I just discovered Orca Browser http://www.orcabrowser.com/
Orca Browser Portable http://www.orcabrowser.com/download.php
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It's a re-branded Firefox. So are CometBird and Blackbird. Anybody can take the source to Firefox and put their own name and logo on it because Firefox is open-source; they just can't use the Firefox name and logo since those are trademarked. The more prominent Firefox clones typically add their authors' favorite extensions and themes to further differentiate it from Firefox, but under the hood, it's the same thing.
Just study their site and figure out what extensions they added and add them yourself. Next, get a theme that looks like theirs or find the one they used. At any rate, I don't think PA are going to portablize all or any of the Firefox clones, since they have the exclusive or near exclusive permission to modify Firefox and still call it Firefox.
What I hate about the clones' sites, is they never tell you exactly what they do that Firefox doesn't. They just list their browser's features, but most of them are already in Firefox. And Internet Explorer, in some cases, like popup blocking, making it a moot point.
Just study their site and figure out what extensions they added and add them yourself. Next, get a theme that looks like theirs or find the one they used.
Why spend the time?? If you like the browser's look and add-ons just download it and use it.
And the builtin add-ons are free. Unlike the direction Mozilla is going with their Firefox add-ons.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135663/Firefox_add_on_makers_ask...
Ed
the link says:
Contributions will always be optional, Nguyen continued. "At no point are payments required for a download," he confirmed.
So they will be free too. I doubt Firefox will be able to make users pay for addons.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Contributions will always be optional, Nguyen continued. "At no point are payments required for a download," he confirmed.
Of course, most apps are free to download, it's their usage that triggers the fee requirement or ad popups.
Ed
These are the same addons for the same browser, just repackaged and rebranded.
If the upstream addon becomes chargeable, then so will the one bundled with Orca.
If the upstream addon becomes chargeable, then so will the one bundled with Orca.
Not if it's repackaged and rebranded. Different package, different rules.
Ed
What you're basically saying, is that if you repackage and rebrand pay-for code, you can legally give it away for free.
I can't wait for you to try that with Microsoft Office!
What may be happening with Moz stuff is that they are putting a framework in place to allow addon authors to request donations. Nothing more than that.
If it ever becomes obligatory to pay for a specific addon (which the Mozilla Foundation have said they will not implement), then it will be totally illegal to re-distribute those pay-for addons with some other copy of a firefox clone unless you pay for them.
If it's Open Source it can be changed and if it's changed you are not required to charge for it.
And FYI Microsoft Office is not Open Source.
Ed
if it is charged for, it is not necessarily open source.
If the licence says "you must pay", then you must pay, and yeah, that kinda means that it probably won't be opensource at that point, but if any addons were to go pay-only, that that would be the case.
It is a moot point. It doesn't seem that it is going to happen, and I for one have no objection to coders and developers getting money back from people who use and benefit from their work.
I have written and sold bespoke software in the past. It has paid for me to be able to eat. I have also written and contributed code to a number of open source projects. It saddens me, though, when open source advocates start to get militant about developers not being allowed to even ask for donations.
While I don't disagree with you, I merely meant that PA.c is unlikely to develop every custom Firefox out there. They got the main one and it works with all the extensions and themes that Orca et al are customized with, so why should they double, triple, or quadruple their work when they can just focus on Firefox? They're already a day or two to a few weeks behind on Firefox as it is, depending on the version (though usually closer to a day or two). Why add to that? I would rather see the developers of the variations pick up the PAF format and package their own. But I wouldn't ask it of JTH & crew.
I've read that article or one covering the same subject, and while it is worth noting, I'm not concerned. When one Firefox extension becomes undesirable, another will come up to take its place. When Pierceive sold out Filterset.G to Yahoo, people changed their Adblock lists in a hurry, and I hear he's not even working on that list anymore. Went from being the top name in ad blocking to nonexistent. Now Adblock Plus and EasyList are on top, and they haven't sold the users out, so far. Also, does anybody remember when FlashBlock or whatever it's called tried to disable Adblock Plus? Firefox users, as a whole, don't stand for that.
On the other hand, FoxyProxy is a pretty popular extension, and it has a paid version available. DownloadHelper is also popular, and its site is ad-supported. Firefox extension authors are already getting paid. This just makes it easier. And the second a useful extension goes pay-only, three more will come up that do the same thing. I don't think there's a single exception out there. Tab Mix Plus? Adblock Plus? Both replaceable, I believe - if it came to it.
Actually, Orca browser has been around for a while. It only fairly recently began using firefox as a base rather than internet explorer (it switched because firefox is better), and was originally based on my old browser, Avant. So it's not actually a firefox clone, since it was originally a totally different browser with its own set of features (autofills was my favorite before I discovered LastPass), but it saw a good thing in firefox and decided to merge features.