Saw that there’s a Firefox browser named Mull for Android in this thread. I went to check it out in the Play Store, but saw it’s not there. Apparently, it’s one of those that have to be side loaded. I use stock Android and Firefox, btw.
- What’s Mull about?
- Why would someone use it over Firefox?
- What are it’s benefits and disadvantages?
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Mull is a browser for android. You can download it from https://f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/.
Its hardened Firefox with some good privacy features turned on. I use it on a daily basis.
FFUpdater from F-Droid, is a clean way to automatically check for and download updates for Mull and other modified browsers.
Mull already is part of a separate F-droid repo by divestOS developers. No need for yet another installer.
Thanks for your comment. I was using FFUpdater for Mulch and Mull browsers.
Looks like Mull is now added to the main Fdroid repo. I’ve switched to that one for Mull.
Good to know. Thanks
- It’s a Firefox fork with focus on security
- The equivalent of Librewolf on Android
- clearly… people use it for security reasons
- The good thing about it is clearly security , but its focus on privacy comes at the expense of speed … which is its main disadvantage in my experience
Yeah the refresh rate is limited to 60fps on the app.
Mull is a hardened fork of Firefox. I use it but some rare websites’ functionality does not work with it. Mull is not more secure than Chromium though, even if it is hardened. Chromium is undoubtedly more secure but not privacy-friendly. I also don’t want to support the chromium monopoly, so I don’t use them. Brave as a browser also sucks. Shields suck. Nothing to this day has been better than uBlock Origin yet.
Why do you claim Chromium is more secure than Firefox based browsers? Where there any security issues Firefox had but Chromium didn’t? Bugs in sandboxing?
Firefox’s sandboxing sucks ass (especially on Linux). Mozilla has still not implemented a better sandbox, despite the open discussion since years. GrapheneOS (a security and privacy focused aosp rom) uses Chromium for its browser Vanadium because it ultimately is undoubtedly more secure. Google pumps millions into their chrome security team.
So while not that good for privacy, chrome/chromium is better for security.
Firstly, sandboxing is a part of layers of layers of security mechanisms. You cannot tell the overall security by just looking on it. In recent years, a lot has changed in Firefox’ sandbox. I don’t know if it cached up, but I’d guess it has become quite a good sandbox by now.
What is more important for me, however, is the discrepancy in zero days. Chromium just had more in the past. That may be due to the gap on market share and therefore interest of “hackers” but it shows that you can’t just claim that Firefox “sucks ass” and Chromium is safer.
I think there is just a lot of opinion in the internet regarding this topic while not a lot of information.
E: my intention was not to attack you. Security is a complex topic. I just couldn’t verify your claim that Chromium would be “undoubtedly” better.
Loads of good answers to your question that I don’t need to add to.
I just thought I’d give fdroid a shout out.
It’s an alternative app store focused on FOSS. That’s where you’ll find mull, and a bunch of other great apps.
You do need to give it permission to install apps but I’ve never thought of it as side loading.
- it’s a fork focused on privacy and security
You’d use it if that’s important to you.
For GrapheneOS, is there any reason to use anything but Vanadium?
Tor Browser that is configured to use a VPN as it’s networking layer rather than the Tor network.
Also a good opportunity for them to catch a few sales for their own particular VPN service.
And if you don’t really care for VPNs, it is Firefox with the Arkenfox user.js template applied, in addition to some compile time flags disabling things like Mozilla’s telemetry reporting (even though this is already disabled by the user.js template).
I guess you mean Mullvad Browser? Mull is an Android Firefox fork with some hardening. You can read what they have done here: https://divestos.org/pages/our_apps#mull
Mull is not made by Mullvad. Mull is made by the dev of DivestOS.
I genuinely thought it was slang for Mullvad. Thanks, I stand corrected.
On the topic of Mullvad, what made me choose Kullvad over LibreWolf was the VPN being bundled in. If I’m not mistaken, the whole point of ToR browser is that you have exactly the same fingerprint as any other Tor browser user, making it a lot harder to distinguish you from others using your extensions, browser and other minor stuff your browser reports about you, that combined makes for a pretty unique fingerprint, evej of you are using a VPN.
But, if you have a browser that has the same fingerprint for all users, and it has an accompanying VPN, you can partly expect that most of other users of the same VPN will also be using the same browser, making it a lot harder to track you - because while there may be only a few thousands users of Mullvad in the wild, which renders the same fingerprint not much of an advantage (because you would be one of the few users of i.e Proton VPN with Mullvad), if you also use Mullvad VPN, it’s probable that most of other users who share your Mullvad VPN IP are also Mullvad browser users, making it easier to blend in.
Bit that’s mostly my theory, why (along with being able to pay with Monero) I feel like the combo of Mullvad browser and VPN is the best combination as far as minimizing fingerprint is considered. If someone has more knowledge about the issue, I’d love to hear some counter-arguments or tips how to improve my setup.
