On 2/25/2016 12:39 PM, H Kyu wrote:
​Hello -
Recently, Mozilla's Firefox browser introduced a few new features that
got me to remove Firefox on my Windows PC altogether. The features
were Hello, Camera Access (Android), and screen-sharing. Every single
one of those features did not sit well with me from a security
perspective. On top of that, Firefox seems to be splitting away from
the Gecko engine, the Gecko engine was the main reason for my using
Firefox in the first place - because I disliked the functional model
of WebKits. If I wanted a WebKit, I'd have used Chrome.
Then there is the interface - I prefer the Firefox 1 interface... in
fact, I prefer the Netscape Navigator 4's interface even better -
practical and informational. I like my status bar, and all my buttons
showing all the time, even if disabled. I like status indicators,
which includes grayed-out buttons. I also prefer the old settings
screen where the browser remembers the last settings tab, and I can
see all the settings without scrolling. I am still amazed at the fact
that Firefox would just abandon their core fans and move away to cater
to others.
Debian's Gnome uses Iceweasel much like Windows uses IE.
MY QUESTION: Would Iceweasel also be incorporating those bothersome
features in the near future? If so, would it be possible to use
Debian without Iceweasel or any Mozilla product?
The camera access is needed for video calling, the screen sharing is a
sub-feature of the video calling.
In newer android you may be able to deny Firefox permission to use the
camera, won't stop it from
wanting it enable during installation. One would hope it doesn't
actually get permission right off the
bat and that you would be asked to give permission the first time a
feature is used that needs it, but
that is another question.
People have already answered the question about browsers in Debian and
not being forced to use
Firefox.
Over the long haul I suspect it will become more difficult to find a
browser that does not implement
some kind of support for webrtc.
After a few minutes of Googling.......
/"//Concerns///
/In January 2015, //TorrentFreak
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TorrentFreak>//reported that browsers
supporting WebRTC suffer from a serious security flaw that compromises
the security of //VPN-tunnels
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network>//, by allowing
the true //IP address <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address>//of the
user to be read.//^<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebRTC#cite_note-26>
//The IP address read requests are not visible in the browser's
developer console, and they are not blocked by common //ad blocking
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_filtering>///privacy plugins (enabling
online tracking by advertisers and other entities despite
precautions).//^<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebRTC#cite_note-27> /
//
/WebRTC can be enabled or disabled in //Microsoft Edge
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Edge>//by going to
//|about:flags|//and toggling it on/off. In Firefox by toggling the
value of "media.peerconnection.enabled" in //|about:config
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About:config>|//, and WebRTC settings can
be changed in //|about:webrtc|//. WebRTC cannot be disabled in the
desktop version of Google Chrome, although there is a plug-in available
for blocking it^" //^<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebRTC#cite_note-28> /
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebRTC
/"//WebRTC is a set of browser APIs and protocols being worked on by the
//W3C <http://www.w3.org/2011/04/webrtc/>//and //IETF
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/rtcweb/>//standardization bodies. With
WebRTC, developers can quickly add real-time peer-2-peer audio, video
and data capabilities to their web applications through a set of
standardised JavaScript APIs. /
/WebKit today lacks support for this exciting new standard. Our
intention is to add WebRTC support to WebKit, starting with the WebKit
GTK+ port (Linux), by means of the //OpenWebRTC
<http://www.openwebrtc.org>//implementation. Much of the WebRTC support
will be implemented in the core of WebKit and therefore shared among all
WebKit ports. This will also enable integration of other WebRTC backends
such as //webrtc.org <http://webrtc.org>//."
/
http://www.webrtcinwebkit.org//
/
Later, Seeker
/
/