I deal with a lot of VMs for varying purposes, and it seems frequent that my purpose for opening firefox is derailed by some kind of nag. For example, I frequently get the “you haven’t used firefox in a while” in vms that I rarely use firefox and have to go disable the “meta refresh” option in the “about:config”.

Now, I’ve started seeing this one… it’s not even one of the passive banners but a full-page stop-the-world w/ semi-transparent background and right-click prevention.

Before I invest too much time trying to figure out how to disable these, or templating profile options en-masse, or the like… I thought I might ask… is there a way I can tell firefox that I only want it to only be a web-browser? i.e. an effective tool and not an attention sink or exciting video-game-like challenge of exploration and closing popups and suggestions while trying to remember why I launched it.

Somewhat relatedly, there is some kind of irony with firefox prominently offering to copy a URL without tracking for other sites, but when it is their own ad (however benign it might seem) that they disable right-clicks and load up on the trackers. The above button links to:

  • jet@hackertalks.com
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    5 months ago

    Mullvad browser works wonderfully at just being a web browser with no configuration needed

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
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      5 months ago

      I wouldn’t expect that most people would be fine with no browsing history and always forgetting cookies. Mullvad browser is Tor browser without Tor integration, and similarly, to me at least, it is a special tool for the occasion with special up and downsides

      • jet@hackertalks.com
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        5 months ago

        Sure. But maybe the person using a browser across a bunch of VMs would want that behavior.