It's based off the same open source as FF but superior in every way. It loads and runs much more quickly, the memory bloat is much less, and it still supports all your favorite add-ons. (For me, NoScript and Fluff Busting Purity are essential.) Menus and functionality are almost exactly the same as FF, so there is no dramatic learning curve.
IMNdi commented Sep 28, 2017:
@watchpocket If I may chime in, Waterfox is a one man project that proposes to maintain pace with Mozilla (it did) and (now) keep addon compatibility. That is a monumental task and doesn't solve other Mozilla issues, like the control they took away from the user or future decisions to kill the UI and user privacy. Mozilla announced a new-new UI.
It is not in the scope of Waterfox nor is it feasible for a person to maintain a "freeze" of features. Waterfox is essentially a stripdown of Firefox that proposes to (now) maintain XUL after Firefox drops it. This would be the first major workload spike on the maintainer.
By contrast, PM is a standalone browser and while new features are uncertain, stability is not. PM never gained the new Australis so there is nothing to maintain.
This is what kept me from going Waterfox and put the effort into PM.
Also, PM is faster, since it never got the later bloat. Whether you think that is good is what your definition of bloat is. I happen to think Firefox has been gaining weight recently.
~~snip~~
mgol commented Sep 28, 2017:
@IMNdi I share your concerns about Waterfox. I've been watching recent changes to Firefox and there's been a massive number of commits stripping out code needed only for the XUL add-ons infrastructure to work, legacy code not yet removed due to compatibility concerns with add-ons etc. It's going to be very hard to revert all those changes and at the same time keep the code up to date with Mozilla latest changes. It's not as simple as it was with restoring NPAPI compatibility.
#52 Thanks. I just installed it. Loads websites faster.
It imported all my add-ons including “classic theme restorer” which makes it look like older version of Firefox and “Tab Mix Plus” and “Theme Font & Size Changer”, “NoSquint Plus” plus a few others to download youtube videos.