How my Firefox became a LibreWolf
After using their browser for over 20 years, it's painful to admit, but I've grown tired of Mozilla. The recent debacle around their TOS update, their departure from the Fediverse, and their apparent embrace of AI bro culture and corporate marketing have made my Firefox icon feel increasingly out of place on my GNU/Linux OS.
I decided to search for alternatives, but unfortunately, there aren't many options available. You're mostly limited to Chrome derivatives or Firefox derivatives. However, I stumbled upon LibreWolf, a fork of Firefox that caught my attention. LibreWolf is described as "A custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom" which resonates with me.
Installing LibreWolf on my Debian was surprisingly simple, and migrating my profile was as easy as copying the contents of my ~/.mozilla/firefox preferences into the active profile of ~/.librewolf. It felt like home, as it's essentially Firefox.
However, I encountered an issue while configuring it to my liking, and after struggling for more than 1 hour, I was on the verge of giving up. Fortunately, I found a solution to my DRM issue thanks to the help of Cherryband in the Pepper&Carrot chat room.
One thing to keep in mind if you're considering trying LibreWolf is that it has all security and privacy options enabled by default, which may not be the most user-friendly experience. You won't be pampered with a one-click installation for all. Instead, you'll need to take the time to review the documentation and set up the security and privacy features that you're willing to trade off for comfort and convenience.
So far, the experience has been educational, and I'll see if I decide to stick with LibreWolf in the long term.
Update 2025 May 5:
After a series of significant papercuts with Librewolf that affected many parts of my web browsing experience and administrative paperwork, I decided to switch back to Firefox. I tried really hard to make it work, spending extra hours trying to figure out what part of my librewolf.overrides.cfg was not surviving updates, but I couldn't find it.
In the end, I had to choose between investing my time in tweaking a web browser or doing more drawing. Still, I am happy with the two months of using LibreWolf, it has been very educational about the various privacy options the main Firefox has. I'm now back to Firefox with more knowledge in this area.
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