Pale Moon, an interesting browser for you to consider… Those of us that are old enough to remember the browser wars know that companies take that piece of software very seriously. And if you’ve ever wondered why, it might have something to do with the old saying that “if the product is free, then you are the product.”
For those of us that believe that is the case, an open-source Internet browser like Pale Moon gives us all of the functionalities we want in a web trawler with none of the privacy concerns that make the mainline brands so problematic.
We’ll tell you what we like about this open-source browser and why we think it is the perfect replacement for Chrome, Edge, or Firefox.
How to Download Pale Moon
To download the software, hit the Download button located below this review.
The Program Review
Before we begin, we should probably highlight the Pale Moon browser’s development history.
You see, it isn’t a wholly unique thing on its own though it has become that since its inception. It started as a fork of Mozilla’s Firefox years ago.
Whether that matters to you or not probably boils down to what you know about programming.
Yes, making a web browser is complicated and, no, these people aren’t amateurs. They really know what they’re doing and it shows in this sleek, minimalistic (by saying this we mean “designed for usability, not the shiny new things” browser.
It is an open-source, Goanna browser that is primarily for Windows and Linux system users. As such, it offers a UI that is the best of both OS worlds.
It has the minimalism you’d expect of a Linux app and the ease of use you’d see in a Windows software product.
One thing that consumers might find shocking is just how stripped down the browser is.
There is absolutely no excess here and you might think it is lacking in features but that is part of the design.
To fill in the gaps, users will need to customize and personalize their browser to best suit their needs. That’s a drawback to some, but it’s also Pale Moon’s single most powerful feature.
It has customization options that Chrome and Firefox simply cannot offer and it is really marketed heavily towards the power user subset of PC consumers.
The major concern people have with these kinds of “off-brand” browsers centers on security. As we said, this is a mature fork of a stable release of Mozilla’s Firefox.
Don’t confuse its stripped-down interface with a stripped-down approach to security.
The browser is as safe and secure as can be and even offers plug-ins and other add-ons to make it even more powerful. In fact, because of its history as a Mozilla fork, Pale Moon is compatible with many older Firefox extensions and add-ons that are out there.
You just need to make sure it isn’t compromised by some kind of security issue but, as most are deprecated by age and not security, that shouldn’t be something you run into frequently with this browser.
The best aspect of this third-party browser is that it allows you to control how much of a footprint it has.
You can customize its theme, features, and functionalities. It can be as bloated or stripped down as you want it to be and, for many users, that’s the perfect formula for a web browser.
