Pale Moon
Pale Moon is an Open Source web browser used in Windows and Linux that uses the Goanna browser engine. Pale Moon focuses on efficiency and customization. The Goanna engine is an independent fork of the Gecko engine that's embeded in the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client.
You can check out Pale Moon's start page by clicking on the following link.
Features in Pale Moon
- Optimized for modern processors.
- Based on our own optimized layout and rendering engine (Goanna)
- Secure: Additional security features and security-aware development.
- Supported by our user community, and fully non-profit.
- A fully customizable User Interface.
- Support for full themes: total freedom over any element’s design.
- Smooth and speedy page drawing and script processing.
- Increased stability: experience fewer browser crashes.
- Support for an increasing number of Pale Moon exclusive extensions, many Firefox extensions, themes, HTML5, and CSS3.
- Support for multiple image formats including WebP and JPEG-XR.
- Many customization and configuration options.
"Pale Moon offers selected features and optimizations to maximize the browser's speed, stability and user experience, while maintaining compatibility with the thousands of Firefox extensions you have come to love and rely on."
Pale Moon always run in single-process mode, whereas Firefox is a multi-process application. Palemoon comes with a customized start page from the start.me webpage. You can create an account from start.me website and customize the sections and icons to allow you to save time accessing the websites you visit everyday. A personalized startpage allows you to boost your productivity.
How to Install the Pale Moon Browser:
Pale Moon can also be installed directly from the default repositories of the following distros:
You can go to Pale Moon webpage of the Steven Pusser project and download the installation file for Debian and Ubuntu based distributions. You have two choices to installing it on those systems: 1. Add repository and install manually or 2. Grab binary package directly. I will download and install it from the palemoon_28.12.0-2_amd64.deb file.
Pale Moon can also be installed directly from the default repositories of the following distros:
- Manjaro
- PCLinuxOS
- Puppy Linux
- MEPIS/MX-15
- Gentoo Overlays
- Slackbuilds
- TinyCore Linux
You can go to Pale Moon webpage of the Steven Pusser project and download the installation file for Debian and Ubuntu based distributions. You have two choices to installing it on those systems: 1. Add repository and install manually or 2. Grab binary package directly. I will download and install it from the palemoon_28.12.0-2_amd64.deb file.
After the download completes go to your Downloads folder or the location you downloaded the file and double-click on the palemoon_28.12.0-2_amd64.deb file.
The file should open in your Package Installer. Click the Install Package button to start the installation process.
Enter your password when the Authentication dialog box appears. Then click the Authenticate button.
Do not shut the Package Installer until you see the two buttons Reinstall Package and Remove Package buttons.
How to Uninstall Pale Moon Browser:
1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
2. Type the following: sudo apt remove palemoon
1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
2. Type the following: sudo apt remove palemoon
You should see the Pale Moon icon in your menu within the Internet submenu.
The first time you run Pale Moon you'll see a tab saying, "Congratulations! You have successfully installed or upgraded the Pale Moon web browser." You will be presented with a Note about Firefox extensions and information on how you can Customize your browser. You can close this tab after you read it.
This is what your initial homepage or start page will look like. You will need to click the green button at the bottom that says, "OK, I accept the cookies."
I recommend that you click the green Get Started button in the upper right corner to allow you to customize your homepage or start page to contain websites and links to the sites you visit most often. It will then allow you to register for a start.me account. After you finish creating your account you'll need to Sign in so that the changes you make to your start page can be synced to other Pale Moon browsers on other systems.
Before you start customizing your homepage or start page, I recommend that you install some important add-ons or extensions. I recommend that you install AdGuard and Adblock Latitude to remove those annoying ads.
Within the Pale Moon browser, click the AdGuard link to allow you to download and install AdGuard. Click the Install Now button to install AdGuard AdBlocker in Pale Moon.
A new tab will eventually open within the Pale Moon browser to allow you to Custominze your filtering options. You can enable or disable the options based on your personal preferences. Below is an image to illustrate the options I enabled. You can close the tab when you're finished.
I now recommend that you download and install Adblock Latitude to stop any ads that get past AdGuard. Click on the Adblock Latitude link to take you to that add-on page. Click the green Install Now button to start the installation process.
A dialog box will appear to allow you to install Adblock Latitude. Click the Install Now button to install the add-on.
A new tab will open to let you know that "Adblock Latitude has been installed." You can then close that tab.
Next, click on the Tools menu and click on Add-ons.
You should see an open tab that contains all your installed extensions. Click on the Preferences button to the right of AdGuard AdBlocker.
Look for the Check for filter updates link under the Ad blocker section with the AdGuard Preferences page. Click the Check for filter updates link to updates AdGuard's filters. In a few seconds you'll see a small pop-up saying the filters were updated. You can now close the AdGuard Settings tab.
With the new ad blockers installed you will notice the ad at the bottom of your homepage or start page is gone. It was an ad from the start.me webpage.
You will also notice those annoying ads are gone from YouTube. This should help improve your Internet speed.
Now would be a good time to click on your Tools menu and click on Set Up Sync... to allow you to synchronize any other Pale Moon browsers you install on other systems. It is also a good feature to use if you ever wipe off your computer and you had to reinstall Pale Moon to allow you to quickly put the browser back the way is was.
When the Pale Moon Sync Setup dialog box appears, you can click the Create a New Account button or the I Have an Account button. Do not forget the information when you create your new account. Use the I Have an Account button to log in and sync your browser settings.
Once you create your account and log in you will see a new tab called, "Your First Sync." It will let you know that the setup is complete and your data is being encrypted and uploaded in the background. You can safely close that tab as your encrypted preferences and settings upload. If you need any additional help then click the Pale Moon Sync service link. The Pale Moon website provides a lot of help for first time users or anyone looking for additional assistance.
Now is a good time to customize that homepage or start page to contain links to websites that you visit most often. As you can see on the right side of the image below, I have replaced some of the email providers in the E-mail section and I have changed most of the websites in the Media section. I completely replaced the Travel section with an Entertainment section. I added Tubi, Crackle, Pluto TV, Xumo, Strirr, and IMDB to the Entertainment section.
You can remove an entire section by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner of a section and click on the Delete command.
You will be prompted to make sure you really want to remove the widget or section.
You will now notice the Pale Moon announcements section or widget is gone.
I will now add the Release notes link to the Pale Moon widget so that I can clean the links off the bookmarks bar. Click the three dots in the upper right corner of the Pale Moon widget and click on Add Bookmark.
This will bring up an Edit bookmark dialog box on the right side of your browser. You can add a Title for your linked icon, then enter the URL for the icon, and then type in a Description (optional). You can click the Select other icon to change the icon in the widget. When you're finished click the Save button.
You can now right-click the bookmarks on the bookmarks bar and click the Delete command for each of the bookmarks you want to remove.
I now have those important links within my Pale Moon widget, so I was able to clean the links off my bookmarks bar. The only default bookmark I kept was the Most Viewed. I use that link so I can go back to a link or URL that I ussed earlier. I use it like a history folder.
You can create a new widget in a blank area by moving your mouse pointer in that area. It will create a huge plus symbol that can be clicked on.
You will then see an Add widget box appear that will allow you to add a variety of different kinds of widgets.
You have a lot of choices for your new widget. Some widgets cost money (Pro) and some are free. I like the Weather widget on my homepage or start page.
Clicking on the Weather widget produces a Preview of the widget.
Clicking the Add widget button will bring up a small box asking for your city name. Enter your city name and then select the correct location from a list with cities with the same name. Then click the Done button.
Your Weather widget will now be on your homepage or start page.
Here's what the Weather widget looks like on the homepage or start page. I have a few more widgets to edit or modify and then my start page will be customized to meet my surfing needs.
Here's a screenshot of my final customization of my start page. I added an analog clock widget, added some transparency to each widget, and changed the background.
You can click the drop-down arrow next to the Start icon under the tab to create Edit page section. From here, you can edit your start page and layout. You can name or rename your start page or click the Create new page to create a new start page. You can set the number of columns, change your background, and adjust the widget transparency.
The newest version of Pale Moon supports the HTML5 player, so Youtube videos are crisp and crystal clear.
If you do start to notice some stuttering or problems on Youtube then type about:config in your address bar or omnibox. You'll be greeted with a message that will remind you that changing some of the advanced settings can be harmful to the application. Click the I promise to be careful.
Type acceleration in the Search bar to allow you to find layers.acceleration.force.
Double-click on layers.acceleration.force to toggle the Value of false to true. Then close Pale Moon and restart it for the new settings to take effect.
Fix White Text in White Text Boxes
I use a dark theme on my computer and I noticed this created an issue with text on some white text boxes in the Pale Moon browser. I found the solution on the Pale Moon forum posted by a user named Mercury. To fix this problem you need to create userContent.css file and place it in your profile folder. To gain access to your profile folder type about:support in your address bar or omnibox, then click the Open Directory next to Profile Directory.
I use a dark theme on my computer and I noticed this created an issue with text on some white text boxes in the Pale Moon browser. I found the solution on the Pale Moon forum posted by a user named Mercury. To fix this problem you need to create userContent.css file and place it in your profile folder. To gain access to your profile folder type about:support in your address bar or omnibox, then click the Open Directory next to Profile Directory.
You should see a folder called chrome within your Pale Moon folder. If you don't see one then you'll need to create a new folder called chrome.
Inside the chrome folder you'll need to create a file named userContent.css. This file should contain CSS rules that make a white background and black letters in text and search boxes.
Click on my Dropbox and click on the down arrow in the upper right corner to download a copy of the userContent.css file. Be sure that you put the file in the chrome folder. Close the Pale Moon browser and then reopen it for the new file to take effect.
The first image above has white text in white text boxes making it impossible to see. The second image was captured after I placed the userContent.css file in my browser Profile Directory or chrome folder.
Add-ons Manager
You can access the Add-ons Manager by clicking on the Tools menu and click on Add-ons or press Ctrl+Shift+A.
You can access the Add-ons Manager by clicking on the Tools menu and click on Add-ons or press Ctrl+Shift+A.
When the Add-on Manager loads you can access different topics by clicking on the four options on the left: Get Add-ons, Extensions, Themes, and Plugins.
Clicking on the Extensions tab on the left will allow you to Remove, Disable, and/or makes adjustments to the extension in the Preferences.
The Themes tab will allow you to Enable or Remove any theme you have installed.
The Plugins tab will allow you to make adjustments to the plugins you have installed.
One of the best ways to downloads add-ons, extensions, themes, personas, language tools, search plugins, and more... is to go to the Pale Moon Add-ons Site. Developers can also contribute to the add-ons from this site.
You can click on the Tools menu and then on Preferences to bring up the Pale Moon Preferences dialog box. Here you can make a variety of changes to the Pale Moon browser. You have eight tabs across the the top that help organize the browser's features that can be changed.
Overall, the Pale Moon browser is a good browser to use if you're looking for an alternative to the Blink browser engine. One of the goals of Pale Moon is to remain DRM-free. "Digital rights management (DRM) is a systematic approach to copyright protection for digital media. The purpose of DRM is to prevent unauthorized redistribution of digital media and restrict the ways consumers can copy content they've purchased." So you may have trouble with websites like Netflix, Spotify, Pandora and other multimedia websites.
Aug 26, 2020