OK, so as almost nobody is aware, I used to have some shit on here that I called Take Back The Fox which was about browsers. Most browsers are pretty sucky these days, I'm not saying I can make a better one, just that the ones that exist are poor.

1. Internet Explorer is big and fat. It is jammed up the ass of Windows that you can't get rid of it. If you run Windows, you have IE. It wouldn't be so bad if they tried to make it lean, but they don't. Microsoft keeps adding features that make it bigger and uglier. What amazes me is how long it took them to put in tabs for Christ sake. Either way, it is cumbersome.

2. Firefox followed in IE's footsteps. When FF3 was released they added something called the Awesome Bar which many people think should be renamed to Asstasic Bar. Seriously, it is the most resource intensive selection box I have ever seen. The addon system is great but the interface is like a fucking clown face with a huge URL bar. Sorry moz, you dropped the ball on this one for sure.

3. Opera is trying too hard to look cool and not hard enough to be cool. There's plenty you can customize but it is all about how the browser looks not how it acts.

4. Bah, there's really no reason to include any others cause they are just not able to compete or they are total trash.

Then there is Seamonkey. Don't get me wrong, it isn't perfect, but it is better than the alternatives. I wish more addon programmers would make their shit compatible with Seamonkey, it would at least give people the option to drop the Asstastic Bar.

So I have dropped the TBTF part of my stupid uberblog and I am just going to suggest to people that they use Seamonkey. If they know what is good for them they will also use Adblock Plus and Optimize Google.

I wanna clean up some of the stuff I have here, especially the "pages", some of which have not been updated in a long time. I don't want to dump the pages altogether so I am going to make them into posts (since most of them are not too long anyways). here's the Take Back The Fox page:

Seamonkey

Go to The SeaMonkey Project Page

Find Addons for SeaMonkey Here

Firefox

Mozilla Firefox v2.0.0.20 [Windows] [Linux] [other]

Flash

to be filled in shortly

News:

November 14, 2009

Well as luck would have it, a few popular websites stopped supporting FF2.x. Well, at least FF2 stopped working on a few sites. I imagine that a popular website might stand to gain some money if they did what browser authors wanted them to eh? Anyways, I went in search of a new browser and here is what I found:

• IE is a pig
• FF3 is a pig and ugly
• Opera does not allow site specific cookie control
• There are a parade of browsers that are just rewrapped IE
• Adblocking is brutal in most common browsers

Eventually I happened across SeaMonkey which happens to be a kind of offshoot of FF. Now that I have used it for a little while it appears as though I won't be seeing anything better. It isn't perfect but it is better than the other shit being offered. As a result, the download links above will be changed significantly.

By the way, Mozilla's addon site is a fucking joke.

October 29, 2009

A couple of days ago SeaMonkey v2.0 was released and so far I think it just might be good enough to make me pack up TBTF and move on. It is not able to use CS Lite (Cookiesafe) however it is able to use Adblock Plus. Why stray from TBTF? Well, recently it also turns out some websites (Facebook and GMail for example) are phasing out FF2 by specific design.

July 28, 2009

OK, I should have updated this earlier. I'm gonna setup some links

that will stay at the top of this page for downloads. I'll include the best versions of FF as well as some of the extensions for it (before mozilla.com decides to stop making those available too).

March 22, 2009

So the idea is that Internet Explorer is a bit of a pig. Turns out, so is Firefox v3. I kind of want my browser to be nice and clean with good control over security/privacy related features. So I used NSIS to build an installer for Firefox 2, CookieSafe, Adblocker, and a bunch of custom configuration. I personally think it is pretty good… your mileage may vary. The posts I have about it can be found at the Take Back The Fox Category and the downloads can be found above.

OK, I just reinstalled my laptop. I am running Debian on it, cause I want to. However, it comes with Ice Weasel and Epiphany… neither of which I like. I have installed FF2 on Linux before but have never bothered to document what I did. In an attempt to be more thourough about things I am gonna document it now (no matter how easy or annoying it may be).

1. Find out that mozilla.com has dropped the 2.0.0.20 download from their website

2. Find it elsewhere

3. Save it to my website so I can download it later [Windows version] [Linux version]

4. Download the Linux version

5. Uncompress the Linux version to a nifty location on your drive

6. Open Synaptic [or use apt-get] and install libstdc++5

7. Open a root terminal and cd to /usr/local/bin [or anywhere in the path really]

8. Create a link with ln -s /unarchivepath/firefox firefox

9. Add to the menus if you want

10. Run it

11. Get rid of the bookmarks toolbar

12. Download and install CustomizeGoogle_v0.76, AdBlockPlus_v1.0.2, and CookieSafeLite_v1.4

13. Run through Customize Google and setup ad blocking

14. Add Snorkuscription and point it to HERE

15. If you insist on having Flash player, get the old version here

16. Hmmm, I guess maybe check the preferences to see if there is anything else to turn off

There, that wasn't so bad was it?

Looks like Bon Echo is unstable, has problems with Flash, still has many remnants of Firefox in it (such as profile directories, registry entries, and the executable name), and is just not ready. I'm certainly not going to be using it after seeing what it can do for the last couple days. Too bad, I liked the icon. In the meantime, feel free to use the stable release I have of "Take Back The Fox v2.1.0".

Here ya go… if you want my custom install of Mozilla Firefox v2.0.0.20 then click on the icon below to download it. The download should be quite small (less than 50k) and it will download all of the required files when you run it. This installer will not prompt you for anything, it will simply run unattended. To uninstall this application, look in Add/Remove Programs for the bitchin' purple dinosaur.

Oh Jesus, they have two names for it. Mozilla said at one point that version 2.0.0.20 would be the last of the 2.x series. Then, something called Bon Echo arrived. It isn't listed at the projects site at Mozilla. Seems that those of use who like Firefox v2.x have reached a strange place in time, I'm not quite sure what will be happening to FF in the not-so-distant future. The Mozilla Roadmap seems mildly confusing now, and it would appear that we have reached the very end of the Gecko v1.8.1 line.

So what? Well I think I am going to create two Windows installers with NSIS. One will install and config Firefox v2.0.0.20 while the other will install and config Bon Echo v2.0.0.22pre. No more full installer (just the mini one), and we'll see if:

1. Any of the plugins stop working or
2. Any of the download locations drop off or
3. Bon Echo grows an Awesome Bar (aka the Craptastic Bar)

Have a look folks, Mozilla has Firefox v2.0.0.22pre on it's ftp site. I'll have to make a new build of the mini installer. Crap, I'll have to actually upload the mini installer eh?

So I am going to see if I can maintain my own personal subscription list of Adblock Plus filters. I have a few minor items added in already and simply can't wait to add more. If you are not familiar with Adblock Plus you are seriously missing out (or perhaps I should say you are seriously looking at too much garbage). It is a plugin (or addon) for Firefox that allows you to use regular expressions to block all kinds of crap. I typically use it to block domains that suck, ad images, tracking domains, and annoying scripts. Here is a parade of links to lots of free software that can help make your browsing experience a little sweeter.

• Firefox can be found at Mozilla's website
• Better yet, use an older version of Firefox (without the Craptastic Bar)
• Get Adblock Plus and the Element Helper at the Adblock website
• Clean up Google with CustomizeGoogle
• Clean up GMail with the GMail Ad Blocker
• There's also CookieSafe at Mozilla's addon site

Once you have Adblock Plus running you can subscribe to my filter list at Snorkuscription

Yeah, so I created a new category called Take Back The Fox, because Firefox v3.x frankly has been a big disappointment. I am sure that an anti-Microsoft attitude had at least a little do with me starting to use Firefox but that wasn't the only reason. For quite a while I was pretty happy using Firefox… until they dumped v2.x and released the cartoon version of their browser. I tried Seamonkey and some other browsers but they all seemed to be lacking a certain feel that Firefox v2.x had.

So I started building a package that would let me continue (at least for now) to use FF2. I most certainly didn't create any of the software myself, I am just creating an installer that makes FF2 usable and customizes it with some settings and plugins that I like. Credit should be given to the authors/programmers who actually did the work of making the software:

• NSIS: This is the software I used to make my installer. Flexible and powerful scripting language that I hope to see more of soon.
• Firefox: Mozilla's browser, I just wish they had left it alone
• Customize Google: Very nice plugin for Firefox that can customize a huge array of options for all aspects of Google (including Google Apps)
• CookieSafe: Plugin for Firefox with simple statusbar access to all your cookie settings
• Adblock Plus: Powerful plugin that lets you block almost anything from your browser
• Adblock Plus Element Hiding Helper: An addon that quickly helps you make Adblock Plus rules
• GMail Ad Blocker: Dumps the "Sponsored Links" that can't be handled by the Customize Google plugin

THIS?

Being a bit of a computer goof, I am frequently asked to maintain PC's for people I know (and sometimes people I have just met). For the most part, I don't really mind doing this, but there are times when it can be a pain in the ass. One thing that is typically a pain is reinstalling and then reconfiguring software… especially software like Mozilla Firefox. For anyone who doesn't know, Firefox is a web browser application. Lately I have also been plagued with the fact that Mozilla has released Firefox 3 which also happens to be pretty crappy. I was thoroughly disappointed with FF3 and even more disappointed with it's Awesome Bar (which turns out to be an absolutely Craptastic Bar). This new bar has some truly annoying features, some of which can not be turned off.

So what do I do? Use FF3 and its garbage bar? Switch to IE7 and get script kiddie'ed? Switch to some other browser that has a poor interface? Buy a Mac? I determined that Firefox v2.x was my favourite browser to date and that I should go back to it. The bad news is that Firefox v2.0.0.20 is the last release of the 2.x series and is officially discontinued. Now what?

I decided to make my own installation of Firefox v2.x and customize it the way I like it. To make it as "safe" as possible I wanted it to have Adblocker Plus, Customize Google, and Cookie Safe. I also wanted to customize the settings to fit my needs (such as toolbars, search engines and cookie exceptions). I was hoping to do this with a simple BATch file but that was hardly elegant. So I looked around for something to create a nice .MSI for me, that way I could take advantage of the Windows Installer for my customization. The applications out there that make MSI's is less than stellar. NSIS to the rescue!

NSIS Is the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, and it rocks. It is [essentially] a programming language that is similar to C in many respects. Now I have done some programming before but I usually hate it. I hate the way documentation for programming languages is written for an audience that already knows some programming. There is always a "Hello World" example and then everything after that is up to you to figure out. Now simple stuff isn't too bad, you look up a sample script and modify it to suit your needs… but anything complicated can be a bastard to write if you are not familiar with some standard procedures. One of my examples was that I wanted to take a string and search it for a certain character, if it was found it should be replaced with a different character. Sounds simple enough, but there is no "replacechar" function and I suck at string manipulation. The forums have some help but it would be really nice if there were more sample scripts that include simple tasks like character replacement. In the end, I got it working with a StrCpy (as you'll see later).

Now that I have it working, it is actually pretty sweet. I have a single executable file (about 6.5M in size) that gives one warning box. If you agree, it will: install Firefox, disable the Import Wizard, setup a default profile, install some plugins, set it as default browser, configure everything from toolbars to plugins, and then exit. All this was only 4k [including comments] to write. Rather than posting the full text of the script I'll just post This Link to it. If you want to build your own completely customized install of FireFox, here's the steps:

1. Get VMWare Workstation (it is seriously MUCH easier this way)
2. Create a NSIS virtual machine and a TEST virtual machine (both of mine were XP)
3. Download and install NSIS on the NSIS virtual machine
4. Download and install a text editor with line numbering for editing your script (I use ConTEXT but you may find one with highlighting for NSIS)
5. Create a folder on your NSIS box for all your source files
6. Fill that folder with your source installers (Like Firefox, plugins, etc)
7. Take a VMWare snapshot of your "base install" TEST machine
8. Install Firefox and all plugins and search engines and blah blah
9. Configure all your Firefox settings and toolbars the way you like them
10. Copy the config files from your Firefox profile to your source files (see step 5)
11. Modify my script [Install_Firefox.nsi] to suit your needs
12. Recompile your script into an .exe and fill your boots

OK, it may not be quite that simple… you may have to screw with a few things to get it going but these tips may help you find what you need:

When I first started out it seemed simple enough, just run the Firefox setup program with a /S switch to make it install silently. But as I wanted to do more it became increasingly complicated. I noticed that the first time I ran my new Firefox it would start the Import Wizard and ask me to import crap from Internet Explorer. I found out that placing a special file called override.ini in my Firefox directory would disable this. Then I wanted to have my custom install use my preferences for my toolbars (like no bookmarks toolbar, and a Print icon on my regular toolbar). I also wanted all my configuration settings [everything under Tools -> Preferences] to be automatic. I found out that there are a whole bunch of files that control these things in my Mozilla profile directory. The problem was that Firefox was creating profile folders with random names (such as f83d7a90.default), so how could I tell my script where to copy files to? Well I read the profiles.ini file and find out what the path is from that (see my script for annoying StrCpy command to extract the profile folder name). Now I could copy all my saved configuration files into the profile directory.

Out of breath yet? Not me… I'm going to see if I can setup preconfigured installs for a bunch more applications!