Fennec - Firefox build with some proprietary stiff removed; repo
IronFox - Firefox fork (forked from Mull) with a bunch of hardening changes (notably resistFingerprinting enabled); repo
IronFox is more ambitious, which means higher maintenance load and more likely to fall behind. Fennec is much simpler, so less likely to fall behind, but also doesn’t change much from Firefox.
The main difference is of philosophy of trust. With F-droid you trust F-droid to build the binary from the developers’ source code. With Accrescent, you trust the developers to build the binary from the source code.
In the play store you’re trusting Google and the developer.
I’m not sure how obtainium works. But if you download binaries from GitHub, you’re trusting the developer to accurately build their source code into the binary without adding anything. You’re also trusting GitHub implicitly – way back when, source forge was sometimes adding malware to downloads iirc.
Yes you are trusting them, and the developer. Just like you are trusting F-droid if you download from them. You also have to trust that the compiler program doesn’t do anything fishy. It’s trust all the way down.
The good news is that lots of people are working on making the systems trustworthy, and you as a consumer can learn to distinguish between what can be trusted for your usecase and what can’t.
Get ironfox?
fennec vs ironfox opinions?
I would love to see a real comparison.
resistFingerprintingenabled); repoIronFox is more ambitious, which means higher maintenance load and more likely to fall behind. Fennec is much simpler, so less likely to fall behind, but also doesn’t change much from Firefox.
I’ve not heard of ironfox before this thread! Could you possibly link it? Doesn’t seem like it’s on FDroid or IzzyOnDroid
You have to add IronFox’s repo in F-Droid before you can install it from there. This is their Github link.
In addition to what others have said, it can be downloaded from the Accrescent app store:
https://accrescent.app/
Never heard of that, what’s the benefit over F-Droid?
The main difference is of philosophy of trust. With F-droid you trust F-droid to build the binary from the developers’ source code. With Accrescent, you trust the developers to build the binary from the source code.
So Accrescent is more like the classic play store or Obtainium?
In the play store you’re trusting Google and the developer.
I’m not sure how obtainium works. But if you download binaries from GitHub, you’re trusting the developer to accurately build their source code into the binary without adding anything. You’re also trusting GitHub implicitly – way back when, source forge was sometimes adding malware to downloads iirc.
And here I’m trusting Accrescent to actually deliver me an executable that has not been tampered with
Yes you are trusting them, and the developer. Just like you are trusting F-droid if you download from them. You also have to trust that the compiler program doesn’t do anything fishy. It’s trust all the way down.
The good news is that lots of people are working on making the systems trustworthy, and you as a consumer can learn to distinguish between what can be trusted for your usecase and what can’t.
Not when using a self-hosted F-Droid Repo - which is the case for Ironfox.
its for android, mobile.
IronFox is on F-Droid. That where I got it from at least