你有火狐，我有“水狐”：专为打脸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":"随着Firefox在浏览器市场上的份额持续下滑，名为Waterfox（水狐）的项目应运而生，而且专门搭载那些用户喜闻乐见、Mozilla却不以为意的功能改进。事实上，"},{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"strong"}],"text":"如今对Firefox本家一意孤行的反抗已经形成潮流，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与"},{"type":"text","text":"Waterfox的“一进一退”"}]},{"type":"paragraph","attrs":{"indent":0,"number":0,"align":null,"origin":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"Waterfox刚刚发布第四个版本，在程序层面有着重大变化，其部分浏览器引擎是由Rust编写而成。（Rust 最初诞生自 Mozilla 之手，专门用于火狐浏览器的开发工作。虽然Rust大受欢迎，但Mozilla仍然粗暴地在三年之内陆续"},{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https:\/\/www.infoq.cn\/article\/cYuuqwgLcvZy2RQHIYF2","title":"xxx","type":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"解雇了不少Rust团队成员"}]},{"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":"让我们看回Firefox Quantum（火狐量子浏览器），相比之下，它的主要问题在于删除了一项非常重要的功能：早在1997年就已经引入、基于XUL的网景扩展引擎。结果网上评论，删除XUL意味着直接丢弃了过去十五年来“由14274位开发者创建的总计19450款Firefox插件”。此举沉重打击了Firefox中的一项王牌特性——广泛的用户自定义能力，而这也是Firefox同谷歌Chrome等其他浏览器间的最大差异。"}]},{"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":"延伸阅读：《"},{"type":"link","attrs":{"href":"https:\/\/www.infoq.cn\/article\/XuQvJAKDjUddidTiHdWR","title":"xxx","type":null},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"这个曾领先于谷歌和微软的开源项目，为何盛极而衰？"}]},{"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已经不是第一次强行败坏自己在用户中的人缘。而开源项目的一大优势在于，只要有足够多的用户对企业在软件中的调整感到不满，他们就可以创建分叉、沿着自己的想法继续前进。而如果已经有这样的分叉存在，那么本家的疯狂作死将给分家带来宝贵的发展空间。"}]},{"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年发布的与Chrome高度相似的Australis主题就引起了用户不安。尽管如此，它还是在Firefox 29中变成了默认设置，促使不少Firefox用户转向了分支版本Pale Moon——目前此分支仍在面向Windows与Linux的环境里积极发展。Pale Moon保留了Australis之前的UI，继续坚持单线程设计（因此内存效率更高），而且仍然支持经典的Firefox扩展。它还衍生出另一个后续项目Basilisk，属于基于更高Firefox代码库版本的分支更新。"}]},{"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的目标是高端PC与Mac平台，其首位开发者Alex Kontos在学生时代就开始了这个项目，由于Mozilla官方一度没有提供正式的Firefox 64位版本，Waterfox当年被作为一种替代方案颇受欢迎。更重要的是，Alex Kontos把众多有争议的功能都删了，包括Mozilla遥测机制、赞助商链接以及Pocket等捆绑功能。"}]},{"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，该项目随后再次经历分叉并转而以Firefox 56为基础——也是官方支持经典插件的最后一个版本；同时向下移植以保持后续安全修复程序。这个分支如今被称为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目前有两个分支，Waterfox Classic（经典版）和Waterfox Current（当前版）。Waterfox从56.2.14版后，开始改名为Waterfox Classic，版本号以发布年月命名，Waterfox Classic作为旧分支仍会继续维护，保持安全更新和缺陷修复。除了支持旧扩展之外，Waterfox Classic还能支持最低至10.7的Mac OS X系统，对于那些硬件已经不受苹果官方系统支持的老用户来说可谓相当贴心。"}]},{"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则基于Firefox Quantum开发，首版为Waterfox 68，基于Firefox 68 ESR开发，之后版本改叫Waterfox Current，版本号同样以发布年月命名，Waterfox Current作为新分支则会聚力于新功能更新，如同Firefox Quantum一样也不支持旧式扩展件，旧式扩展件需要移植才能兼容于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":"虽然Waterfox项目本身也存在一些争议，例如被广告供应商System1收购这一事实；但与持续衰落的本家Firefox不同，Waterfox仍然保持着蓬勃发展。"}]},{"type":"heading","attrs":{"align":null,"level":2},"content":[{"type":"text","text":"各种“打脸”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，还有其他一些做着Mozilla基金会已经不感兴趣的事情的分支。截至上个月，仍有部分Firefox分支能够支持老旧Mac，例如Parrotgeeks Firefox Legacy能够支持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":"在网景被挤出市场之前，“Mozilla”是其产品的内部代号。后来，Mozilla成了开源集成互联网客户端套件的名称，包括浏览器、电子邮件、IRC及网页编辑器等等。"}]},{"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":"尽管Mozilla一再尝试将Thunderbird驱赶出去，但它仍然是目前最受欢迎的跨平台电子邮件（以及Usenet与RSS）客户端。除了常规的免费邮件功能之外，Thunderbird提供一种便捷的邮件与联系人信息本地备份方式，可以防止服务商意外删除账户。"}]},{"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":"总的来说，这些Mozilla旗下的“前产品”都做得挺不错。Rust非常出彩，Waterfox更是欣欣向荣，Thunderbird定期更新并一直是同类别里的最佳工具。但在此之外，其实还有一项成果的用户比这些加起来还多。"}]},{"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":"我们还记得当初Firefox OS刚刚亮相时的情景：“这是一款极度缺乏想象力的产品，功能设置如同被洗劫过般贫乏。”而且仅仅两年之后，Mozilla就宣布放弃这套系统以及配套运行的设备。"}]},{"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":"但现在来看，Mozilla放弃得太快了。一个名为Boot to Gecko的分叉仍然存在，之后被KaiOS公司接纳并进行了商业化。KaiOS是一家由中国设备厂商TCL支持的企业，TCL如今也是黑莓手机的生产商。"}]},{"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已经成为增长速度最快的移动平台，并吸引到谷歌与印度最大移动网络Reliance Jio的支持。KaiOS手机的成本可低至17美元，虽然只是基础款，但它们仍然能帮助用户访问WhatsApp、谷歌地图及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":"随着时间的推移，廉价手机已经能够运行更丰富、功能更全面的智能手机操作系统，例如Android Go……但低端产品的空间总是有的，毕竟2013年的时候就有厂商把价格压缩到13美元并还能保证自己有利润。而且世界上还有众多贫困人口，技术成本越低、对他们的帮助就越大。"}]},{"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曾经是高阶用户的专用浏览器，从Mozilla 0.6和0.7早期版本、到后来几乎成为一切Linux发行版的默认浏览器时都是如此，包括Rust及KaiOS在内的众多源自Mozilla的技术成果也仍被数亿用户使用。总而言之，Firefox没必要奔着第一去，但Mozilla基金会最好能停下粗暴复制Chrome的脚步、并多从Firefox的各个分支及衍生产品中学习经验。"}]},{"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":"参考链接："}]},{"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"}]}]}]}