This year will see Waterfox shipping a native content blocker built on Brave’s adblock library [...] For how it works in practice: by default, text ads will remain visible on our default search partner’s page - currently Startpage. The idea is that this is what will keep the lights on.

for those having trouble reading the title on clients that automatically make flairs: it's "15 Years of [Waterfox]" it's not supposed to be flair dangit

Fifteen years ago today, I posted a thread on the Overclock.net forums. I was sixteen, I had an HP Compaq TC4400 that I’d convinced my parents would “improve my school work”, and I was frustrated that Firefox didn’t have an official 64-bit build. So I compiled one myself, called it Waterfox, stuck it on SourceForge and went back to my A levels.

Within a week it had 50,000 downloads, completely unexpected. Frustratingly, being on an island in the Mediterranean meant there was no support network or anyone to turn to with regards to “what’s next”. Had I been stateside, with the infrastructure and institutional knowledge of “tech”, who knows - I might’ve had a guiding hand on how to manage something like this and work with the momentum. But alas, I would have to learn a lot of painful lessons myself.

Friends,

We're happy to announce that we have funding available to package BusKill in QubesOS as a contrib package.

Thanks to a generous donation from NovaCustom, we're offering a bounty to anyone (including you!) who packages BusKill as an official contrib package for QubesOS.

About BusKill

BusKill is a laptop kill-cord. It's a USB cable with a magnetic breakaway that you attach to your body and connect to your computer.

Watch the BusKill Explainer Video for more info youtube.com/v/qPwyoD_cQR4

If the connection between you to your computer is severed, then your device will lock, shutdown, or shred its encryption keys

thus keeping your encrypted data safe from thieves that steal your device.

About NovaCustom

In Mar 2015, Wessel klein Snakenborg (founder of NovaCustom) started selling highly-customizable Linux laptops from Europe.

In Aug 2021, NovaCustom released their first laptop (NV40) with coreboot pre-installed with Dasharo.

NovaCustom offers anti-tamper options, including glitter nail polish applied to the chassis screws (photos sent to you via Proton Mail before shipment — specify PGP key at checkout for e2ee)

Since 2023, NovaCustom has been a leader in hardware security:

• In Apr 2023, NovaCustom started offering Intel ME disabling
• In May 2023, NovaCustom demonstrated their commitment to free software and the security community by obtaining Qubes certification on their NV41 Series laptop.
• In Sep 2023, NovaCustom started offering anti-interdiction services, which includes applying a unique glitter pattern to your new laptop's chassis screws before shipment. This was inspired by Michael Altfield's article about Trusted Boot,
• In Feb 2024, NovaCustom started selling their NV41 laptop with Heads pre-installed
• In Sep 2024, NovaCustom's V56 laptop became Qubes Certified
• In Nov 2024, NovaCustom partnered with BusKill to bundle their security laptops with BusKill Kits, including the option to purchase BusKill Kits in-person (with cash) at their brick-and-mortar office in The Netherlands
• In Feb 2025, NovaCustom's V54 laptop became Qubes Certified
• In Mar 2026, NovaCustom donated $200 to BusKill, for packaging and documenting BusKill in apt, making it easier (and safer) to install BusKill on Debian-based Linux distros

And now, in Apr 2026, NovaCustom is further working to increase the accessibility of BusKill to QubesOS users, by sponsoring the submission of an official QubesOS contrib package.

Funding Available

If you'd like to claim this bounty for yourself, please

1. Read the details of the bounty, and then
2. Submit a proposal by commenting on this GitHub issue

Claim Bounty

opencollective.com/buskill/projects/qubes-package

Moreover, if you're a QubesOS user and you'd like to donate additional funds in support of this bounty, you can do so here.

• opencollective.com/buskill

Stay safe,

The BusKill Team
https://www.buskill.in/
http://www.buskillvampfih2iucxhit3qp36i2zzql3u6pmkeafvlxs3tlmot5yad.onion/

Title and image from alternativeto.net, to unbury the lede, but linked to the original post.

This year will see Waterfox shipping a native content blocker built on Brave’s adblock library - and it’s worth explaining what that means and why.

The blocker runs in the main browser process rather than as a web extension, which means it isn’t subject to the limitations that extension based blockers like uBlock Origin face. It’s faster, more tightly integrated, and doesn’t depend on a separate extension process or require us to constantly pull in upstream updates. Brave’s adblock library is also mature - it has paid engineers working on it, a wide filterset, and crucially it’s licensed under MPL2, the same licence as Waterfox, which makes it a natural fit. uBlock Origin, as good as it is, carries a GPLv3 licence that would’ve created real compatibility headaches.

For how it works in practice: by default, text ads will remain visible on our default search partner’s page - currently Startpage. The idea is that this is what will keep the lights on. ~~This mirrors the approach Brave takes with their search partner.~~

Users who want to disable that entirely can do so with a single toggle in settings, and it has nothing to do with any of Brave’s crypto or rewards ecosystem - we’re just using the adblocking library. Everyone else gets a fast, native adblocker out of the box, no extension required.

If you already use an adblocker, don’t worry, you can carry on using it. This will be enabled for new users or users who aren’t already using an adblocker.

In the meanwhile, Waterfox’s membership of the Browser Choice Alliance alongside Google and Opera, is pushing for fair competition and actual user choice in the browser market.

We’ve just released NetNewsWire 7.0.4 for Mac. Do a Check for Updates or download it directly to get the update.
The big new changes are to iCloud syncing: there’s a new setting to not sync the content of unread articles, since that’s the biggest part of your iCloud database and what takes the longest to sync.
Another change is a new iCloud Storage Stats window that tells you exactly what’s in your iCloud storage — and it includes a Clean Up button that will trim down your storage (and lead to faster syncs in the future, though not necessarily right at first).

This is why we install from FDroid.

To build an independent office suite, Euro‑Office’s IT consortium opted to base it on the existing open‑source solution OnlyOffice, which is released under the AGPL‑v3