Tag Archives: mozilla

Why big ISPs aren’t happy about Google’s plans for encrypted DNS

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Widespread adoption of DoH would limit ISPs’ ability to both monitor and modify customer queries. It wouldn’t necessarily eliminate this ability, since ISPs could still use these techniques for customers who use the ISP’s own DNS servers. But if customers switched to third-party DNS servers—either from Google or one of its various competitors—then ISPs would no longer have an easy way to tell which sites customers were accessing.

Source: Why big ISPs aren’t happy about Google’s plans for encrypted DNS | Ars Technica

Tracking Protection for Firefox at Web 2.0 Security and Privacy 2015

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You can read the paper here.

This paper is the last artifact of my work at Mozilla, since I left employment there at the beginning of April. I believe that Mozilla can make progress in privacy, but leadership needs to recognize that current advertising practices that enable “free” content are in direct conflict with security, privacy, stability, and performance concerns — and that Firefox is first and foremost a user-agent, not an industry-agent.

Source: Monica at Mozilla: Tracking Protection for Firefox at Web 2.0 Security and Privacy 2015

How to disable Google safe Browsing in Firefox

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To DISABLE:

  1. Type about:config in adressbar of Firefox.
  2. Type safebrowsing in filterbar. Now Change the following Values
  3. browser.safebrowsing.enabled FALSE
  4. browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled FALSE
  5. browser.safebrowsing.remoteLookups FALSE

How to disable Google safe Browsing in Firefox.

Thats all and the feature will be disabled now. Even though, My advice is not to disable it as Disabling it may increase the risk of getting infected.

And Firefox keeps phoning home for updates and turning it off in the options doesn’t stop it.  Here’s a solution:

You can manually reset the Software Update feature by closing your Mozilla application and deleting the “updates” folder and the two files “active-update.xml” and “updates.xml”, which can be found in one of these locations (using Firefox as an example):

  • Windows XP/2000: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox
  • Windows 7/Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox

Above quote taken from here (support.mozilla.org).

Firefox OS Will Get Overwhelming Developer Support

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The Mozilla Foundation has just renamed the project Boot to Gecko “Firefox OS”. But can we really talk about an operating system?
Absolutely. In terms of architecture, it is an operating system based on Linux, just as Android is. But we rely on Gecko, the Firefox web browser layout engine, to run applications written entirely in HTML5. We dropped XUL (the XML User Interface Language) in favour of HTML5, a language known to all web developers.

Even native applications, such as the dialer or address book, are written in HTML5, and users will be able to examine the source code to check it.

via Firefox OS Will Get Overwhelming Developer Support – Mozilla.

Telefonica Shows Off Firefox OS Prototype, Reveals Plans

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Telefonica has shown a prototype phone using Firefox OS, the new open  HTML5-based operating system from Mozilla, and explained its reasons for adopting a fledgling OS in the face of huge competition from iPhone and Android.

Firefox OS will let the operator balance its “strategic dependence on Android” and allow for the creation of cheaper devices that offer the same user experience, claimed Telefonica Digital chairman and CEO Matthew Key, at an event in London.

via Telefonica Shows Off Firefox OS Prototype, Reveals Plans | TechWeekEurope UK.

Move to mobile will bring big changes for Linux

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This may present some messaging problems for the big commercial Linux vendors, by the way: if the distribution underneath becomes less important, then Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL and SUSE Enterprise Linux Server may soon have a serious fight on their hands. In the past, one of the big differentiators has been that these “big” distros provide solid infrastructures in which business applications can be developed. If this Linux-is-Linux-is-Linux idea takes root, that will undercut a big marketing tool for Red Hat and SUSE Linux.

via Move to mobile will bring big changes for Linux | ITworld.

But I don’t think that’s going to last. The Linux community may be cocky now, but let’s think through this Linux-is-everywhere scenario a bit. If the operating system becomes just a background component that runs more web than native apps and app development for the platform itself becomes de-emphasized, then the obvious question then becomes: what does it matter it it’s Linux running on the operating system layer?

You still need a reliable OS to run the web servers which is the space RHEL and SUSE enterprise sell into.