Roboform toolbar issue. Roboform issued a statement saying they do not support the 64 bit version of Waterfox or the 64 bit version Palemoon.

Maybe this info will be of help to someone.

 

Thanks James and great work this thread did help. I was thinking trying some of these browsers. I'll just try FF after things slow down. Been pretty busy.

 

FWIW, after giving Pale Moon a thorough vetting, and trying Waterfox once again, I've removed both of them for two reasons: 1) the 64-bit browsers are *supposed* to be faster than 32-bit Firefox, but I could see no detectable speed gain; 2) the Shockwave player won't run in a 64-bit browser.

 

Thanks, LJ. Firefox is a great browser. If you install it, I recommend installing the Fasterfox Lite extension and setting it on optimized or above. It makes a difference.

I guess it may be awhile before 64 bit browsers are the mainstay. It surprised me that Roboform did not even support 64 bit Palemoon and Waterfox browsers, however, they *do* support the 64 bit version of Internet Explorer.

 

Truthfully, even though I didn't get to use Waterfox for long, I couldn't see any measurable increase in speed compared to 32 bit Firefox.

I hope removing Palemoon and Waterfox didn't corrupt your Firefox in any way, Jim.

 

As I mentioned earlier, each browser had its own profile ... they just happened to be identical. Also, I NEVER use the Standard installation. Using the Custom installation allows me to install the browser(s) where I want them ... in my case, on my D: drive (see screenshot). Keeping them completely separate prevented any corruption.

The only part of the installation that MUST be on the C: drive is the profiles.ini file. In my case it's located at C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini.

 

Meaning that all three have the same bookmarks, extensions, and plugins?

So, it appears that you installed all three Mozilla browsers in separate folders on D drive? I use the custom route, too, but I never thought about installing a browser on a different drive, or even changing it's default install location.

During the reinstall, Firefox wanted to install itself in the appdata file you mention above. Don't know why it rejected the C:\Program Files folder. To make a long story short, out of frustration, I eventually restored my computer back to 11-20-13. Things seem to working as they should now other than having to use a different extension to remove the tab bar.

Firefox on XP is not having the missing tab x that I mentioned earlier, even though the browser is using the "Hide Tab Bar with One Tab" extension that is causing problems on Win 7.

 

Correct. I simply copied the FF profile to the profile folders for Pale Moon and Waterfox. Were it not for the fact that the browser's name appears in the titlebar and in the taskbar button, you'd never know for sure which browser you were using.

Correct.

I've done that for as long as I've used FF, ever since it was known as Phoenix.

Since you're having trouble with that extension, you might want to consider trying Tab Mix Plus, which offers many improvements over the way FF handles tabs. There is a setting to hide the tab bar when only one tab is open, and I can assure you that it works when using Win7.

 

How did my Waterfox setup manage to import the same extensions & such without my help?

 

Magic?

 

Mozilla magic.