Msg: Re: Dire straits for Firefox users

One major reason why I keep those 3 browsers updated and functional is printing. I regularly come upon web pages I want to print out, which at least 2 of the browsers cannot handle. Not all content will display (we've probably discussed this before, relevant to Scrapbook, which I never really learned how to use effectively), or there will be extensive text overlaid on top of other text, or other problems. This is often seemingly due to the web page in question either having been poorly formatted in HTML5 -- or whatever -- **or** it's having been designed to display correctly _only_ in the MS browsers, which I have despised. So, I end up having to print it out in the 4th. browser (IE) anyway, if I really insist on being able to print it out. (But the same would apply to simply capturing it as a file, because "What You See is What You Get.") I also like to save stuff as HTML or PDF, because a lot of articles and web content that has reference value just disappears for good, perhaps sooner rather than later. Whole domains or sources go extinct, etc. If you've grabbed it while it existed, then you at least have it. But often, *one* of those 3 browsers can capture or print it appropriately.

I should gain more familiarity with VM and sandboxing . . . but in cases with great suspicion of risk but where curiosity wins out and I still want to investigate something (like a dodgey piece of email one has received), I will run a Linux Live CD or Win PE disk with no hard drive attached, and then browse away. In that scenario, I think you are essentially untouchable, in regard to malware threats. This would not do for banking, though.

Jordan

From: Kari Eveli
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2018 10:24 AM
Subject: Re: Dire straits for Firefox users

Hello Jordan,

I have been wondering the same. If one is paranoiac about this, there is
always the possibility to run the browser within the confines of a
virtual machine, but that can really be an inconvenience. I do all my
banking on the browser, and banking applications require an up-to-date
browser to function. Running different browsers for different
applications would mean quite many complications in daily life, but
going modern and ditching Scrapbook (my number one tool) for something
else feels really bad.

Best regards,

Kari Eveli
LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland)
lexitec@xxxxxxxx

*** Lexitec Online ***
Lexitec in English: http://www.lexitec.fi/english.html
Home page in Finnish: http://www.lexitec.fi/

> If necessary, I may just keep on using the last functional ESR for FF on
> an indefinite basis . . . because I think the added functionality of
> those extensions outranks the other concerns. I have long been
> buttressing them with use of the other two browsers I mentioned anyway,
> for various reasons. At the same time, I have to wonder whether the
> supposed security risks with the non-updated product are greatly
> overblown. I think that could be true, but it may depend to some extent
> upon one's individual browsing behavior.
>
>
> Jordan