Iceweasel-UXP

Historically, Iceweasel was Debian's rebrand of Mozilla Firefox with minimal modifications, created to resolve branding disputes. Debian discontinued Iceweasel in February 2017 after reaching an agreement with Mozilla regarding its trademarks. The Hyperbola team continued the Iceweasel branding for a few months in the spirit of cultural freedom. However, inconsistencies were discovered, including the use of non-free fonts in Debian's Iceweasel logo. Since Debian no longer supported Iceweasel and encouraged users to install Mozilla Firefox Quantum, we decided to explore creating a suitable fork. Upon thorough review, we found that Firefox Quantum, alongside the ever-expanding Google Chromium codebase, contained numerous privacy, freedom, and trademark issues, which also broke compatibility with previous versions. The code not only included but actively encouraged the use of many non-free online services (referred to as SASASS—Service as a Software Substitute). We realized the need to preserve the original codebase before Firefox 60's drastic changes to safeguard user choice, privacy, and freedom. Thus, Iceweasel-UXP was born. We first reviewed the Basilisk application, implementing code-level modifications that resulted in our own branding and unique features. Basilisk itself is a hard fork of Firefox 52, featuring multiple security and privacy improvements. We ensured our new application included only free artwork, avoided trademark disputes, and resolved all known freedom issues. It is a powerful, extensible web browser that supports both modern web application technologies and legacy plugins. We actively share and contribute to UXP to help both projects succeed in creating a better internet for users. Unlike previous versions of Iceweasel, Iceweasel-UXP is not merely a rebrand of Firefox. It incorporates a new browser engine and maintains its own codebase.

Iceweasel-UXP is a free and open-source web browser built on the Unified XUL Platform (UXP). It aims to deliver a privacy-focused, powerful, and extensible browsing experience by preserving and improving Firefox 52's codebase.