Forum Discussion
Stable Version
I purposely took one of my old laptops (not used anymore almost not usable due to age) and downloaded it, installed it, than deleted it to test it from WalkingCat's site. When deleting it informed me I was deleting an insider version (with the questionnaire of why I'm deleting it) which seem to be an old version of Edge Dev. So it's just a bootleg (hack) of Dev version made to look like a stable version. The uninstaller was the giveaway.
It reminds me back in late 1997/early 98 when warez pirates on IRC were taking Windows 95 and somehow modifying the name a bit to Windows 98 claiming it was a "leaked pre-stable release of Windows 98" when it was nothing more tha a hack up of Windows 95 made to look like a leaked version of Win 98 even though Windows 98 was closed source. It happens a lot and like others said I would stay clear of it and only download Edge Canary, Dev, and/or Beta.
Tor is infamous for doing this with Firefox (Mozilla' being fine with it) as they simply took Firefox ESP and replaced the name Firefox with the the Tor name over it and declared it "The Tor Browser" when it's nothing more than Firefox ESP. Most people using Tor don't know they're using Firefox ESP lol.
Anthony "Tor is infamous for doing this with Firefox (Mozilla' being fine with it) as they simply took Firefox ESP and replaced the name Firefox with the the Tor name over it and declared it "The Tor Browser" when it's nothing more than Firefox ESP. Most people using Tor don't know they're using Firefox ESP lol."
I don't use Tor or have any interest in the Tor browser, but I think something needs to be said: The Tor browser is an independent browser based on Mozilla's https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/. It is not Firefox ESR with the name changed and that alone.
The Tor Project takes Firefox ESR code and changes/adds patches to the base code to (a) enhance anonymity, (b) enhance privacy and security in a number of ways, (c) in most recent iterations, embed various Tor extensions directly into the modified browser. The Tor browser also changes a number of Firefox preferences from the default configuration. The details are readily available in Tor Project documentation about the browser if you are interested in the details.
What Tor is doing (developing a specialized branch/fork of existing open source code to meet specific needs) is common in the world of open source software (the branching and forking from Star Office to OpenOffice.org, then to Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice is a good example), and (in general, with limitations) freely permitted under https://www.toptal.com/open-source/developers-guide-to-open-source-licenses so long as the branched/forked code remains open source rather than proprietary.
The Tor browser branch/fork of Firefox ESR is not at all similar to the situations you describe.
- tomscharbach - I had Tor Browswer for a short time. The Onion Network is unstable at best. It's basically a world of overdramatization (on youtube), piracy and teens seeing too many 90's hacking movies and thinking they're in the Matrix or something. When I would check out any chat forums or chat rooms they were mostly filled with pervs and pedos. Why I dropped it, I found it pointless to use.
Anyhow When I went to the "about" part of the browswer it would refernece it back to Firefox ESR. Not on the desktop browswer (anymore...I think) but on the app it still does. Yes, it does add it's own "codec" and all that stuff built on top of Firefox ESR that suppose to make the user more secure and "hidden" but it's not as as secure as people think. The FBI used a security issue/bug in FireFox ESP that was being used by Tor and nailed a lot of illegal activity. Firefox went through the roof with that. Most users htink Tor is it's own source engine browswer not knowing it's sourced off Firefox/Gecko.
Anyhow...I download Tor for Andorid browswer an hour ago to see, and if I put in about:firefox it comes up with the about page of "Firefox ESR 60.0.8".
Here's that link about the FBI bust and Mozilla reaction to it: https://thehackernews.com/2016/05/fbi-tor-firefox.html?m=1- These days TOR is mostly used by the same people you describe, desperate to find out what the dark web is and all the filth in it. but little do they know, there is no search engine for dark web lol.
it's not like there is no organization in the world that can't stop it though. of course they can, they just don't want to.
image if FBI could pull that hack off against TOR users then what NSA could do!
right now TOR is not as safe as it used to be say in 2014 when Ed Snowden used to talk about it.
there are also some people that use it to circumvent censorship such as people in China or other countries with domestic firewall or even DPI censorship and TOR is great for them because of custom relays and stuff.
- Tom, IMO, at this point in time, no matter the source, they are leaked, premature and absolutely NOT recommend, at all!
Cheers,
Drew
Sent from Windows Phone
They still do. one of the most popular one is called Wzor (.net). that guy has a Twitter account too and publishes his own homebrew version of Microsoft products. I don't know how some people can trust those distros..they can easily embed a backdoor.
I think Tor is infamous because of the darkweb stuff, otherwise it's something like VPNs, but more secure. Tor has its own browser though for Android (last time i checked it was still in Beta phase).
