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Pale Moon is a web browser based on Mozilla Firefox.^[1] It uses the Mozilla back-end (powered by Mozilla).^[2] It is available for Windows platforms and distributed by Moonchild (M.Straver).^[3] Pale Moon builds on Firefox, optimizing for efficiency of code and aimed at current and modern microprocessors.^[4] Pale Moon is freely downloadable with open source code and proprietary freeware binaries.^[5] Most of the available Firefox extensions and plugins are compatible with Pale Moon.^[6]

Optimization

Pale Moon is optimized using the following methods:

Binary code optimization

• Compiled with a high level of compiler optimization:
  • Pale Moon is compiled with either -O2 or -Ox, both optimization flags of the Microsoft C compiler to get maximum speed.^[7][8]
  • Pale Moon is compiled to use the SSE2 processor instruction set, greatly increasing speed and efficiency of some operations.

The resulting browser will not run on particularly old hardware as a result, but by cutting out support for older systems, Pale Moon works with an optimized code base that takes full advantage of modern processor instruction sets.^[9]

Removing functions that are not in high demand

• Pale Moon removes a few features that are not in high demand, but are integral in Firefox:^[10]
  • Accessibility features
  • Parental controls
  • Crash reporter
  • ActiveX and ActiveX scripting

Speed comparisons

The resulting differences in speed by using optimizations and also removing certain program features^[11] like accessibility and parental controls have shown a significant advantage of the optimized browser compared to Firefox,^[12][13] even though the source code is otherwise mostly untouched.^[14]

Interface changes

Pale Moon, since v4, has also made some changes to the program's interface (layout) compared to its sibling Firefox:^[15]

• Pale Moon retains a status bar
• Navigation controls are grouped together
• Tabs by default are not placed on top

Downloads available

Pale Moon offers a number of different downloads:

• Version 3.x (Based on Firefox 3.x, supports processors that only support SSE)
  • Desktop (32-bit)
  • Portable (32-bit)
• Version 8.x (based on Firefox 8.x)
  • Desktop (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Portable (32-bit and 64-bit)
• The source code for the browser^[16]
• Archived older versions^[17]

License

The same as Firefox, the Pale Moon source code is open source, with the source code residing under the MPL 1.1 except for parts relating to branding. Unlike Firefox, the Pale Moon binaries have a redistribution license^[5] which allows redistribution but only under certain conditions. According to the author, this is to prevent the possibility of any confusion with tainted versions (see the Firefox branding argument Mozilla_Firefox#Trademark_and_logo). The name Pale Moon (relating to the browser), the Pale Moon logo and other proprietary artwork are the intellectual property of M. Straver, and accordingly cannot be used on other third party Firefox builds or other related products without his permission.^[18]

References