Mozilla and MZLA have delivered the latest releases in their new fortnightly cycle, but users who dislike the faster pace have alternatives.
Firefox 156 is trickling out to users. The release notes only mention two new features: for Mac users, there's now an option in Settings to automatically launch the app at login. This vulture has received criticism for saying this in some of the product's forums before, but since pretty much every OS has a built-in facility for this, we don't really see the point – though it's harmless and could be handy.
Users who have chosen French, German or Italian will now find suggestions from Wikipedia in their own languages – along with potentially less welcome ads from Mozilla partners. If you don't want such suggestions, you can turn them off in Firefox Suggest settings.
As with the previous release of both apps, the changes in Thunderbird sound slightly more useful – but again, they are small. Thunderbird 156 offers more troubleshooting info in the event of problems with OpenPGP, and more options for OAuth authorization for POP3 and IMAP accounts. There are also additional enterprise policies for controlling filters and user customizations.
As we said last time, though, users who want to get off the rapid-upgrade train have several options. The most obvious comes directly from Mozilla: the Firefox ESR and Thunderbird ESR versions only get security fixes, with full new versions only coming annually. Currently, both are on version 153, which appeared in late July.
A fistful of forks
There aren't many Thunderbird-based messaging clients, possibly because so many people now use webmail.
The main Thunderbird fork is Betterbird. Its current version is based on the current Thunderbird ESR, version 153. There are Windows, Linux, and Mac versions, including a portable edition for Windows. Portable Betterbird runs directly from a USB drive without installation or administrator rights, allowing users to carry their message database between computers.
There are quite a few alternative browsers based on Firefox, though.
FOSS desk has been using Waterfox on our Linux machines ever since Firefox Quantum appeared back in 2017. That release, Firefox 57, broke 90 percent of our meticulously assembled collection of more than 30 extensions. Waterfox Classic preserved support for the legacy extensions that Firefox Quantum abandoned and continued receiving maintenance for several years. It remained compatible with those older XUL-based extensions for years after Firefox abandoned them, giving the extension builders time to catch up. Waterfox Classic has been unmaintained since 2022 and is no longer recommended. The current Waterfox release, version 6.7, is based on Firefox 153 ESR.
If you want a Firefox-like browser with no AI, a built-in ad-blocker and tree-style tabs, and a slower-moving, more stable release schedule, then Waterfox is worth a look. A detail that we like about Waterfox is that it still works fine with a global menu bar, whether that's in Ubuntu Unity or in a customized Xfce profile.
LibreWolf is a customized privacy-centric build of Firefox with less telemetry. It remains close to the parent project, and new versions are keeping pace with Mozilla's faster release cadence. So if you don't mind the faster releases, but do want even more privacy, LibreWolf could be a good option.
If you want a fancier, more customizable UI, then the Japanese Floorp browser is another option. It has its own release cycle and, at the time of writing, is up to version 12.17.2, which incorporates the changes in Firefox 155. Floorp features multiple sidebars and other UI customizations over and above what's possible with Firefox or any of the other forks.
If you want a less-cluttered UI rather than more toolbars and more gadgets, then the Zen Browser may be more your thing. It is more minimal than Floorp, but in some ways more radical. Its main selling point is the ability to tile multiple web pages, so you can see them all on screen at the same time. Otherwise, it exposes less interface clutter than other Firefox variants. We looked at it in 2024 and it's only got better since then.
If you use an OS with tiling window management, or an optional extra such as Rectangle for macOS or Mosaic for GNOME, you may not need Zen, but it has its own advantages.
You do not need to be a Mullvad VPN customer to use the Mullvad browser. However, prospective users may object to the politics of one of its co-founders. As we reported recently, Daniel Berntsson recently made a large and controversial donation to a Swedish anti-immigration party. Of course, you may also be indifferent to the political views of the company's owners.
The Mullvad browser was co-developed with the Tor Project, and for the ultimate in online anonymity and invisibility, that project also offers the Tor Browser. It's probably overkill for daily use, though.
And there's more…
There is also an assortment of more specialized forks drawing on Mozilla's code and that of some of the projects above.
A decade-long trademark dispute between Mozilla and Debian led to Debian maintaining its own version of Firefox with all Mozilla branding removed. This was settled in 2016, but variants of the project are still in development.
IceWeasel is a debranded Firefox with some tweaks and optimizations, available for x86-64 Windows and Linux. The GNU Project also maintains a debranded fork, called GNU IceCat, as well as a version of the old Mozilla Internet Suite. They are only packaged for the GNU Guix distribution, which we looked at along with its init system in 2024. There is also a separately maintained Debian package.
The FireDragon browser incorporates LibreWolf's privacy adjustments and modifies the UI to better suit the Garuda Linux distribution – an Arch variant that rather impressed us back in 2022. Despite its Garuda origins, FireDragon is available for all major operating systems. It follows its own versioning system, under which it's currently at version 13.5.1, but it's up to date with the parent project.
Betterfox isn't a fork, but a set of configuration files that you can download and apply to an existing Firefox installation.
Older versions, older OSes, and older processors
Not all of the changes in Mozilla's products over the years have won over all their users – such as the "Australis" theme that mentioned back in 2012.
The Pale Moon browser forked from Firefox long before even Firefox Quantum; it retains the look and feel of Firefox from version 4 to version 28, which is no longer available in Firefox itself. We first mentioned Pale Moon back in 2021 and again in connection with Cloudflare issues last year. It's actively maintained and current.
There's also the Basilisk Browser, forked from a newer version of Firefox than Pale Moon and now maintained independently. Both of these support some older versions of Windows and macOS than modern Firefox.
When we wrote about running Windows XP in 2023, we mentioned the MyPal68 browser, a fork of relatively recent Firefox that still works on 32-bit Windows all the way back to Windows XP – as well as on 64-bit versions, naturally. MyPal68 is still in active maintenance and it's now up to version 78.1.0.
There's R3dfox too, a custom fork of Firefox for those who prefer Windows Vista and Windows 7. The latest release is based on Firefox 153, the current ESR version.
For users of old versions of Mac OS X, there are multiple options.
Momiji is an actively maintained version of Firefox 140 ESR that runs on OS X 10.7 "Lion" and later. It continues the work of the Firefox Dynasty project, which we mentioned a year ago as an option for older Macs.
Powerfox is similar: it targets Intel-based Macs and is based on the newer Firefox 153 ESR. The project also offers Powerfox Classic, which supports PowerMacs running all the way back to Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther."
Aquafox is a modernized version of TenFourFox, for PowerMacs with Mac OS X 10.4.
The SeaMonkey Project is a fork that continues development of the original pre-Firefox Mozilla Internet Suite: it's not just a web browser, but also contains an email/USENET client, an IRC client, an RSS reader, and a WYSIWYG HTML editor. It's still maintained, it's now 64-bit only, and it supports all major OSes – but compatibility may be an issue, as it uses a very old version of the Gecko rendering engine.
We also found several Firefox forks that appear to be unmaintained and are probably best avoided.
In addition to its ad blocker, Ghostery once offered a separate Ghostery Private Browser, but discontinued development in 2024.
Similarly, the Mercury Browser for Windows and Linux was a more private Firefox with compiler optimizations so it ran faster. It never progressed beyond version 129, released a couple of years ago.
The Cyberfox Browser was a 64-bit Windows version back when Mozilla didn't offer such things, although the project also offered a 32-bit version. It hasn't had a new release in eight years.
Plasmafox was Firefox tweaked to better integrate with the KDE Plasma desktop on Arch Linux, but it fell off its perch after version 88.0.1, five years ago.
These are the only ones of which the news has come to FOSS desk– although there may be many others. If we've missed any, do please let us know. ®