>[!DANGER] > The development team is extremely aggressive, rude, and litigious. > > I will not be including Pale Moon in any future browser roundups or lists and I recommend that you avoid it at all costs. Pale Moon is a [[MPLv2]]/proprietary [[Source Available]] licensed hard-fork of [[Firefox]] 57 (from 2017). - [Website](https://www.palemoon.org/) > You think trademark law is a joke? \- Pale Moon project lead `wolfbeast` implying they will sue [[OpenBSD]] maintainers for working on a port[^6] # Notability An independently developed web browser that does not rely on [[Rust]] tooling. I think [[Rust]] is fine, but its complex toolchain makes it difficult to build applications for older platforms. # Philosophy ## Legal Threats In 2021 Pale Moon developers made numerous legal threats against forks who were trying to port the browser to [[OpenBSD]][^10] and [[Windows XP]].[^12] The Pale Moon developers seem to have had a particularly onerous interpretation[^5] of the [[MPLv2]]. ### Against OpenBSD Maintainers The lead developer make implied threats of legal action against [[OpenBSD]] developers, which when called out he then denied and refused to elaborate on the implication. After enduring aggressive threats, the [[OpenBSD]] maintainers decided to remove all work done on the Pale Moon port and refuse its entry into their ports list. > This issue is now officially resolved. There will be no Pale Moon browser, official or not. The port has been removed. \- ibara, [[OpenBSD]] maintainer[^6] Crucially, [[OpensBSD]] maintainers was *not* redistributing Pale Moon. The work they were doing was to understand how to build it on [[OpenBSD]] from source. ### Against Maintainers of Windows XP Port Initially, `wolfbeast` complained that the XP port Mypal did not make the source code available, which was not accurate. Later `mattatobin` claimed he could retract his contributions as used by the fork because they did not include sufficient documentation on how to obtain the source. Eventually `mattatobin` "restored" his contributions, after the project was effectively terminated. Pale Moon subsequently stopped making their source repositories publicly available for around a year thereafter.[^3] - https://web.archive.org/web/20251210212950/https://github.com/Feodor2/Mypal/issues/3 - https://web.archive.org/web/20240304043214/https://github.com/Feodor2/Centaury/issues/39 - https://web.archive.org/web/20260207114250/https://github.com/Feodor2/Centaury/issues/40 The developer Mypal has since restarted the project without Pale Moon as the basis.[^13] ## DMCA Takedown Notices ### Mirrors/Forks Pale Moon has issued DMCA Takedown Notices to [[GitHub]] to remove repositories that contain files (such as logos) available in their public repository. - https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2021/10/2021-10-14-pale-moon.md - https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2021/10/2021-10-27-pale-moon.md The exact details are fuzzy as there is little remaining of the removed project online, but the mentioned project did not seem to be in good faith itself. ### Leaked Code According to the DMCA Takedowns, commits from a private Pale Moon repository were made publicly available without permission. - https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2021/10/2021-10-28-binoc-central-mirror.md - https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2021/10/2021-10-12-boc-uxp.md ## Non-Open Source Code Pale Moon's suite includes code which are not open source.[^1] Among the reasons for this is the claim that some of them rely on proprietary libraries. For this and similar reasons, it is not possible to reproduce their binaries from source. The last official source release was in 2022 (as of [[2026-03-05]]), but it appears that at least the main source repositories are available on their self-hosted [[Gitea]] instance. Due to the ambiguity about private repos and proprietary tools, it is unclear if these are live or comprehensive. ## Project Lead Making Fun of Users Examples of `woldbeast` making fun of users asking for help are easy to find, but because others[^9] have pointed these out specifically they are included here. - https://web.archive.org/web/20250215173830/https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=18180&p=133634&hilit=slackware#p133634 ## Redistribution Pale Moon has a huge page dedicated to the do's and don't of redistributing the software.[^2] It is an incredible mess and I feel like a lawyer has never once seen it. I think this is somewhat inspired by Mozilla's branding guidelines, which have also been noted for their ridiculousness, but Mozilla have not attacked random developers and forks in pursuit of their guidelines. ## Contributors - `wolfbeast` (M. C. Straver AKA "Moonchild") is the primary developer and operator of "ManchildProductions" according to the DMCA, based in Sweden - `mattatobin` (Matt A. Tobin AKA Binary Outcast) former maintainer, banned from many forums for his hostile behavior,[^4] and eventually had a major fallout with the project in 2022[^3] and is no longer involved - `athenian200` former maintainer who, while generally more polite than the others, had been fully supportive of their attacks and was previously a radical proprietary software user before joining Binary Outcast, but after being attacked themselves by `mattatobin` they quit the project,[^11] deleted their Github account entirely, and pretty much disappeared online after posting yet another anti-[[FOSS]] screed - `shakeyourbunny` is just someone who has jumped in to support the maintainers' attacks ## Origin Pale Moon is a hard-fork of [[Firefox]] prior to "Quantum" in 2017 and retains features lost by the mainline from that earlier era. This includes hard-forking [[Gecko Browser Engine]] into the [[Goanna Browser Engine]]. ## Mission Statement > Pale Moon will continue to provide grouped navigation buttons of a decent size, a bookmarks toolbar that is enabled by default, tabs next to page content by default (easily switchable) and not in the least a functional status bar and more freedom in customization, to name a few things. Its support for classic XUL extensions and full themes also provides users with powerful tools and options to change, extend and control the browser and its user interface. ## Monetization Pale Moon has a partnership with [[duckduckgo.com]] which provides financial kickbacks and have a [[Ko-Fi]] account for donations. Oddly, (as of [[2026-03-05]]) there is no direct link to their Ko-Fi from their donations page, only a merch subpage for a "challenge coin". Paypal donations are also accepted. Pale Moon does not accept donations via cryptocurrency. # Platform Support - Linux - ~~FreeBSD~~[^8][^7] - MacOS - Windows # Features ## Customization Firefox removed most of its customization options in years past. Pale Moon retains the high level of customizability it once enjoyed. # Issues ## Restart Installing or enabling/disabling themes and extensions requires a full restart. Tres retro. ## Missing Extensions Because Pale Moon uses an older extension API, there are very few new extensions available. The biggest missing one for me is [[Dark Reader]]. But also things like [[MarkDownload]] or [[Obsidian Editor]]'s own web clipper. # Tips ## Compatibility Hacks Some sites will reject browsers they don't recognize and so the browser might need to lie to them. - https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=29327&start=80#p238599 ## uBlock Origin It seems that Pale Moon doesn't support Manifest v2 and/or more modern APIs and so mainline uBlock cannot be loaded. However, older versions of uBlock do work, and there are some people still maintaining forks of these compatible versions since [[gorhill]] spun it off. - https://github.com/UCyborg/uBlock-for-firefox-legacy/releases Potential improvement for ad blockers on some sites? Not sure if still needed. - https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?p=183822#p183822 # Acknowledgements Thanks to `mattatobin` for pointing out that I had lumped together the various legal threats with DMCA takedowns. While similar, they are technically distinct and directed at different entities. This has been corrected. Any inaccuracies continue to be my own. # Resources # References [^1]: https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=31263 [^2]: https://www.palemoon.org/redist.shtml [^3]: https://www.palemoon.org/history.shtml [^4]: https://msfn.org/board/topic/180462-my-browser-builds-part-2/page/108/?tab=comments#comment-1186420 [^5]: https://linuxreviews.org/Pale_Moon#Branding_and_Legalities [^6]: https://web.archive.org/web/20240723175908/https://github.com/jasperla/openbsd-wip/issues/86 [^7]: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/www/palemoon/Makefile?view=log&pathrev=497995 [^8]: https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports/2018-February/112455.html [^9]: https://blog.slackware.nl/pale-moon-browser-removed-from-my-repository/ [^10]: https://www.reddit.com/r/palemoon/comments/xvvzx9/comment/ir4bh3k/?context=3 [^11]: https://www.reddit.com/r/palemoon/comments/tvl2ro/i_am_no_longer_associated_with_binary_outcast/ [^12]: https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/pf6hyd/pale_moon_developers_abuse_mozilla_public_license/ [^13]: https://github.com/Feodor2/Mypal68/