Good morning,
I was looking for another Firefox fork browser to have as a “Backup” to Firefox and so that I can test out new extensions so that I don’t risk Firefox which is my primary browser.
The new super secure browsers I’m referring to: Mercury and Floorp
I did some searching and I couldn’t believe Mercury has never been mentioned in ths community?
Link: Mercury Browser
Floorp has been mentioned, but this is the first time I’ve looked into in depth:
Thank you for reading my question!
It has.
Looks like mercury is on 123 which is many versions behind upstream. Not acceptable security practice.
Not sure what floorp offers over standard Firefox other than a funny name.
As far as i know, the main appeal of Floorp is its very Vivaldi like feature set. Providing lots of features people miss from chromium based browsers in a Firefox based package.
Security wise though i’m pretty sure floorp doesn’t do anything special.
I appreciate your replies!
I just came across another 2 Firefox forks that supposedly improve on the main Firefox browser:
Pulse: https://pulsebrowser.app/
I think unless it does something really extraordinary like tor browser it’s not really going to be worth mentioning any more Firefox forks.
I appreciate your reply!
I’m getting the exact same feeling as you… there are just so many Firefox forks out there now! 
[Thread topic edited to something less sensational]
Sorry!
lol I was just so surprised there were so many Firefox forks that claim to be more secure and better for user privacy!
You could use profiles in Firefox
Some UI stuff that some people want (akin to Vivaldi) and more settings exposed in the GUI that would be about:config settings in Firefox. But I don’t know of anything that Floorp offers that make it relevant to our community/mission compared to the already recommended Firefox options (Firefox, Arkenfox user.js, Mullvad & Tor Browser).
Betterfox isn’t a Firefox fork, its like Arkenfox with somewhat different goals/focus, it is a set of preference changes that you apply to Firefox itself, with a user.js file.
Never heard of ‘Pulse’ but it looks like essentially a reskin + uBO. A lot of these little forks aren’t really forks, they are more like heavily visually customized examples of what you I or anyone else could do with Firefox if we were motivated to do so. (scroll a bit to see what I mean).
I have tried Floorp; it’s solid and feature-rich like Edge, but the only reason why I keep using Firefox is that Floorp is based on Firefox “ESR,” which often misses the latest fixes/features from the upstream. Rightfully so, as I can feel good improvements with every new “release” as opposed to “ESR.” I did not try Mercury though.
We’re moving away from the Firefox ESR base to a rapid release model to address long-standing web compatibility issues in Floorp […] However, the transition requires extensive refactoring, a labor-intensive process. We’ll spend the next one to two months rewriting the code before offering a preview version. Floorp 11 will continue receiving updates until Floorp 12 achieves stability.
Wow, this is great news. Thanks for sharing. In such a case, I will definitely give Floorp another spin.
Floorp 11 is based on esr115 so it is not possible for them to continue providing any security updates after September as it will no longer be a supported branch by Mozilla.
v11.15.0 is based on esr 115.13.0 which is the third to last release of esr115:
As a side note, I really hate when forks change version numbers because it adds confusion and prevents users from knowing what actual version they are running and being able to follow upstream security advisories.
Thanks for the heads up. Will reconsider using if it stops receiving security patches.
It does show the ESR version alongside browser version in the settings UI.
I appreciate your reply!
One thing that’s holding me back from trying out Floorp is that it’s new software.
It seems better to use older software that has a proven track record instead of jumping on something new.
Providing an update for the quoted post. Floorp 11 got rebased to esr 128 on August 16th, well before esr115 went end of life. Meaning it was always up to date with upstream security updates.
I appreciate your reply!
For people still thinking of trying it:
I’ve been using Floorp and man it has good performance.
More importantly, they have updated their website that now says this:
“Floorp is based on Firefox ESR. Floorp will be updated every 4 weeks, with security updates provided before each Firefox release.”
“We don’t collect personal information from users. We don’t track users. We don’t sell user data. We have no affiliation with any advertising companies.”
“Floorp’s source code is entirely open, allowing anyone to view it and contribute to the project. Not only is the browser itself open source, but the build environment is as well.”