Commander

To configure Pale Moon in detail, the developers provide an extension called Pale Moon Commander with a dialog for setting advanced options. You can download the add-on [7] and install it as a conventional extension. After restarting the browser, go to the Tools menu and select Advanced options. This takes you to a small window – with several groups and tabs – that gives you a very simple graphical approach to configuring the browser (Figure 3).

Figure 3: The Pale Moon Commander is not available in the Firefox browser.

The Pale Moon Commander combines many options that you would otherwise have to compile laboriously from the endless software configuration. However, some caution is required: Incorrect settings can quickly lead to an unusable browser. That said, you will want to adjust some settings to match your hardware. For example, in the HTTP tab in the Network menu, you will probably want to reduce the timeouts in the HTTP timings section if you primarily use UMTS/HSPA for Internet access. Otherwise, long timeout values combined with poor signal strength can make surfing the web a torture.

In the Performance menu, check out the options in the Cache tab. The more memory the system has, the bigger the values you need for the Memory Cache; at the same time, you need to reduce the values in Disk Cache. If you are using a slow hard drive and make intensive use of the Internet, you will experience bottlenecks when browser content is loaded from the hard drive instead of from fast memory.

Security-conscious users will also want to make some changes in the Security menu, and it is advisable to check both the cookie settings and the entries in the Referers section. After completing configuration, if you discover that the browser settings are too restrictive and that some pages and content do not display correctly, you can reset the settings in Pale Moon to the factory defaults by going to the Other menu and pressing Reset All Preferences in the Reset tab.

Conclusions

Pale Moon is ideal for security-conscious users looking for a faster browser with a classic look, but who do not want to live with compromises in terms of speed, stability, and user experience. Additionally, the browser supports detailed configuration in the Commander add-on. From a technical perspective, Pale Moon definitely has what it takes to replace Firefox as the default browser, although you may experience a few growing pains with the new version 25.0.