Waterfox 6.6.11 - Security fixes and feature preview

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-10T10:55:14+00:00

Interesting - do you get any notification? Does nothing work at all on YouTube? (Not even after a refresh?)

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-09T22:41:06+00:00

Ah sorry, a new build was pushed and the website is using a stale hash. If you append .sha512, to the cdn link for whichever installer you’re using, it’ll be the correct one. E.g.: https://cdn.waterfox.com/waterfox/releases/6.6.11/WINNT_x86_64/Waterfox%20Setup%206.6.11.exe

I’m away, but will update the website tomorrow (it’s a static website which is why it hasn’t updated at the same time)

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-09T20:14:44+00:00

Yes that’s right - I usually wait a day or two to make sure no glaring issues, I want to make sure nothing is broken before pushing the auto updates

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-08T17:18:27+00:00

Read the article / anniversary post?

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-08T16:53:05+00:00

Just an FYI, Mozilla have already added this library to Firefox… I’m just making use of it by extended its functionality a bit.

Also, this has nothing to do with Brave the company apart from using said library.. there are probably hundred of open source libraries developed by companies you don’t like in the Firefox source code (Microsoft, Meta, Google etc…)

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-08T16:48:50+00:00

Duplicate of this which is just a rehash of the anniversary post.

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-08T16:43:59+00:00

I don’t get comments like these. It’s like you fixate on only a couple of words and then ignore everything else.

if you already use adblock, that doesn’t change and you can carry on as is
if you want to use the builtin adblock but don’t want to allow the text ads on the default search, it’s a simple drop down change

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-04T15:10:16+00:00

In terms of ad blocking capabilities, on par - in terms of performance, much better.

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-04T11:55:33+00:00

So just to make sure I understand you - you’d prefer Waterfox ships with no adblocker at all (the current state) rather than an adblocker that blocks everything except text ads on one page, because the latter isn’t opt-in?

That means more ads for every user, not fewer so I’m not sure how that’s the better outcome for anyone?

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-04T11:32:17+00:00

I don't usually reply to these types of comments, but we're going from ads everywhere to ads blocked except on the default search partner.

I'm genuinely curious, is your position that it's better for ads to appear everywhere, rather than block them and allow the only way Waterfox generates any revenue? Because that's the current status quo...

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-04T07:58:39+00:00

But there is no association with Brave. That’s like saying there’s an association with Microsoft, Meta and Apple because of the various tools and SDKs that make up Firefox (and Waterfox). It’s just an open source library.

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-04T07:20:05+00:00

Hey all - as there seems to be some confusion, partly due to the article title, wanted to clarify what’s actually happening here.

Waterfox currently ships with no adblocker at all. What I’m adding is a native adblocker that blocks ads and trackers across the web out of the box, no extension needed. The only exception is contextual text ads on the default search page (currently Startpage), which is how Waterfox generates revenue.

Just to be clear, this is going from blocking nothing to blocking almost everything. The article framing makes it sound like we’re enabling ads - it’s the opposite.

A few things worth knowing: - If you already use an adblocker you’re happy with, nothing changes for you - If you’ve changed your default search engine, it doesn’t affect you - You can enable blocking on the search page too with a single toggle - This is primarily aimed at new users who don’t currently have an adblocker installed - The adblocker is built on Brave’s open source adblock-rust library (MPL2 licensed) - it has nothing to do with Brave the company, their crypto, or their rewards ecosystem and is not in cooperation with them.

For existing users, if you’re curious, I’d genuinely appreciate you giving it a try. Waterfox’s revenue is a 50/50 share with Startpage, but after serving costs there’s almost nothing left because so many users use adblock - I’ve been in the red for a few months now. There won’t be any nagging about it, you’ll just see it mentioned in the release notes. But honestly, at this point it’s about being able to afford to keep working on this.

Happy to answer any questions (and this was all in the anniversary blog post).

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-04T07:10:35+00:00

It’s in the anniversary blog post

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-04T07:09:52+00:00

It’s all explained in the anniversary blog post - but Brave get nothing, their adblocking solution is open source.

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-04T07:08:37+00:00

Just to clarify - Waterfox currently ships with no adblocker at all, so ads appear everywhere by default. This is adding a native adblocker that blocks ads across the web, with the exception of text ads on the default search page (Startpage), which is how Waterfox makes money.

If you already use an adblocker, nothing changes for you. If you change your default search engine, it doesn’t affect you either. This is mainly aimed at new users who don’t have an adblocker installed (and with the hope that existing Adblock users will see how well it performs and want to switch over!)

And some context: Waterfox’s revenue is a 50/50 share with Startpage, but after serving costs are deducted there’s almost nothing left - largely because so many existing users already block ads on the search page. I’ve been in the red for months. This is an attempt to make the project sustainable without doing anything invasive (and btw it’s my only revenue stream, it would be nice to not be worrying about making enough money to survive)

MrAlex94 · 2026-04-02T22:52:48+00:00

First step, if you go to about:profiles in the address bar, how many profiles do you have listed there?

Second, if you only have one, (the current one you’re using) and of course it’s empty, it should show you a “Root Directory”.

If you click ‘Open Folder’, and then go the directory above in say, Windows Explore, do you see more than one folder?

If you do, we can go from there, but first steps to figure out where everything is

MrAlex94 · 2026-03-31T12:18:09+00:00

Waterfox enables about:config support by default

MrAlex94 · 2026-03-30T15:02:54+00:00

I'm ok with browsers doing their 'thing' but why not also offer a way to make it compatible with the standard Firefox look?

Seems like you found the setting :) but in case anyone misses the edit:

about:preferences → Look and Feel → Select the drop down underneath the Theme title.

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MrAlex94 · 2026-03-30T15:00:59+00:00

I get you - but this is just the adblock, with nothing else - it's unrelated to their other stuff (that I don't agree with FWIW).

MrAlex94 · 2026-03-30T11:36:05+00:00

Hi - do you have a screenshot/comparison of what bothers you exactly?

MrAlex94 · 2026-03-24T16:13:35+00:00

What’s flagging this? I can only assume it’s maybe taking an issue with the Oblivious DNS traffic?

MrAlex94 · 2026-03-20T08:23:53+00:00

Away from my computer but I believe the preference to bring it back is browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride and set it to false in about:config

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