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Blocklist-Update.sh

Blocklist-Update.sh is a script that I wrote to manage blocklists from bluetack etc to be used in conjunction with Transmission torrent downloader in Linux/MacOS. The script can be taylored to work with Qbittorrent as well, but the placement of the blocklists means you'd have to redirect the blocklist to go somewhere locally manageable as Transmission uses its own blocklist directory in .config. I believe there are about 10 lists there now. It works well for my needs. It can be ran weekly using crontab in standard user profile.  To download:  blocklist-update.sh To download the others:  Github
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BASILISK A FIREFOX ALTERNATIVE

The list of browsers following Chrome’s lead is rather slim when compared with Firefox, at least in Linux. Firefox Quantum was the latest attempt by Mozilla to increase speed and productivity of the browser, but recent updates tended to break that experience for some users. Pale Moon 27 is a great browser for people that like simple, but what about users who want more extensions and themes, who want a browser with more relevant web features? Enter Basilisk. Basilisk is a browser based off of more recent firefox code, but on a completely different rendering engine called Goanna. Goanna is the same engine behind Pale Moon, but Pale Moon and Basilisk run on different version schemes and a separate version of code. Basilisk supports a similar look and style to pre-photon Firefox with a look similar to v29 to v56 while Pale Moon is running an older v38 ESR code base with pre-australis look and feel. Basilisk has a more comprehensive list of usable extensions as opposed to Pale Moon right now that only uses it’s own small set of self developed and hosted extensions from peers.

Basilisk has similar requirements to Pale Moon, but in my initial trial of the browser, seemed more responsive than Pale Moon. Pale Moon is planning something major for the new version 28(See my last article) as far as I know it involves bits of this project. Both Pale Moon and Basilisk share a common goal, to continue support for a lighter interface based on older Firefox models, to continue to support XUL and XPCOM extension platforms. Basilisk is recommended only for people who want to take the time and work with potentially unstable software, however, the developers did promise to try and give users an “As Stable as possible” browser. Basilisk have basic contact info and a feature list on their site which will be linked below. It is also good to mention that Basilisk doesn’t use multi-processing technology as does Firefox.

Basilisk seems to work really well now, I was unimpressed with it last year, but I do believe that they have stepped up their game on this release. The current version is 2018.6.01 referring to the date released and not a set version number. The closest comparison to a version number would be Firefox 52.9, however, Basilisk is set apart. So far, Basilisk seems like a strong alternative for people looking to ditch Firefox and Chrome altogether, but as the developer also stated, some features may be dropped in a future update. Most of the changes are not cosmetic, but deal with underlying code. These changes can be seen on the browser’s website.

This browser is almost completely portable. The best way to install it is to unpackage it and then run it from a terminal in the home directory. If you want to create a link to run it like other software, this is possible. If you wish to move it from your home directory to keep it clean, /opt is a good candidate to move to. I should also mention that Basilisk can infact, be installed via AUR in Arch based systems. This way will give you an icon in your menu. I will do more testing and post an update later on, but for now it’s really working well!

Basilisk

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