Bonum Certa Men Certa

Windows Ruining Firefox for GNU/Linux Users



Reprinted with permission from Ryan

One of the top crashers on Firefox 115 is Windows malware interfering with Firefox in a particular way.



On TechRights IRC, Roy Schestowitz sums it up.



“Many firefox bug fixes are like that. They release security patches (and new blobs) but they address windows problems.”



I interjected, “Sticking your finger in the holes in the dam.”



Roy continues, “So a gnu/linux user needs to get another 200MB of junk.”



What makes it worse is that Fedora not only has this colossal piece of shit called GNOME Software that demands a restart, of the entire computer, even over a Firefox update, but that they stopped producing Delta RPMs so you have to download the full 200 MB of shit that hasn’t changed, to keep their version number in sync with Windows.



Roy notes that some of these crap patches for Windows bugs (bugs IN WINDOWS) cause Firefox to malfunction on Linux and jam up.



Also notes that Mozilla hires “Mac heads instead of software developers.”.



But it’s so much worse than that. They fired 250 people who were working on Gecko and redirected others to develop adware and spyware and nag screens under a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Supervisor.



One of my top complaints about the gnome-desktop metapackage (Fedora doesn’t have meta-packages as such, thank god) in Debian, was I couldn’t apt remove firefox without it wanting to take out a bunch of other stuff….or install another shitty browser I didn’t want. Chromium.



Stopping to deal with several hundred MB of RPMs and a third of it is Firefox playing bullshit version bump because Windows malware makes it crash, is very very frustrating.



However, in Fedora you _can_ dnf remove firefox. They haven’t managed to bungle this, although I suppose I should not give them ideas.



Most of the time I’m not on the fastest possible VPN server because I usually route my Internet connection through European countries where they treat people fairly well instead of the United States.



They run a lot of ads to try to convince Americans we don’t need VPNs or private browsing modes, and only a crank doesn’t like Windows (which is failing), but we know where this advice comes from.



I love operating systems (like Windows and Mac) that get in my way with “code signing” and then you find out that there’s this Chinese thing that signs whatever using an expired certificate, fakes the signature timestamp, and then runs the code.



Then you look at the Time Stamp Authority using Windows Explorer and the fucker says “Fake Time Stamp”.



It’s barely worth trying to secure your computing practices and then leave a mess like this as your operating system.



Primo forged

“Despite the warning displayed in the digital signature details above, the cracked driver for PrimoCache still functions properly when installed on Windows 10. […]



Microsoft, in response to our notification, has blocked all certificates discussed in this blog post. […]



Microsoft implements and maintains a driver block list within Windows, although it is focused on vulnerable drivers rather than malicious ones. As such, this block list should not be solely relied upon for blocking rootkits or malicious drivers.”

-Talos Intelligence


Since the operating system warns about the tampering and runs it anyway (allowing it to patch the kernel and become a rootkit), the only way to view this is “Microsoft wanted to promote ‘security’ and leave a huge gaping backdoor in for three letter agencies.”



And you notice that nowhere did Microsoft change the policy or actually fix the issue, they only made it so you can’t use the example certificates that Talos Intelligence cited.



Windows is a giant festering mess and since Mozilla kowtows and sucks up to them and spends almost all of their remaining development effort working around its many glaring design flaws, I don’t want this particular Windows chocolate in my Linux peanut butter.



Firefox is pretty garbage anyway as a “cross platform” program that’s mainly focused on Windows.



I strongly prefer to leave GNOME Web in the background while I mainly use SeaMonkey with sanity-preserving add-ons.



At least the people who work on these projects actually use them and mostly focus on Linux.



Lately when I open a Mozilla-ish browser it tends to be LibreWolf, from Flatpak (which has a Delta RPM-like update anyway) and then I grab some videos or something using video download helper and close it again.



A while back, (I read in the release notes) Mac OS broke SeaMonkey due to yet another bug in Apple’s kernel, but the problem was confined to….well….whatever special kind of nutbag uses a Mac and appreciates some of SeaMonkey’s unique functionality.



Using SeaMonkey productively is starting to require a lot of special knowledge.



One of the reasons I still use Fedora is they start out with a ton of patches that are out-of-tree and fix some of the roughness.



Ironically, I have to revert back to using GNOME Web or LibreWolf just to edit my blog since WordPress put some more Googleshit in their editor, which used to work fine with Web standards.



I also recently went back to paper statements with the electric company (no fee for that) and told the lady it was because ComEd switched to Microsoft Azure (corruption, bribery) and now it was putting Google Chrome nonsense and bastard JavaScript in their site that SeaMonkey simply does not understand.



Things are getting worse, not better. But for email, IRC, and most of my browsing it works fine.



The tab management code is largely so old it dates back to Firefox 1.5 and 2, and amusingly it can open and close tabs faster and much more responsively (I have an eleventh generation Core i7) than Firefox!



There should not be jank in a browser on a system as new as mine, and yet there is.



The mentality of Google and Mozilla is to just throw more shit in there and make the pile higher. The more the better.



Then nobody but a “trillion dollar tech company” subsidized by the US spy agencies can build a browser.



I recently reported the security vulnerability I found on Discover Bank’s Web site to Mozilla since it seems to be an issue in Gecko that sloppy Javascript programmers at the bank stumbled into.



I didn’t bother hiding the bug because I believe people should know about these things.



Here’s the bug. Here’s an archived version in case Mozilla tries to hide it later.



While they’re off worried about the millions of Windows malwares crashing their shit, they can’t bother to fix real issues, so we’ll see if this report turns into ANOTHER Bugzilla ghost town or what.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Richard Stallman About to Give More Talks in Europe, Some Confirmed Already
In Göteborg
Justice for Wildlife
animals cannot speak to humans who hate animals
GNU Was Right 42+ Years Ago
Since then the abusive, user-hostile technology has spread like mushrooms
 
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Motorcycling in Central Oregon, Protocol Styles and the Flag of Sark
Links for the day
Links 30/09/2025: Death Sentences, Internet Censorship, and Internet Shutdowns
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Social Control Media and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Links 30/09/2025: CERN in "Have I Been Pwned" and More Windows TCO Blunders
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical is Selling Mass Surveillance and Back Doors as "Security for Ubuntu"
If you are looking for a GNU/Linux distro to use, just remember that Microsoft has Ubuntu in the bag
Cowboys Gonna Be Cowboys (on the Internet, They're Not a New Problem)
Boys will be boys
Cowboys of the "Left" and Cowboys of the "Right"
Don't believe the lie that this is some "leftist" thing
When Codes of Conduct Serve to Protect Criminals From Much-Deserved Scrutiny
CoCs are typically unfit for purpose because enforcement lacks context and suitable understanding of the full background (the "full story")
It Took the Open Source Initiative (OSI) 4+ Years to Address the 'Data Breach' or Data Protection Violation Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) in March 2025
We may never know the dialogue or its nature
Even Microsoft's Biggest Boosters (and Media Operatives) Are Turning Against Microsoft
Expect many more layoffs before the fake "results" next month
Old Isn't Always Inadequate
How many gadgets manufactured today (in 2025) will still work in 2075?
The Monkey Business of Rust People
Compatibility won't matter
Almost Half of the FSFE's Money (the Fake 'FSF', Misusing the Brand) Comes From Vodafone
That money always comes with strings, even if they're invisible to most of us
Microsoft Lunduke Spreads Deliberate Lies to Incite Online Mobs
Has he lost his reading comprehension skills?
Our 19th Birthday (in Just Over 5 Weeks From Now)
We meanwhile have ongoing, solid plans to cover patent-related issues when the FSF turns 40
British GNU/Linux Distro FydeOS Tops DistroWatch
That seems like a decent site and decent effort to keep an eye on
We'll Soon Have 75,000 GemText Pages
avoid many perils of today's Web
Google Used Free Software to Build a Monopoly. Now Google Kicks Free Software to the Curb
The "G" in "Google" does not stand for GNU. It never did. It's just another greedy company.
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Retro Hardware, Federated Fragmentation, and Nex Server Written in C
Links for the day
4 More Days Till "4 decades, 4 freedoms, 4 all users"
We are now just 4 days away from the rare anniversary
Two Months After Merging to Hide GitHub Losses Microsoft is Doing It Again (This Time Windows)
Merging those two together is not a sign of strength but a tightening of budget
Speculations About the Next Large Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs
the mass layoffs are likely to happen on week 3 or 4 in October
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 29, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 29, 2025
Links 29/09/2025: Opposition to Surveillance Giant Google and Conflicts Worldwide (Moldova Sides With EU)
Links for the day
Why the EPO Never Managed to Silence Us (After Over a Decade of Trying)
Firms like Mishcon de Reya and Brett Wilson LLP contribute to a bad stigma, staining the entire occupation
Links 29/09/2025: Datacenter Fires and "Too Much Internet Use Is Changing Teenage Brains"
Links for the day
Almost a Couple of Years After Microsoft Hijacked the Name 'Sudo' (to Describe Unrelated Windows Stuff) Microsoft Canonical Breaks Sudo in Ubuntu
These are vandals in "goodwill" or "security" clothing
Does the Good Law Project (GLP) Know the Director of Brett Wilson LLP Deems It OK to Endorse Violent Actions Against Trans People?
We were miffed to see this morning's report
Names Are Not Unique IDs and the UK Government's "Digital ID System" Would be a Nightmare
Digital surveillance, "apps", and worse (all the time)
What is Roy and Rianne's Righteously Royalty-free RSS Reader?
A news reader that uses OPML files and parses RSS feeds
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 in 5 Days
We should be talking about software freedom, not "Open Source"
It Feels Like Brett Wilson LLP Has Just Tacitly Admitted That It Defamed Me
It arguably admitted many other things by refusing to deny or address them (altogether)
Stefano Maffulli's Front Page Mentions "AI" 11 Times
They're more focused on slop (plagiarism) than sharing or Software Freedom
CMS Rot
With "modern" (bloated) content management systems (CMSs) there is a long chain of dependencies
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 28, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 28, 2025
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About Linux 6.17 and Microsoft Meddling in Linux Development
today's Slopwatch is short because the picks are from Sunday
Gemini Links 29/09/2025: The Labor Wars and Retro
Links for the day