Waterfox

Waterfox
	Screenshot of Waterfox G6.0.5 running on Windows 10, showing the English Wikipedia.
Original author(s)	Alexandros Kontos
Developer(s)	Alexandros Kontos, BrowserWorks Ltd
Initial release	27 March 2011; 13 years ago
Stable release	6.5.2 / 26 November 2024; 36 days ago
Preview release	G6.0 Beta 5 / September 14, 2023; 15 months ago
Repository	github.com/BrowserWorks/Waterfox ;
Written in	C, C++, CSS, JavaScript, XUL
Engine	Gecko, SpiderMonkey
Operating system	Android 5 and later; Linux; macOS 11 and later; Windows 7 and later;
Platform	x64, ARM64, PPC64LE
Type	Web browser, mobile web browser, feed reader
License	MPL-2.0
Website	www.waterfox.net

Waterfox is a free and open-source web browser and fork of Firefox. It claims to be ethical and user-centric, emphasizing performance and privacy.^[2] There are official Waterfox releases for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android.^[3]^[4] It was initially created to provide official 64-bit support, back when Firefox was only available for 32-bit systems.^[5]

Divisions

Waterfox

Waterfox shares core features and technologies like the Gecko browser engine^[6] and support for Firefox Add-ons^[7] with Firefox. It is also compatible with Google Chrome and Opera extensions.^[2] It disables telemetry and Pocket by default, which are present in Firefox builds. However, it collects technical information about the user's device to update properly.^[5]

Waterfox Classic

Waterfox Classic is a version of the browser based on an older version of the Gecko engine that supports legacy XUL and XPCOM add-on capabilities that Firefox removed in version 57.^[8]^[9] It is still partially maintained with fixes and patches from Waterfox and Firefox ESR releases. However, its development has been separated due to several changes from Waterfox that are otherwise unapplicable.^[10]

Vulnerabilities

Waterfox Classic has multiple unpatched security advisories. The developer states that "changes between versions so numerous between ESRs making merging difficult if not impossible".^[11]^[10]

Privacy

Exodus Privacy Analysis demonstrates that Waterfox uses the following trackers:

Google Firebase Analytics
Mozilla Telemetry
Sentry Crash Reports^[12]

According to Exodus,^[13] these are the same as the trackers used by Firefox, with the notable exclusion of the Adjust marketing platform that only Firefox uses.

History

Waterfox was first released by Alex Kontos^[14]^[5] on 27 March 2011 for 64-bit Windows. The macOS build was introduced on 14 May 2015 with the release of version 38.0,^[15] the Linux build was introduced on 20 December 2016 with the release of version 50.0,^[16] and an Android build was first introduced on 10 October 2017 in version 55.2.2.^[17]

From 22 July 2015 to 12 November 2015, Waterfox had its own search-engine called "Storm" that would raise funds for charity and Waterfox. Storm was developed with over £2 million of investor funding and powered by Yahoo! Search.^[18]^[19]^[20]

In December 2019, System1, an advertising company which portrays itself as privacy-focused,^[21] acquired Waterfox.^[22]^[23] In July 2023, Alex Kontos announced that Waterfox had been turned into an independent project again.^[24]