v.129.0.2 - Linux, Windows, MacOS, & Raspi - 13th Release

• Finally updated it, plz don't hate me I know ya'll been waiting
• Builds for ALL DA OSES!
• Incorporated some compiler flags from Zen browser, AND, made some commits to Zen as well to add some of Mercury's AVX2 stuff. See > zen-browser/desktop#1216 Thanks to the author for talking to me on Reddit and then accepting my pull request.
• Disabled "Normandy", a component that allows Mozilla to alter extension configurations at will remotely. (bleh wtf is that)
• Enabled JS_SHELL, for devs looking to use extensions like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scratchpad/ to get a semblance of that functionality that they removed.
• Tabstrip functionality of Firefox View is enabled, without actually enabling firefox view due to it's other bad stuff we don't want (You can still manually enable it in about:config, then re-add it to the tabstrip with the buttons editor).
• MacOS builds lack PGO, since I had to cross-compile them. May reduce performance.

NOTE: For those looking to build for themselves, cross compiling for MacOS is now broken since Apple complained about Mozilla redistributing the XCode SDK (of course 🙄). The workaround involves a lengthy process to package up the SDK from a Mac, then copy it to your Linux machine. It's outside the scope of these release notes, but I may add instructions to the //docs folder at a later date.

UI Update: Next release will have some UI patches from Floorp, a popular Firefox fork. However, remember that Mercury doesn't attempt to heavily modify the UI from upstream Firefox, so don't expect Mercury to end up being a compiler optimized Floorp. I promise there won't be a freakin months long delay in updating. But I also tend to put Thorium and Codium first over my other projects. One man can only do so much, even with as often as I am on the computer doing nerd stuff.

v.123.0.1 - Linux, Windows, & Raspi - 12th Release

• MERCURY_PORTABLE binaries in the Linux .zips now work properly
• Enabled a new form of LTO: "cross thinLTO". This performs link time optimization across languages, namely Rust and C++ (Firefox uses alot of Rust compared to Chromium, especially in the Gecko rendering engine). It will stay enabled on Linux. On Windows, the default is FullLTO (rather than thinLTO, or cross thinLTO), so if performance is less than the default FullLTO, then I will revert it.
  – Similarly, next release will enable a new experimental "cross PGO", which does the same thing as above, just for PGO rather than LTO.
• Completely disabled Pocket. (I thought I had fully disabled it before, but after noticing it was still pinging api.pocket.com, I took a patch from IceCat, and disabled fetching from the endpoint (the server endpoint is set to null). Speaking of IceCat, I'm making some experimental Linux builds using the optimizations of Mercury here > https://github.com/Alex313031/IceCat since only Arch and Guix provide binaries anymore.
• Mozilla introduced more telemetry, so I promptly disabled that, lol.
• PGO is more effective by using a new LLVM flag (that Chromium, and consequently Thorium will also be using soon) called "-mllvm, -pgo-temporal-instrumentation"
• MacOS 10.15 is the new minimum supported MacOS version.
• Some libraries are compiled with AVX512 in the AVX and AVX2 versions, and it will select which codepath to use by detecting your CPU's capabilities at runtime. See > v.122.0.2...main#diff-094923038a1b5137279bcadbcb4382147e27a3dc66f1448402bc7ff820bb533dR3270
• Ubuntu 16.04 and Debian 8 are no longer supported. If you are using those OSes, I recommend using ver. 122, or (probably better for security), use ESR 115.
• Added cross-building mozconfigs for MacOS. If you are building Mercury yourself on a Mac, this will allow you to target arm64 on a x64 Mac, and vice-versa. As always, use ./setup.sh --help to see the available OS/architecture options, and use the flag appropriate for you.

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I tried setting the default new tab page tiles to better websites (i.e. non-sponsored stuff, like removing twitter and amazon), via this line, but it didn't work. I must be doing something wrong, because I know it's possible, since WaterFox and IceCat both do it.

UPDATE: MacOS releases coming soon, sorry for having it in the title but not actually providing any .dmgs. See > #153

v.122.0.2 - 11th Release - Linux, Windows, MacOS, & Raspi

• More SIMD compiler optimizations
• Fixed windows manifest
• Removed annoying stuff in the Windows installer
• Added mime type handling to the .deb
• Added document .icns for MacOS
• Added Raspberry Pi builds! While this will work on any arm64 computer, it is specifically tuned for the Cortex-A76 processor in the Raspi 4.
• Added SSE3, SSE4, AVX, and AVX2 builds for both Windows and Linux.
• Converted the portable .sh into an actual binary. Simply unpack the linux .zip(s), and run MERCURY_PORTABLE

NOTE: The MacOS version is NOT 122.0.2. It is based on Tip-of-Tree since there are continuous issues building the stable, or "release" branch. The real version is 124.0a1. Treat it as a beta, although we have been using it with no problems. Once the stable release branch is updated to 124.x.x, then it will follow suit with the rest of the others. Mozilla is aware of the linker bugs, so we just have to wait.

UPDATE: The MERCURY_PORTABLE binaries in the .zips are broken. I fixed it, and uploaded the file here. Please download that and replace the one in the .zip after you have extracted it.

UPDATE 2: Added arm64 MacOS binaries.

v.121.0.2 - 10th Release - Windows Only (Linux Release Below)

• Same release notes as below
• They simply updated to 121.0.2 between the time when I made the Linux release and now.
• For Linux, download 121.0.1 here > https://github.com/Alex313031/Mercury/releases/tag/v.121.0.1
• Again, SSE3 builds are provided for people with CPUs that lack AVX.

v.121.0.1 - 9th Release - Linux

• Updated to main stable branch, as many people didn't wanna stay on ESR 115, I will continue to provide ESR 115 builds for Windows 7 at the new repo > https://github.com/Alex313031/Mercury-Win7
• Updated adblocker
• Updated firefox.js to enable privacy respecting preload for faster rendering
• JXL should now work on "non-nightly" releases. Still haven't added the Librewolf patch for better HDR support, sorry.
• Added -maes flag
• Now providing SSE3 builds as well as AVX, since it was requested.
• Disable menubar by default (the Firefox default, I enabled it, but I think it looks ugly after reconsidering). If you already have it set, upgrading will not change anything. This is just for new installs.

UPDATE: Having machine issues, plz wait for the Windows builds, they should come soon!
UPDATE 2: I ACCIDENTLY SWITCHED THE .ZIP and .DEB. Sorry, it is now corrected. Thanks > #91
UPDATE 3: By the time I made the windows builds, they updated to 121.0.2. Please see release above for Windows releases!

v.115.4.0 - 8th Release - Linux & Windows

115.4.0

• Enabled installing unsigned extensions (fixes #43)
• Fixed installer logos displaying incorrect on HiDPI displays
• Added some patches from Ghostery, and updated the readme and patches.md.
• Fixed ipc using incorrect module.ver
• Added .svg version of the logo, and updated the installer to use these
• Rather than using user agent compatibility mode, I made Mercury use Firefox's user agent string verbatim. Previously, installing extensions was broken because the UA string was an unknown one. I then enabled compat mode in 115.2.0, which added the Firefox string to it, but it still also had the Mercury string, which was still fucking up some sites. It now sends a UA string identical to upstream Firefox. There should be no more issues.

TODO (Still lol): Add AppImage support, add UBlock Origin by default, and change some keyboard shortcuts.

[UPDATE 1]: Corrected the linux .zip, I accidentally uploaded the previous version. Fixes #48

[UPDATE 2} IMPORTANT: It seems to show up as a virus with windows defender and kapersky (but no other antiviruses). I thought I had fixed this! I personally would never install something that is flagged, but in this case I can promise that they are NOT malicious. Compile it for yourself and compare the binaries if you doubt me! I am so sorry but it seems to be related to the fact that they are not signed (which costs money). Please see > This Issue . IDK what else to do from here. If you are a Mercury user, I guess you will just have to "trust me bro" LOL.

v.115.3.0 - 8th Release - Linux & Windows

115.3.0

• Fixed Windows thinking it is a virus. Fixes #39
• Added all of the Fastfox.js options from Betterfox into the default profile.js. See > eb9600f
• Added portable run.sh for the Linux .zips, similar to the MERCURY.BAT on Windows.
• Added HG_SRC_DIR env variable to the build scripts, to change the location of the Mozilla repo to wherever you want.
• Changed the naming scheme of the binaries to more closely match each other, be easier to read, and mimic my naming scheme for Thorium releases.

TODO: Add AppImage support, add UBlock Origin by default, and change some keyboard shortcuts.

7th Release - v.115.2.0

115.2.0

• Fixed debian packaging and added temporary profile option
• Added portable MERCURY.BAT to the Windows .zips (Linux portable .sh coming next release)

Note: Firefox 116 works on Windows 7, but 117 does not. I will probably make concurrent builds of 115 and 116 for the lifetime of the 116 branch.

TODO: Add AppImage support, add UBlock Origin by default, change some keyboard shortcuts

6th Release - v.115.1.0

115.1.0

• Finally added deb packaging support.
• Fixed GPC (Global Privacy Control) header, as per #20 (comment)
• Fixed branding on the Windows installer

Note: Firefox 116 works on Windows 7, but 117 does not. I will probably make concurrent builds of 115 and 116 for the lifetime of the 116 branch.

TODO: Add AppImage support, add UBlock Origin by default, change some keyboard shortcuts

The "WESTMERE" releases are for a friend, and are built with SSE4.1 instead of AVX. You can use them if your CPU doesn't have AVX, but it also has to be Core 2 Duo "Wolfdale" or newer.

5th Release - Linux & Windows - v.115.0.0

115

• Based on 115 ESR branch (Which will be the last ESR for Windows 7/8/8.1 😢 )
• FIXED WINDOWS TITLEBAR THEMEING ISSUE!! > Fixes #16 and #12
• Enabled PGO (Profile Guided Optimization) for Windows builds. (Nice)
• Cross compiling for Windows on Linux now finally work, although you can't enable PGO
• Performance is now on par or above vanilla Firefox (Usually ~10 points higher on Speedometer in my testing)
• It now sends a user agent with Firefox (as well as Mercury) in the name, so it should fix #11 and #22 and #14
• Enabled the Global Privacy Control header, as was suggested to me in #20. Is better than Do Not Track (which is also enabled)
• GPU acceleration should now properly recognize OS version info. Fixes > #18
• Changed default top bar buttons. It now goes Back - Forward - Home - URL box - Developer Tools - Extensions - Main Menu
  It should keep whatever you have it set to, but if it doesn't, you can always recustomize it (and please file a bug)

– UPDATE I have noticed that the installer is being picked up as a trojan, and #30 noticed it too. The installer is not malicious, I can assure you. You could either compile it yourself, disable windows defender temporarily, use the .zip, or wait until next release.

Known Issues

• UPDATE I have noticed that the installer is being picked up as a trojan, and this issue noticed it too. The installer is not malicious, I can assure you. You could either compile it yourself, disable windows defender temporarily, use the .zip, or wait until next release.
• CSS on the about page is fucked up
• Need to update branding for the Windows installer
• STILL need to figure out how to make a .deb package, instead of just a tarball.