Pale Moon is an open source web browser with a focus on customization and user control, with strong emphasis placed on privacy features like zero ads.
Wil Rose of Pale Moon reported that their organization has recovered financially since 1990 and are no longer seeking bankruptcy protection.
Features
Pale Moon is a web browser with an emphasis on customization, giving users the power to tailor their browsing experience. Built around Goanna layout and rendering engine – a fork of Gecko used by Firefox -, Pale Moon supports extensions, themes, customizable start pages and most Linux environments.
This browser comes in both regular and portable editions; both can be installed onto desktop PCs while portable versions may be used on multiple host systems. Both offer custom installers that protect user settings when upgrading.
Pale Moon stands as an open source project with an emphasis on free and open software principles, while still offering customization, security and stability features for an enhanced browsing experience. Pale Moon utilizes its own modified version of Gecko layout engine for optimized browsing speed; additionally it is compatible with most Firefox add-ons.
Pale Moon does not support some modern browser features such as WebExtensions framework and sandboxing, although their developer is working towards adding these capabilities in future releases of Pale Moon.
The browser offers various privacy-related settings to assist users in protecting their online activities, such as tracker protection, do-not-track requests and cookie management – these settings can be found via the Preferences menu. In addition, this browser features several security features like the ability to use SSL/TLS connections.
Pale Moon goes beyond traditional features to offer some distinctive ones such as easy-to-spot navigation buttons, an advanced bookmark toolbar, and an easily manageable status bar. Furthermore, Pale Moon supports link rel=preload meta tags so documents can be preloaded quickly.
This browser is free to download and use, without ads or spyware, allowing users to customize its appearance with various themes. Furthermore, it supports multiple languages with built-in spell checker capabilities as well as an integrated search engine; and can display content in HD quality.
Usability
Pale Moon is an open source web browser designed for customization and independence from Mozilla Foundation. Based on Goanna – a fork of Gecko used by Firefox – this browser strives to offer users a faster and more customizable experience through various themes and extensions that enhance its functionality.
The browser features a unique tab interface that displays open tabs in an organized manner for easier locating of specific tabs, as well as providing an easy way to list them all at the same time. Furthermore, there are other useful tab features such as full control over image loading or tab placement preferences for JavaScript and multimedia support, and more.
Pale Moon provides users with the ability to save a search bar and keyboard shortcuts, which can be found within its Settings panel. Furthermore, an improved Sync feature enables them to synchronize bookmarks, history, passwords and more across all of their instances of Pale Moon.
Pale Moon stands out from other browsers by not including some popular features found in modern ones like support for ad blocking or HTML5 video playback; such as support for ad blockers or video streaming. These features may invade users’ privacy or cause issues on specific websites; nonetheless, Pale Moon supports numerous classic Firefox extensions and is compatible with most features available to it.
Pale Moon users were asked in early 2021 what their vision for Pale Moon should be in terms of future focus. Options available to them included matching Chrome 100%, being a Firefox clone without Telemetry and data gathering, supporting classic Firefox extensions or returning to what Pale Moon had always strived for – with the latter receiving most votes in this poll.
As of this writing, Pale Moon is currently available on both Windows and Linux systems, as well as portable versions that can run off removable media such as a USB stick. While community members may try to maintain releases for macOS OSX as well, such attempts are unofficially supported by Pale Moon itself.
Privacy
Pale Moon is an open source web browser derived from Firefox that features some extensions removed and more of the XUL features restored. It boasts an active user community with full themes and extensions available as well as advanced configuration and customization features that are optimized for modern processors while remaining safe to use.
Most websites track your browsing and use that information to sell products, provide services or serve ads that are specifically tailored to your interests (“personalized ads”). You can opt-out by switching on “Never remember history”, which does not interfere with using sites but does prevent them from knowing your past browsing history and/or current location.
The Options dialog displays a list of all currently stored cookies and allows for their easy deletion. It also gives you control over how Pale Moon should store any information related to your browsing habits that it might store.
Pale Moon users who use multiple installations of the browser can take advantage of Sync to keep their bookmarks, history, passwords and preferences synchronized across them all. Data stored via SSL backup ensures it remains protected against malicious web servers snooping into it and other attempts at intrusion by malicious servers. Sync services are provided as a free courtesy to Pale Moon users with accounts regularly being purged (based on last logged-in date) so as to preserve space efficiently.
The tab overview feature allows you to easily view the contents of each tab by clicking an icon in the toolbar, making it easier for you to narrow down what’s being shown on any given tab. It is especially helpful when dealing with many open tabs at once; alternatively there are various other ways of finding specific ones such as through search or pinnable items menu. In Pale Moon Options dialog you can also control whether passwords and certificates are encrypted (enabled by default), helping protect against unauthorized access even if their keyfile gets stolen.
Security
Pale Moon, like Firefox, places an emphasis on personalization to give you full control of your browsing experience. Its slogan is “Your Browser, Your Way.” Forked from Firefox with Goanna layout and rendering engine legacy support provided for many security/privacy tools.
Pale Moon automatically queries an OCSP responder server when visiting sites requiring personal certificates to confirm their current validity, giving you confidence in browsing security. When an OCSP query fails, Pale Moon rejects the SSL/TLS certificate and prompts you to select another or decline to connect at all.
Pale Moon can keep track of which websites you visit and store information about them (for instance, your name and address of home city). At any time you can choose to clear this history or customize how cookies and site data are managed in Preferences > Privacy.
Pale Moon goes beyond standard web browser features by offering enhanced security options that you can configure in the Privacy tab of its Preferences menu. Here, you can block a large number of cookie domains while maintaining a list of sites which should never receive cookies or site data from Pale Moon.
Pale Moon can add extra layers of protection by showing a padlock icon in the address bar to indicate which pages you visit are encrypted with HTTPS and warning when an HTTP page contains content that could be seen or modified by attackers, even though its main page was served over HTTPS.
A browser may also prevent certain compromised or weak ciphers used for secure communications over HTTPS from being utilized, as well as blocking certain types of network protocols like P2P (peer-to-peer) and WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication).
Pale Moon is not meant to replace Firefox; rather it provides greater stability than other major web browsers and works with most features found in modern Firefox builds. Unfortunately it does not provide as seamless an experience when dealing with some features, such as seamless integration of location services provided by some mobile networks or the ability to detect and use geolocation in various social media apps.
