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Introducing Aquafox: A New Hope (TenFourFox fork) | Updated Oct 1, 2025
- Thread starter thewireless
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I experienced the same issue on Firefox 128 x86_64 the other day, but it seems to have disappeared now. I just checked with Aquafox, and Google Search is working as it should (image search works properly too when changing the user agent).
On that note, I've been trying out mobile user agents, and I'm actually surprised that YouTube plays just fine. In my experience, the desktop version would mostly freeze up and give playback errors
Aquafox 3.0
Hey everyone! It is the fourth quarter of the year, and that means it's time for a new release. This major release brings updated security components and patches from the latest ESR and TenFourFox, as well as a few other improvements.What's Included?
Color Emoji Support: Aquafox now includes Emoji 16.0 support provided by the Twemoji font from Pale Moon. Thanks to Jazzzny and roytam1.Enhanced Reader View: More efficient use of width for a better viewing/reading experience. Thanks to classilla.
Alternative User Agents: An overhaul of the user agent setting on the TFF Settings page; new user agents from the latest Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, as well as some mobile (Aquaweb Micro and KaiOS) and Firefox ESR versions, have been added and are sorted by category.
TenFourFox February Patchset: This includes a few low-risk security patches and updates to the ATSUI font blacklist (along with a tweak to CFF font table support), nuisance JavaScript block list, and new adbot host aliases. Thanks to classilla.
Warning Fixes: Some warnings that appeared in the browser console related to missing modules and unreachable code have been cleaned up.
Restored Help Menu: The help menu in the hamburger menu is back. Although it may not be the most used part of the interface, it previously failed to load, leading to an empty spot.
Updated Security and Data Lists: Updated HSTS preload list, HPKP pins, TLS certificate data, tracking protection blocklist, EV root certificates, and TLD list, as well as updated ICU timezone and metazone mapping data from the latest ESR 140 (140.3).
Thank you all for your continued support, and a special thank you to Santiago Lema and rlengthorn for their donations! I’ll see you all again in Q1 next year!
Direct downloads here:
Tested on a 12" Powerbook - the Reader View improvements are much appreciated!
Would you be willing to try compiling github.com/dbsoft/WhiteStar for PowerPC Tiger? I would offer, but I have very limited RAM (Powerbook G4 problems), which can cause build failures. While Aquafox is likely to be the main browser for quite some time, due to its many optimizations and features, having more browser options would be much appreciated.
Build instructions: https://dbsoft.org/whitestar-build-mac.php
Any change of making GH usable? At least being able to view comments in issues (totally broken for a while) and authentificate (without changing URL manually: clicking on more options does nothing, default mobile auth does not work).
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I've actually been trying to compile White Star (on Leopard) since last night, and I haven't had any success so far. This is likely because MacPorts is my archnemesis, hence the lack of an updated Aquafox or TenFourFox port, or an Intel version. I always run into issues. I'm not giving up, though; I will get it working eventually.
In the meantime, I tried the precompiled version as I'm expanding AquafoxBox compatibility with other browsers and had some success (both in running White Star and in creating a foxbox). There are some strange issues, like the inability to use a keyboard for text input. But the future is looking bright; White Star has a lot of potential.
The only thing I can really tell you is to ask someone else to help (me) with this. I already pinged @Ryan Bremer, @GA204, and @f54da in post #274 back in July, but I haven't heard anything from them. When I was injecting a Cloudflare polyfills bundle, it would report as loaded, yet have no real effect. I will try again later. What I'm saying is that I need help with this.
Thank you for your hard work on trying to build this for 10.4+. It's also great that you are making progress with Aquafoxbox, it is a feature I miss even on Windows with modern Firefox.
Would setting up an automatic redirect (as with older versions of this:https://github.com/einaregilsson/Redirector/tags) work? For the login.
Maybe @classilla could return to this? See: https://github.com/classilla/tenfourfox/issues/654#issuecomment-2598856373
@thewireless, I tested Aquafox 3.0 on my G5 Quad and it worked like a champ.
I tried pointing it at GMail but GMail still complains to me about using an unsupported browser. Does anyone know what it is basing this decision on (deciding that it is an unsupported browser), and how this can be overcome? Thanks!
I tried pointing it at GMail but GMail still complains to me about using an unsupported browser. Does anyone know what it is basing this decision on (deciding that it is an unsupported browser), and how this can be overcome? Thanks!
Just discovered http://html5test.co. I ran it from the new Aquafox 3.0, running on my G5 Quad under Sorbet Leopard. Here is what I got:
gh does not host older versions of scripts and the errors in the javascript console arent really about features missing, they're about misunderstood syntax
That is because Aquafox is an unsupported browser. I think it just checks the user agent, because when I changed it to modern Firefox, it disappeared. I honestly did not expect Gmail to be functional at all, but I can view and reply to emails just fine. Using the Aquaweb Micro user agent makes it a lot faster too.
As for the HTML5 test, this will be the same for all TenFourFox-based browsers. The engine remains untouched; the main differences among them are branding, optimization, configuration, and the recency of security bits like certificates.
I thought polyfills would offer reimplementations of certain JavaScript features and syntax, rather than retrieving older versions of scripts. I'm sure there is a way to inject them properly; I tried to look into places like nsGlobalWindow.cpp, but I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. This is currently out of the scope of my ability. The goal of Aquafox was clear: to tread in InterWebPPC's footsteps and provide slightly more optimized builds of TenFourFox. I think that goal was more than met.
How did I miss this? There is no end to your dedication! You are a rock star!
Some ideas for future releases: I recall that there were once some themes on Mozilla's site for FF45 that emulated the appearances of Jaguar, Tiger, and Leopard for a more seamless look, at least as recently as 2018. If they're still floating around online somewhere and we can manage to track them down, they would be great additions to pre-install with Aquafox. I think this was actually one of the initial ideas intended to ship with Sorbet, though now I'm not sure why it didn't happen in the end...
And I'm just thinking aloud here, but if we can also find a way to backport the payload of Decentraleyes 3.0 into the older (and heavily out-of-date) FF45-compatible version to pre-install with the browser, then users wouldn't need to download as much data to render a page because some of it would already be locally-hosted. So between blocking the ad and tracking servers to prevent junk data from ever loading, and locally-hosting common graphical assets and scripts to reduce the number of requests made in order to paint pages faster, Aquafox might provide an even better experience on slower systems straight out-of-the-box.
Or at least in theory. We'll see, I suppose...
On another note, I've got to get around to updating AquaWeb to use an AquafoxBox to compliment your wonderful releases. Hopefully that will happen by Q1 '26 as well, whenever there's time.
Thank you so much!How did I miss this? There is no end to your dedication! You are a rock star!
Some ideas for future releases: I recall that there were once some themes on Mozilla's site for FF45 that emulated the appearances of Jaguar, Tiger, and Leopard for a more seamless look, at least as recently as 2018. If they're still floating around online somewhere and we can manage to track them down, they would be great additions to pre-install with Aquafox. I think this was actually one of the initial ideas intended to ship with Sorbet, though now I'm not sure why it didn't happen in the end...
And I'm just thinking aloud here, but if we can also find a way to backport the payload of Decentraleyes 3.0 into the older (and heavily out-of-date) FF45-compatible version to pre-install with the browser, then users wouldn't need to download as much data to render a page because some of it would already be locally-hosted. So between blocking the ad and tracking servers to prevent junk data from ever loading, and locally-hosting common graphical assets and scripts to reduce the number of requests made in order to paint pages faster, Aquafox might provide an even better experience on slower systems straight out-of-the-box.
Or at least in theory. We'll see, I suppose...
On another note, I've got to get around to updating AquaWeb to use an AquafoxBox to compliment your wonderful releases. Hopefully that will happen by Q1 '26 as well, whenever there's time.
I've actually attempted to include Mac OS X flavored themes back in 2024, in addition to or to replace the default themes like "A Web Browser Renaissance" and "Space Fantasy". At the time, I couldn't get it to work by simply replacing the entries in lightweightThemes.recommendedThemes, as well as the shipped PNGs. I know it should be possible somehow; perhaps there are some themes in the ca-archive we can just drop in. It is still on the todo list!
As for Decentraleyes... that's also been on my todo list for a long time! I believe it should certainly be possible to upgrade and expand the included resources with updated libraries from a later Decentraleyes or even from LocalCDN. Whether it will speed up page loading times, I do not know, but it's worth trying. I just haven't found the time to really look into it.
I've actually been toying around with the idea of a new version (fork?) of AquaWeb, but with browser controls, making it a lot easier to use. However, as you can probably see by now, I am trying to do everything at the same time, constantly switching my attention between projects and ending up shipping rarely. If you would like to include browser controls in your new version of AquaWeb, I can send you the files so you can see how I did it.
With all of that said, I should probably consider using some kind of project board to track all these tasks and ideas (as there are a lot more than I just mentioned). Right now, they are just scattered in text files across numerous locations.
AquafoxBox 1.1
Ever wanted to make a White Star foxbox? Well, now you can! Introducing AquafoxBox 1.1, a small update that broadens compatibility with any community-made Firefox-based browser I could find (though probably not all).Just rename your browser of choice (or a copy) to AquafoxBoxRunner.app, and you're good to go!
As a demonstration, here is the Aquafox GitHub page (which barely renders in TenFourFox-based browsers) in a foxbox with White Star as the backend.
Direct downloads here:
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It's been some years since I was knee-deep into TFF hacking so this might not be 100% accurate, but if I recall correctly, the file structure of the browser application should be very similar to the file structure of the user data directories where profiles, bookmarks, etc. are stored. And the theme itself should just be a single file in a designated directory for themes (I think they used the XPI format, which are just renamed ZIPs), so it should be possible to just install an extension (or theme) normally, and then emulate its location in the user data directory within the application directory itself, standardizing its install. From there, it also should be possible to delete the user data copies and work exclusively off the standardized installation... with "should" being the operative word. But even if there's no way to do that, at worst case we can just make a post-install script to automate moving the files into the same user data directories that the browser would have installed normally. If nothing else, that will definitely be straightforward.
LocalCDN is an awesome alternative on modern systems, but my only reservation with it is that it didn't have a FF45 analogue version, so the assembly probably wouldn't be as simple. But if it does use compatible libraries to the FF45 Decentraleyes, perhaps it could even be combined with the Decentraleyes 3.0 libraries (minus duplicates) to provide a definitive edition of sorts for locally-hosted assets. I can also vouch that local CDN extensions like Decentraleyes and LocalCDN do make a difference even on modern systems, so I imagine that the classic systems can only benefit. Not to mention they improve privacy, too.
The AquaWeb with browser controls is amazing! How were you able to finally implement them?
I would be greatly in favor of you forking a version or just taking over, but my only concern is that plus Aquafox and all the R&D with that, it's a lot for one person. Speaking from experience because I've been there, this is supposed to be fun--not a bunch of volunteered responsibilities or commitments--and I know too well that it can oftentimes unwittingly morph into that. Create for yourself and work only on what interests you, not what Gotham needs but doesn't deserve; it is very important to have peace and a healthy work-life balance in everything in order to avoid burnout.
We are the exact same way, I too have a comprehensive library of text files littering all devices regarding essentially everything, and I'm pretty sure I think exclusively in plaintext by now. A project board would be simpler, but text files are platform-agnostic and work across macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, OpenBSD, AIX, TempleOS, etc. So the best I have come up with thus far is a central directory just filled with subdirectories to organize relevant files. LAN file servers are very good for this.