Hilal Browser v0.3.0-alpha.5 (build #57)

Full Changelog: v0.3.0-alpha.4...v0.3.0-alpha.5

Hilal Browser v0.3.0-alpha.4 (build #56)

Full Changelog: v0.3.0-alpha.3...v0.3.0-alpha.4

Hilal Browser v0.3.0-alpha.3 (build #55)

Full Changelog: v0.3.0-alpha.2...v0.3.0-alpha.3

Hilal Browser v0.3.0-alpha.2

Full Changelog: v0.3.0-alpha.1...v0.3.0-alpha.2

Hilal Browser v0.3.0-alpha.1

What's Changed

• Feature/packaging pipeline by @GreenKod in #31
• Enhance Firefox setup script with fast clone option by @mmapro12 in #15
• Implement Rust-based hil Patch Manager CLI by @VastSea0 in #33

New Contributors

• @GreenKod made their first contribution in #31
• @mmapro12 made their first contribution in #15

Full Changelog: v0.2.0-alpha.5...v0.3.0-alpha.1

Hilal Browser v0.2.0-alpha.5

Hilal Browser v0.2.0-alpha.5

Downloads (Windows)

• Installer: Hilal-Browser-v0.2.0-alpha.5-win64-installer.exe (85 MB)
• Portable ZIP: Hilal-Browser-v0.2.0-alpha.5-win64.zip (130 MB)

What's New

• Compact Mode with Auto-Hide Sidebar: Hover-triggered sidebar with floating overlay support, auto-hide functionality, and preference controls for workspace compatibility.
• Firefox-UI-Fix Integration: Complete suite integration with management scripts, CSS overrides, and dynamic preferences.
• Sidebar Layout Redesign: Premium theme styling with grid-based pinned tabs and native slotted tabstrip integration.
• Language Selection Support: Browser language preferences and Turkish language pack integration.
• Secure Update Signatures: Verification with development MAR support for unsigned builds.
• Custom About Dialog: Hilal project resource links and Help/Feedback customization.
• Flatpak Build Support: Linux/Flatpak build scripts, manifest, and desktop integration files.
• Production Signing Scripts: macOS code signing, notarization, and CI secret integration.

Changes

• Refined compact mode workspace optimization and session state handling
• Enhanced privacy with container deletion and tab group collapsing
• Refactored workspace context isolation, bang customization, and localization patches
• Updated Firefox base to upstream commit for latest fixes

Fixed

• Compact mode toolbar transitions with glassmorphic hover reveal
• Sidebar button behavior (compact mode button opening history panel)
• First-run crashes and welcome screen rendering
• Various workspace tab operation and state synchronization issues

See changelog.md for full details.

Hilal Browser v0.2.0-alpha.4

[0.2.0-alpha.4] - 2026-05-26

Added

• Workspace-Specific Bookmark Folders: Each workspace now has a dedicated bookmark folder for context-isolated bookmarking, with URL filtering tied to the active workspace.
• Bang Customization UI: Added a dedicated Bangs settings panel in the Hilal Preferences page, allowing users to view default bangs and add or remove custom bang definitions with trigger, search URL, and home URL fields.
• Smart Bang Fallback: Unknown bangs are now explicitly routed to DuckDuckGo's bang handler (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=!bang+query) as a deliberate UX choice, leveraging DuckDuckGo's extensive bang ecosystem.
• Dynamic Sidebar Shortcut Favicons: Custom sidebar shortcuts now display favicons fetched from Firefox's page-icon: cache instead of performing a live web request, preserving privacy.
• Full Localization of Preferences and Welcome Screen: All hardcoded label strings in the preferences panel and welcome screen have been replaced with Fluent data-l10n-id bindings and new FTL definitions.

Changed

• Patch Apply Checksum Validation: scripts/apply.sh now computes a content hash of the entire patch series and skips re-applying patches if nothing has changed, speeding up incremental builds.
• Hilal Preferences UI Reorganization: Sidebar, workspace, privacy, and UI fix preference modules have been refactored into separate, focused blocks within hilal.inc.xhtml.

Fixed

• Workspace Tab Operations in Customization Mode: Prevented workspace tab move/retarget operations from running while the browser is in sidebar customization mode, which could corrupt tab state.
• Patch Apply Conflicts: Fixed a line-offset conflict in 0016-hilal-bang-customization.patch caused by duplicate Fluent string definitions already introduced by 0005-hilal-l10n.patch.
• Website TypeScript Compilation: Fixed a Cannot find namespace 'React' TypeScript compiler error in www/src/App.tsx by adding the React namespace import.
• macOS Window Margins: Adjusted macOS window margins and eliminated stacked paddings that were causing visual misalignment.

macOS Installation Note

If macOS says "Hilal is damaged and can't be opened":

This is a Gatekeeper warning caused by missing Apple notarization (requires a paid Apple Developer account). The app is safe to use.

Fix (choose one):

1. Right-click the .app inside the DMG → Open (then click "Open" in the dialog)
2. Or run in Terminal after copying to Applications:

   xattr -cr /Applications/Hilal\ Browser.app
   

---

See changelog.md for details on what changed in this release.

Hilal Browser v0.2.0-alpha.3

Hilal Browser v0.2.0-alpha.3

This release focuses on making Hilal's privacy posture clearer during first-run setup.

What's new

• Added a dedicated Privacy step to the welcome flow.
• The welcome screen now tells users that uBlock Origin is installed by default.
• Users can choose a privacy hardening level during setup: Balanced, Strict, or Maximum.
• The selected level is saved to hilal.privacy.level and applied by Hilal's privacy preset system.
• New welcome-screen fallback text for the privacy step is in English.

Privacy transparency

• Balanced is described as LibreWolf-like hardening.
• Strict clearly warns about lower compatibility and WebRTC being disabled.
• Maximum clearly states that it is not Tor and does not hide the user's IP address.

Build

• macOS Apple Silicon DMG built from commit b9990e9.
• DMG SHA256: 0fd10e985734c35b08c0ea0fb7e316c82435be761e778c00a31b6bb1891adb15

Notes

• This macOS build is not notarization-verified in this local release flow.

Full Changelog: v0.2.0-alpha.2...v0.2.0-alpha.3

Hilal Browser v0.2.0-alpha.2

Added

• Browser-wide Bangs! Support: Direct search redirection (e.g., !g for Google, !yt for YouTube, !w for Wikipedia, !gh for GitHub) typed directly in the address bar, with automatic fallback to DuckDuckGo for any unknown bangs.
• Default uBlock Origin Bundling: Pre-installed the uBlock Origin adblocker extension by default on all profiles. The extension XPI is fetched automatically during the environment apply phase.
• Preferences for Pinned Tabs & Tab Groups: Settings in the Preferences page to configure whether pinned tabs and tab groups are visible across all workspaces (public) or specific to the active workspace.

Changed

• Sidebar Aesthetic Refinement: Hid workspace names in the sidebar entirely under all conditions to maintain a clean, compact, and uniform UI/UX with square buttons.
• Display Version Update: Set the user-facing browser version identifier to 0.2.0-alpha.2 in version_display.txt.

Hilal Browser v0.1.0

TEST RELEASE 🫪