"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> NOTE: Looks like I still had the old Firefox Android (pre-Fenix).
>> I uninstalled Firefox on my Android phone. Then installed it anew. The
>> GUI is very different. Looks like I never got automatically updated to
>> Fenix, and was kept on the old Firefox for Android. So, not sure which
>> Firefox the OP has.
>
> 112.1.0 (Build #2015944787), 5085a19802+
> GV: 112.0.1-20230414125621
> AS: 97.2.0
>
> 2023-04-14T18:23:29.076587

Yep, that's what I have now after uninstalling Firefox, and reinstalling
Firefox.

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>>>> Fenix was supposed to replace Firefox for Android.
>>
>> Where do you find it? It's not at the Google Play Store for Android
>> apps.
>
> It is, they don't name it 'Fenix', it's just 'Firefox'
>
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox>

Argh! They're getting as bad as Microsoft in naming their products.

It is the only Android web browser that I've tried that has an actual
exit function (Quit in its menu), so you can unload it instead of
leaving it running in the background until the OS decides it needs the
memory space.

Sure wish they'd get off their butts and bring back about:config. The
bugzilla ticket on GeckoView used in Fenix was opened 5 years ago.
Their resolution 4 years ago was "won't fix". They have no intention on
making a secure-able web browser on Android. They're also still a
RAM-hungry web browser compared to Chrome.

The only saving advantage of Fenix aka Firefox-post-2019 is that you can
install extensions, like uBlock Origin; else, I'd dump their Android
product. On its own, even with Enhanced Threat Protection,
Fenix/Firefox is not effective at adblocking, and its integral bad-site
blacklist is very small (using Disconnect.me). So, a better adblocker
is needed, and supporting extensions lets you pick one.

Don't know how long before they migrate Manifest V3 to their
Fenix/Firefox product to make adblockers near worthless there. Mozilla
said it would support both v2 and v3 of Manifest ... for a while. That
means v2 support will eventually go away.

uBO can use the DNS API in Firefox (well, it does on the desktop
Firefox, not sure about Android Firefox) to eliminate the covert
tracking mechanism of using CNAME cloaking to pretend a 3rd-party domain
is 1st-party to eliminate restrictions on cookie access (to eliminate
tracking on cookie origin restriction).

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Dashboard:-Settings#uncloak-canonical-names
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/24/dns_cname_tracking/
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/02/24/browsers-anti-tracking/
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/cname-trackers

Rather than try to keep up a blacklist of known CNAME tracker sites (the
3rd party the 1st party site is pretending is 1st party), uBO resolves
the CNAME record to see if it is the domain you visited, or a pretender.
The Adguard blacklist helps, but tis easy to use CNAME to point at a
domain that isn't on the blacklist. The CNAME lookup works for uBO in
Firefox because Firefox has the DNS API. The blacklist will help in
other web browser, like Chrome, where the extension has no means to
lookup CNAME records using the web browser. However, on Android, you
cannot install extensions, like adblockers, into Chrome (but can in some
Chrome variants, like Kiwi and Yandex). So, you're back to using
Firefox with uBO with its "Uncloak canonical names" option.

No DNS API in Chrome to get around that tracking scheme. Adblockers
(other than uBO) won't help with that DNS-level of tracking. Without
the ability to add extensions to Fenix/Firefox on Android, there would
be little impetus to switch from Chrome.

So, at this point, Firefox still stays on my Android phone, but I sure
wish they'd make it more robust, like re-adding about:config, while
reducing its memory footprint.

NOTE: Looks like I still had the old Firefox Android (pre-Fenix).
I uninstalled Firefox on my Android phone. Then installed it anew. The
GUI is very different. Looks like I never got automatically updated to
Fenix, and was kept on the old Firefox for Android. So, not sure which
Firefox the OP has.