How to install Waterfox in 5 simple steps

[Moem]

Waterfox is a fine browser. If you used to love Firefox up until version 57, you'll love it and it will import all your Firefox data. How to install it on 64-bits Linux Mint?
(Unfortunately, there is no 32-bits version.)

1. Download the compressed archive from https://www.waterfoxproject.org/downloads You'll get a .bz2 file.
2. Extract it to the location of your choice, keeping the directory structure intact. I chose to extract it to my home.
3. You now have a folder called waterfox. Inside that is a file also called waterfox. Doubleclicking that file will start the browser.
4. It will now offer to import your Firefox data.
5. Set up a menu launcher to that 'waterfox' file so it launches from the menu. Inside one of the folders, in the one called 'browser' and then 'icons', you will find a decent looking icon. It's the one shown below.

Waterfox keeps itself updated; if you open Help => About Waterfox it will tell you which version you're running. As of January 1 2018, the current version is 56.0.1.

mozicon128.png

[Pierre]

then, once you have extracted the compressed *.tar.gz2 file to your /home,
and checked that all is working A.ok

you can then move it to /user/lib/waterfox ( you may need SU privileges )
& then create a Short-cut to the executable file, on your Desktop.


this is something that I've done on some of my PCs, and not just with Waterfox / Firefox / Palemoon . . etc.

[turtlebay]

The other way to do it is this.

Run these commands to add this repostory to your APT sources list:

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echo 'deb https://dl.bintray.com/hawkeye116477/waterfox-deb release main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/waterfox.list

And the public GPG key:

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curl https://bintray.com/user/downloadSubjectPublicKey?username=hawkeye116477 | sudo apt-key add -

You can download and install the packages after you update the APT package index:

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sudo apt-get update

[GonzoSam]

The other way to do it is this.

Run these commands to add this repostory to your APT sources list:

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echo 'deb https://dl.bintray.com/hawkeye116477/waterfox-deb release main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/waterfox.list

And the public GPG key:

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curl https://bintray.com/user/downloadSubjectPublicKey?username=hawkeye116477 | sudo apt-key add -

You can download and install the packages after you update the APT package index:

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sudo apt-get update

That No Longer Works - The Repository Must be Defunct....

[HaveaMint]

Waterfox

Just an FYI, the Download link died.

https://www.waterfox.net/

[honesty_counts]

I found a way to get Waterfox install on Linux Mint 19.3 .

You can read about it here: https://snapcraft.io/install/waterfox-snap/ubuntu
and here: https://github.com/YamiYukiSenpai/waterfox-snap


(1) I first went to the package manager and installed a package named 'snapd'.

(2) I then turn the computer off, then back on as in the instructions.

(3) I then opened up a terminal window and enter this line of code into terminal, and then pressed 'enter' :

sudo snap install --edge --devmode waterfox-classic

---------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) That was it, Waterfox was now added to Linux Mint. But I could not find it anywhere, so I did a search for 'waterfox' and here is where it is located on the computer: File System > var > lib > snapd > desktop > applications

Go to the 'Computer' icon on your desktop (or to 'File System' ) -> then to the folder named ' var ', then open up the file named 'lib', then 'snapd', then 'desktop' then 'applications', and there you will find the Waterfox icon.

(5) Just right click on it, then select 'copy', and then paste it onto the desktop.

There you go, you now have Waterfox on your computer.

[Harfud]

Seemingly controversial with view to snapd.

From the May monthly news...

Snap

We also heard your queries on the topic of snapd. This is a topic which is important to us and we already explained our position last year:

[…] as you install APT updates, Snap becomes a requirement for you to continue to use Chromium and installs itself behind your back. This breaks one of the major worries many people had when Snap was announced and a promise from its developers that it would never replace APT.

A self-installing Snap Store which overwrites part of our APT package base is a complete NO NO. It’s something we have to stop and it could mean the end of Chromium updates and access to the snap store in Linux Mint.

A year later, in the Ubuntu 20.04 package base, the Chromium package is indeed empty and acting, without your consent, as a backdoor by connecting your computer to the Ubuntu Store. Applications in this store cannot be patched, or pinned. You can’t audit them, hold them, modify them or even point snap to a different store. You’ve as much empowerment with this as if you were using proprietary software, i.e. none. This is in effect similar to a commercial proprietary solution, but with two major differences: It runs as root, and it installs itself without asking you.

First, I’m happy to confirm that Linux Mint 20, like previous Mint releases will not ship with any snaps or snapd installed. Second, to address this situation we’ll do exactly what we said we would:

In Linux Mint 20, Chromium won’t be an empty package which installs snapd behind your back. It will be an empty package which tells you why it’s empty and tells you where to look to get Chromium yourself.
In Linux Mint 20, APT will forbid snapd from getting installed.

You’ll still be able to install it yourself and we’ll document this in the release notes, but by default APT won’t allow repository packages from doing this on your behalf.

[ron69]

Beside that, I wouldn't recommend Waterfox, since it was sold to some spam-distributor

[cpedretti]

Beside that, I wouldn't recommend Waterfox, since it was sold to some spam-distributor

Effectively waterfox was sold to System1 on 02/14/2020:

https://www.waterfox.net/blog/waterfox- ... d-system1/

bad, bad, bad...

[DarrenG]

Beside that, I wouldn't recommend Waterfox, since it was sold to some spam-distributor

Effectively waterfox was sold to System1 on 02/14/2020:

https://www.waterfox.net/blog/waterfox- ... d-system1/

bad, bad, bad...

Why is it bad? As Alex said on his blog

System1 has been to Waterfox a search syndication partner. Essentially a way to have a search engine partnership (such as Bing) is through them, because companies such as Microsoft are too big and too busy to talk to small players such as Waterfox. Before them, it was Ecosia, Startpage etc. It’s probably the one easy way a browser can make money without doing anything dodgy, and it’s a way I’ve been happy to do it without having to compromise Waterfox (and will be the same way System1 makes money from Waterfox - nothing else). People also don’t seem to understand what System1 does and assume the worst

Anyway these are the repository details for LM20

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sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/hawkeye116477:/waterfox/xUbuntu_20.04/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:hawkeye116477:waterfox.list"
sudo wget -nv https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:hawkeye116477:waterfox/xUbuntu_20.04/Release.key -O
sudo apt-key add - < Release.key
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install waterfox-classic-kpe
sudo apt-get install waterfox-current-kpe