你有火狐，我有“水狐”：專爲打臉Mozilla而生的Firefox分支

{"type":"doc","content":[{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"隨着Firefox在瀏覽器市場上的份額持續下滑，名爲Waterfox（水狐）的項目應運而生，而且專門搭載那些用戶喜聞樂見、Mozilla卻不以爲意的功能改進。事實上，"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"strong"}],"text":"如今對Firefox本家一意孤行的反抗已經形成潮流，Waterfox只是其中的代表之一。"}]},{"type":"heading","attrs":{"align":null,"level":2},"content":[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"strong"}],"text":"Firefox與"},{"type":"text","text":"Waterfox的“一進一退”"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Waterfox剛剛發佈第四個版本，在程序層面有着重大變化，其部分瀏覽器引擎是由Rust編寫而成。（Rust 最初誕生自 Mozilla 之手，專門用於火狐瀏覽器的開發工作。雖然Rust大受歡迎，但Mozilla仍然粗暴地在三年之內陸續"},{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https:\/\/www.infoq.cn\/article\/cYuuqwgLcvZy2RQHIYF2","title":"xxx","type":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"解僱了不少Rust團隊成員"}]},{"type":"text","text":"。）"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"讓我們看回Firefox Quantum（火狐量子瀏覽器），相比之下，它的主要問題在於刪除了一項非常重要的功能：早在1997年就已經引入、基於XUL的網景擴展引擎。結果網上評論，刪除XUL意味着直接丟棄了過去十五年來“由14274位開發者創建的總計19450款Firefox插件”。此舉沉重打擊了Firefox中的一項王牌特性——廣泛的用戶自定義能力，而這也是Firefox同谷歌Chrome等其他瀏覽器間的最大差異。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"延伸閱讀：《"},{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https:\/\/www.infoq.cn\/article\/XuQvJAKDjUddidTiHdWR","title":"xxx","type":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"這個曾領先於谷歌和微軟的開源項目，爲何盛極而衰？"}]},{"type":"text","text":"》"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Mozilla已經不是第一次強行敗壞自己在用戶中的人緣。而開源項目的一大優勢在於，只要有足夠多的用戶對企業在軟件中的調整感到不滿，他們就可以創建分叉、沿着自己的想法繼續前進。而如果已經有這樣的分叉存在，那麼本家的瘋狂作死將給分家帶來寶貴的發展空間。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"例如，Mozilla在2013年發佈的與Chrome高度相似的Australis主題就引起了用戶不安。儘管如此，它還是在Firefox 29中變成了默認設置，促使不少Firefox用戶轉向了分支版本Pale Moon——目前此分支仍在面向Windows與Linux的環境裏積極發展。Pale Moon保留了Australis之前的UI，繼續堅持單線程設計（因此內存效率更高），而且仍然支持經典的Firefox擴展。它還衍生出另一個後續項目Basilisk，屬於基於更高Firefox代碼庫版本的分支更新。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Waterfox的目標是高端PC與Mac平臺，其首位開發者Alex Kontos在學生時代就開始了這個項目，由於Mozilla官方一度沒有提供正式的Firefox 64位版本，Waterfox當年被作爲一種替代方案頗受歡迎。更重要的是，Alex Kontos把衆多有爭議的功能都刪了，包括Mozilla遙測機制、贊助商鏈接以及Pocket等捆綁功能。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"值得注意的是，該項目隨後再次經歷分叉並轉而以Firefox 56爲基礎——也是官方支持經典插件的最後一個版本；同時向下移植以保持後續安全修復程序。這個分支如今被稱爲Waterfox Classic。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Waterfox目前有兩個分支，Waterfox Classic（經典版）和Waterfox Current（當前版）。Waterfox從56.2.14版後，開始改名爲Waterfox Classic，版本號以發佈年月命名，Waterfox Classic作爲舊分支仍會繼續維護，保持安全更新和缺陷修復。除了支持舊擴展之外，Waterfox Classic還能支持最低至10.7的Mac OS X系統，對於那些硬件已經不受蘋果官方系統支持的老用戶來說可謂相當貼心。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"新一代Waterfox則基於Firefox Quantum開發，首版爲Waterfox 68，基於Firefox 68 ESR開發，之後版本改叫Waterfox Current，版本號同樣以發佈年月命名，Waterfox Current作爲新分支則會聚力於新功能更新，如同Firefox Quantum一樣也不支持舊式擴展件，舊式擴展件需要移植才能兼容於Waterfox Current。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"雖然Waterfox項目本身也存在一些爭議，例如被廣告供應商System1收購這一事實；但與持續衰落的本家Firefox不同，Waterfox仍然保持着蓬勃發展。"}]},{"type":"heading","attrs":{"align":null,"level":2},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"各種“打臉”分支"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"除了之前提到的Waterfox、Waterfox Classic、Pale Moon以及Basilisk之外，還有其他一些做着Mozilla基金會已經不感興趣的事情的分支。截至上個月，仍有部分Firefox分支能夠支持老舊Mac，例如Parrotgeeks Firefox Legacy能夠支持Mac OS X 10.6，而TenFourFox甚至可以支持PowerPC Mac。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"在網景被擠出市場之前，“Mozilla”是其產品的內部代號。後來，Mozilla成了開源集成互聯網客戶端套件的名稱，包括瀏覽器、電子郵件、IRC及網頁編輯器等等。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"儘管Mozilla一再嘗試將Thunderbird驅趕出去，但它仍然是目前最受歡迎的跨平臺電子郵件（以及Usenet與RSS）客戶端。除了常規的免費郵件功能之外，Thunderbird提供一種便捷的郵件與聯繫人信息本地備份方式，可以防止服務商意外刪除賬戶。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"總的來說，這些Mozilla旗下的“前產品”都做得挺不錯。Rust非常出彩，Waterfox更是欣欣向榮，Thunderbird定期更新並一直是同類別裏的最佳工具。但在此之外，其實還有一項成果的用戶比這些加起來還多。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"我們還記得當初Firefox OS剛剛亮相時的情景：“這是一款極度缺乏想象力的產品，功能設置如同被洗劫過般貧乏。”而且僅僅兩年之後，Mozilla就宣佈放棄這套系統以及配套運行的設備。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"但現在來看，Mozilla放棄得太快了。一個名爲Boot to Gecko的分叉仍然存在，之後被KaiOS公司接納並進行了商業化。KaiOS是一家由中國設備廠商TCL支持的企業，TCL如今也是黑莓手機的生產商。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"到了2018年，KaiOS已經成爲增長速度最快的移動平臺，並吸引到谷歌與印度最大移動網絡Reliance Jio的支持。KaiOS手機的成本可低至17美元，雖然只是基礎款，但它們仍然能幫助用戶訪問WhatsApp、谷歌地圖及Facebook等。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"隨着時間的推移，廉價手機已經能夠運行更豐富、功能更全面的智能手機操作系統，例如Android Go……但低端產品的空間總是有的，畢竟2013年的時候就有廠商把價格壓縮到13美元並還能保證自己有利潤。而且世界上還有衆多貧困人口，技術成本越低、對他們的幫助就越大。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Mozilla曾經是高階用戶的專用瀏覽器，從Mozilla 0.6和0.7早期版本、到後來幾乎成爲一切Linux發行版的默認瀏覽器時都是如此，包括Rust及KaiOS在內的衆多源自Mozilla的技術成果也仍被數億用戶使用。總而言之，Firefox沒必要奔着第一去，但Mozilla基金會最好能停下粗暴複製Chrome的腳步、並多從Firefox的各個分支及衍生產品中學習經驗。"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null}},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"參考鏈接："}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2021\/11\/04\/waterfox_firefox_fork\/","title":"","type":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2021\/11\/04\/waterfox_firefox_fork\/"}]}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https:\/\/zh.wikipedia.org\/zh-hans\/Mozilla","title":"","type":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"https:\/\/zh.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Waterfox"}]}]}]}