BrowserWorks/waterfox 6.6.16 on GitHub

Security

Waterfox 6.6.16 includes all security fixes that have landed to date for the upcoming Firefox ESR 140.13, which Mozilla is due to release on 21 July. Rather than hold these back for two weeks, we're shipping them now alongside the search change below.

The corresponding Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory will be published when ESR 140.13 is released. If any further security fixes land upstream before then, they will follow in a point release.

Search

Qwant is the new default

Back in 6.6.13 we set 1.org as a temporary default while we worked out a longer term arrangement. That arrangement is now in place - Waterfox has partnered with Qwant, the independent, privacy-focused search engine based in Paris, and it is now the default search engine on all platforms.

You can read the full story behind the partnership, and why it matters for Waterfox's independence, in the announcement post.

Qwant is the default in 26 regions: most of Europe, plus Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Singapore, the UK, and the US.
Everywhere else, DuckDuckGo is the default until Qwant supports your region.
As always, if you've ever set your own search engine, that choice stays put - the new default only applies if you were on the previous default or are installing fresh. You can switch any time in Settings.

When Qwant becomes available in more regions, the default in those regions will switch from DuckDuckGo to Qwant. As above, that only applies if you've left the default alone - if you've manually selected DuckDuckGo yourself, your choice stays put.

Ad blocker allowance follows the default

As explained in 6.6.13, the built-in ad blocker allows search ads only on Waterfox's default search provider - that allowance follows whichever provider we ship as the default, so it now applies to Qwant. Those ads are how the partnership funds Waterfox, and you can turn the allowance off in the blocker settings if you prefer.

Tip

Allowing ads on Qwant search pages is the single most effective way to support Waterfox at no cost. If you use a third-party ad blocker instead of the built-in one, please consider allowlisting Qwant.

6.7 Beta

As promised in 6.6.15, the first beta of the next major version is here: Waterfox 6.7.0-beta.1 is ready for testing. It moves Waterfox to the ESR 153 platform and brings tree tabs natively into vertical tabs, a new Nova style and colour system, ad blocker improvements, and a reworked first-run setup.

If you'd like to help test the next big update before it reaches the stable channel, give it a try and file bug reports for anything you hit.