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Pale Moon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pale Moon
DeveloperMoonchild Productions[1]
Release4 October 2009; 16 years ago (2009-10-04)
Stable release
34.3.0.1[2] Edit this on Wikidata / 10 June 2026; 33 days ago (10 June 2026)
Written inC, C++, Cascading Style Sheets, JavaScript, XML User Interface Language
EnginesGoanna, SpiderMonkey
Operating systemWindows 7 SP1 or later
FreeBSD 13.0 or later
OS X Lion or later
Linux
Contributed builds for various platforms[3]
PlatformIA-32, x86-64, ARM64[4]
Available in37 languages[5]
List of languages
Arabic (ar), Bulgarian (bg), Traditional Chinese (zh-TW), Simplified Chinese (zh-CN), Croatian (hr), Czech (cs), Danish (da), Dutch (nl), American English (en-US), British English (en-GB), Filipino (tl), Finnish (fi), French (fr), Galician (gl), Greek (el), Hungarian (hu), Indonesian (id), Italian (it), Icelandic (is), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Polish (pl), Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR), European Portuguese (pt-PT), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru) Argentine Spanish (es-AR), Mexican Spanish (es-M), Serbian [cyrillic] (sr), Castilian Spanish (es-ES), Slovak (sk), Slovenian (sl), Swedish (sv-SE), Thai (th), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk)
TypeWeb browser
Includes RSS reader
License
Websitewww.palemoon.org Edit this on Wikidata
Repositoryrepo.palemoon.org/MoonchildProductions/Pale-Moon

Pale Moon is a free and open-source web browser licensed under the MPL-2.0 with a stated emphasis on customization. There are official releases for Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, macOS, and Linux.

Pale Moon originated as a fork of Firefox, but has subsequently diverged. The main differences are its user interface, add-on system, and single-process architecture. Pale Moon retains the user interface of Firefox from versions 4 to 28 and supports both legacy Firefox extensions and NPAPI plugins.

History

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Pale Moon 8

Pale Moon was created by M.C. Straver (alias Moonchild). Straver currently serves as the primary maintainer and lead developer of the browser.[7]

Starting with version 26 in 2016, Pale Moon switched to using the Goanna rendering engine, a fork of Gecko. Prior versions of the browser had used Gecko.[8][9]

In 2017, the Pale Moon team began the Unified XUL Platform (UXP) project due to major upcoming changes in the Mozilla codebase. The Basilisk web browser was developed to serve as a "reference application" for development before Pale Moon switched over to using UXP.[10]

In 2019, hackers breached a Pale Moon archive server and infected the older installers with malware; the latest Pale Moon releases at the time were not affected.[11] The breach took place between April and June, and the affected server was taken down on July 9 when it was discovered.[12][13]

In 2021, Pale Moon announced that they would stop supporting legacy Firefox extensions that weren't specially ported to the browser, starting with version 29.2.0.[14]

In 2022, a change in direction for Pale Moon was announced to improve website and add-on capability.[15] This resulted in version 30, which used the Firefox GUID to restore compatibility with legacy Firefox extensions, marking the start of increased UXP and Goanna development.[16]

Version 30 was recalled due to what the project called "undesired code changes" and alleged disruptions to the add-ons server preceding the departure of one of the main developers. Version 31 was released shortly after to fix these issues.[17]

Features

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Pale Moon's default search engine is DuckDuckGo, and it uses the IP-API service instead of Google for geolocation.[18] The browser is lightweight in its resource usage,[19][20] in addition to having no telemetry or data collection.[21][22] However, certain web applications and modern web sites may encounter issues with the browser.[23][24][25][26]

Supported features

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Theming

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Pale Moon's user interface can be customized by downloadable XUL-based themes (called complete themes) that are granted lower-level access to modify every aspect of the browser's user interface. This was a feature present in Firefox before its removal with version 57 in favor of a lightweight theming system formerly known as Firefox Personas, which consists solely of two images and two accent colors.[27][28][29] These lightweight themes are also supported by Pale Moon.[30]

The default theme included with Pale Moon is the same one that was used by Firefox from versions 4 to 28, known as Strata.[31]

Extensions

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The browser has its own library of extensions,[21] and also continues to support many legacy Firefox add-ons built with XUL and XPCOM,[32][33] which Firefox dropped support for in 2017 with version 57.[34] Unlike WebExtensions, which are used by most modern browsers, XUL/XPCOM extensions provide a vast amount of control; they have the ability to completely modify the browser and implement non-existent features themselves.[34] NPAPI plugins, such as the deprecated Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight, also continue to be supported by Pale Moon.[4]

Unsupported features

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WebRTC

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WebRTC is a real-time communication API for browsers that platforms such as Google Meet, Discord, and WhatsApp rely on for voice and video calls.[35] Unlike most other browsers, Pale Moon does not support WebRTC by design; this is due to the development team's belief that it has "security and privacy flaws", in addition to their position that WebRTC does not belong in a browser and is "best left to dedicated programs or at most a browser plug-in".[4]

WebExtensions

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Chromium and Firefox based browsers, as well as Safari, use implementations of the WebExtension API for their add-on systems.[36] Pale Moon does not support WebExtensions by design, choosing to maintain Firefox's legacy extension model instead; while legacy extensions have more capabilities than WebExtensions, major browsers have used WebExtensions for many years and as such have larger and more up-to-date add-on libraries.[37][38][14]

Process architecture

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Pale Moon is built around a single-process architecture, meaning all browser operations are handled by one process, unlike most current browsers which are multi-process. This single-process design was also used by Firefox before it moved to a multi-process architecture with Project Electrolysis (e10s).[39] Pale Moon does not support e10s,[40] which is a deliberate decision on behalf of the development team due to multiple perceived drawbacks of it.[41] While the use of e10s does have major speed and stability benefits,[42][43] such as ensuring slow webpages do not crash the browser,[44] in addition to providing a greater degree of sandboxing,[24] it also leads to a higher amount of RAM consumption.[43]

UXP

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Pale Moon is built upon the Unified XUL Platform (UXP), a cross-platform, multimedia application base that was forked from Mozilla code prior to the introduction of Firefox Quantum.[45][10]

UXP is a fork of the Firefox 52 ESR platform that was created in 2017 due to XUL/XPCOM support being removed from the Firefox codebase. Moonchild Productions develops UXP independently alongside Pale Moon.[19]

Goanna

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UXP includes the Goanna layout and rendering engine, which is a fork of Mozilla's Gecko engine that Pale Moon switched to in 2015 ostensibly for legal and web compatibility reasons.[8]

Supported platforms

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Windows 7 (SP1) and above are supported, along with any modern Linux distribution as long as the processors support AVX (64-bit) or SSE2 (32-bit) and there is at least 1 GB of RAM.[21][46]

Mac OS X Lion and above is supported; ARM64 builds of the browser (for Apple silicon) require macOS Big Sur and newer.[47] FreeBSD 13.0 and above are also supported.

Pale Moon running on Ubuntu Linux, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7

Previously, Windows XP and Vista were supported, but are no longer supported from versions 27 and 28 onwards, respectively.[48][49][50]

An Android build was developed in 2014, but was cancelled by the developer due to lack of community involvement a year later.[51][52]

Notable forks

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Mypal was formerly a fork of Pale Moon that supported Windows XP, but after a public dispute allegedly initiated by the creators of Pale Moon, the project was rewritten based on Firefox Quantum.[53][54] Current versions of Mypal are based on the Firefox 68-78 codebase.[55]

New Moon is a fork of Pale Moon which supports Windows XP.[54]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ M.C. Straver. "About Moonchild Productions". Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  2. ↑ "Pale Moon - Release Notes".
  3. ↑ "Contributed builds of Pale Moon". Pale Moon. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 "Pale Moon - Technical Details". www.palemoon.org.
  5. ↑ "Pale Moon language packs". Moonchild Productions. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  6. ↑ "Pale Moon redistribution", Official website, retrieved 10 February 2017
  7. ↑ "Pale Moon - General Information". www.palemoon.org. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  8. 1 2 Brinkmann, Martin (22 June 2015). "Pale Moon to switch from Gecko to Goanna rendering engine - gHacks Tech News". gHacks Technology News. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
  9. ↑ Peers, Nick (26 January 2016). "Pale Moon adopts new Goanna browser engine, fine-tunes interface". BetaNews. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  10. 1 2 Larabel, Michael (17 November 2017). "Pale Moon Project Rolls Out The Basilisk Browser Project". www.phoronix.com. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  11. ↑ Cimpanu, Catalin (19 July 2019). "Pale Moon says hackers added malware to older browser versions". ZDNET. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  12. ↑ Gatlan, Sergiu (10 July 2019). "Hackers Infect Pale Moon Archive Server With a Malware Dropper". Bleeping Computer. Bleeping Computer LLC. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  13. ↑ Kovacs, Eduard (11 July 2019). "Archive Server of Pale Moon Open Source Browser Hacked". securityweek.com. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  14. 1 2 Brinkmann, Martin (28 April 2021). "Pale Moon 29.2.0 does not support legacy Firefox extensions anymore that are not ported - gHacks Tech News". gHacks Technology News. Archived from the original on 19 March 2025. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  15. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (17 December 2021). "Pale Moon Project announces change of direction - gHacks Tech News". gHacks Technology News. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  16. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (18 March 2022). "Pale Moon 30.0 out with important changes - gHacks Tech News". gHacks Technology News. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  17. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (10 May 2022). "Pale Moon 31 is out now - gHacks Tech News". gHacks Technology News. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  18. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (11 August 2016). "Pale Moon to remove Google Search completely - gHacks Tech News". gHacks Technology News. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  19. 1 2 Abdul, Shan (13 November 2023). "7 Lightweight Windows Browsers Tested for RAM Usage: Which Is the Best?". MUO. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  20. ↑ Siyal, Gaurav (8 February 2022). "The 7 Best Lightweight Web Browsers for Linux". MUO. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  21. 1 2 3 "Review: Is Pale Moon a viable privacy browser?". Avoid the Hack (avoidthehack!). 19 September 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  22. ↑ Ganguly, Suparna (24 March 2022). "5 Lesser-Known Open Source Web Browsers for Linux in 2022 | Linux Journal". www.linuxjournal.com. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  23. ↑ Wazir, Saeed (21 July 2025). "I tried this obscure privacy browser and had a weird experience". XDA. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  24. 1 2 Hoffman, Chris (22 February 2018). "Why You Shouldn't Use Firefox Forks Like Waterfox, Pale Moon, or Basilisk". How-To Geek. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  25. ↑ "3 Obscure Browsers You've Probably Never Heard Of". Yahoo Tech. 24 September 2025. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  26. ↑ "Pale Moon web browser review - emhmki.org". web.emhmki.org. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  27. ↑ Hoffman, Chris (1 December 2014). "How to Create Your Own Firefox Browser Theme". How-To Geek. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  28. ↑ "Built-in themes in Firefox - alternative to complete themes | Firefox Help". support.mozilla.org. Archived from the original on 29 March 2026. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  29. ↑ "Theme changes in Firefox 3 - Archive of obsolete content". udn.realityripple.com. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  30. ↑ Serea, Razvan (21 September 2023). "Pale Moon 29.4.0.2". Neowin. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  31. ↑ Proven, Liam. "Waterfox: A Firefox fork that could teach Mozilla a lesson". The Register. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  32. ↑ Sanchez-Rola, Iskander; Santos, Igor; Balzarotti, Davide (16 August 2017), "Extension Breakdown: Security Analysis of Browsers Extension Resources Control Policies", USENIX Security Symposium, pp. 680–682, ISBN 978-1-931971-40-9
  33. ↑ "Avoid The Hack: 6 Best Privacy Browser Picks for Windows | Avoid the Hack (avoidthehack!)". avoidthehack!. 1 June 2023. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  34. 1 2 Vaughan-Nichols, Steven (21 September 2015). "Mozilla drops XUL, changes Firefox APIs; developers unhappy". ZDNET. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  35. ↑ "10 Unique WebRTC and SIP Applications". telnyx.com. 17 September 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  36. ↑ Davenport, Corbin (19 November 2025). "What is a WebExtension, and how is it different from a Chrome extension?". How-To Geek. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  37. ↑ GuruMandadi@TWC (28 June 2022). "Firefox vs Pale Moon browser - Which one is better?". The Windows Club. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  38. ↑ Needham, Kev (21 August 2015). "The Future of Developing Firefox Add-ons". Mozilla Add-ons Community Blog. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  39. ↑ "With Electrolysis, Mozilla hopes to zap speed and stability into Firefox". CNET. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  40. ↑ "Pale Moon - Release Notes for Archived Versions". www.palemoon.org. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  41. ↑ "Multi-process, or: the drawbacks nobody ever talks about". forum.palemoon.org. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  42. ↑ Paul, Ryan (7 July 2009). "Firefox stability to get a boost with multiprocess browsing". Ars Technica. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  43. 1 2 Brinkmann, Martin (22 July 2016). "Multi-Process Firefox: everything you need to know - gHacks Tech News". gHacks. Archived from the original on 20 April 2026. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  44. ↑ "New speed boost means you might want to try Firefox again". CNET. Retrieved 8 July 2026.
  45. ↑ Richardson, John (2018). Introductory XUL (7th ed.). Lulu.com. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-304-60870-3.
  46. ↑ "Change in system requirements". Pale Moon forum. 26 July 2024. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  47. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (22 March 2023). "Pale Moon 32.1.0 launches with major web compatibility improvements - gHacks Tech News". gHacks Technology News. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  48. ↑ "End of Windows XP support in Pale Moon". 29 September 2017. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  49. ↑ "Pale Moon 28.0.0 released!". 16 August 2018. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019.
  50. ↑ "Pale Moon - Release Notes". 24 August 2018. Archived from the original on 24 August 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  51. ↑ Kondrat, Tomek (22 July 2014). "Pale Moon Browser Ported to Android". XDA Developers. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  52. ↑ "I may have to let Pale Moon for Android go. :(". 16 April 2015. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  53. ↑ Pardo, Lisandro (2022). "MyPal: Un navegador para Windows XP en 2022 – NeoTeo". www.neoteo.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  54. 1 2 Bolaji, Ola-Hassan (7 February 2023). "10 Best Browsers for Windows XP That Still Work in 2024". Windows Report. Archived from the original on 15 May 2023. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  55. ↑ Proven, Liam (24 July 2023). "Want to live dangerously? Try running Windows XP in 2023". www.theregister.com. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
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