Tor Browser Gets a Redesign, Switches To New Firefox Quantum Engine (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on Thursday September 6, 2018 @06:00AM from the for-the-record dept.

The Tor Browser has rolled out a new interface with the release of v8. From a report: The Tor Browser has always been based on the Firefox codebase, but it lagged behind a few releases. Mozilla rolled out a major overhaul of the Firefox codebase in November 2017, with the release of Firefox 57, the first release in the Firefox Quantum series. Firefox Quantum came with a new page rendering engine, a new add-ons API, and a new user interface called the Photon UI. Because these were major, code-breaking changes, it took the smaller Tor team some time to integrate all of them into the Tor Browser codebase and make sure everything worked as intended. The new Tor Browser 8, released yesterday, is now in sync with the most recent version of Firefox, the Quantum release, and also supports all of its features. This means the Tor Browser now uses the same modern Photon UI that current Firefox versions use, it supports the same speed-optimized page rendering engine and has also dropped support for the old XUL-based add-ons system for the new WebExtensions API system used by Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave, and the rest of the Chromium browsers.

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Re:Who can afford to run a tor exit node ? by tlhIngan · 2018-09-06 08:35 · Score: 3, Informative

You can run something like a Linode instance pretty cheaply and get more IPs. I've run a highly restricted exit node in the past (low bandwidth, select ports), and I've had the same problems with you if I try to use my Linode as a web proxy. My most recent problem has been with Shut Up and Sit Down RSS feeds, which are blocking my host :-\
And that's just because no matter how noble the cause, idiots will just ruin it. You don't need a list of Tor exit nodes because if you run a reasonably popular website, you'll find out quite rapidly what they are and auto-blacklist t hem.
It's why CDNs like CloudFlare block Tor - the abuse from Tor exit nodes ensures that whatever trigger you use, it'll be triggered and you'll end up blocking it. It's not like it's done deliberately - you don't have to seek out new Tor exit nodes. They just make themselves known.
I'd even venture to say if you want to allow Tor traffic, you have to whitelist them specifically It's not that Tor is bad, it's just that it's got a bunch of bad actors that really do ruin it for those who need it.