Ubuntu – How to install Waterfox

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The Waterfox web browser is a 64-bit-only open source project based on Firefox.

I would like to see how is the performance compared to Firefox, apparently its better.

Being new to Linux, it's a challenge when it comes to packages that are not .deb. On the official site, Waterfox is provided as a .tar.bz2 file. How can I install Waterfox on Lubuntu 17.04 and also add an entry for it in my menu, under Internet, alongside Firefox?

Best Answer

There is an unofficial repository from which you can download and install Waterfox using apt.

  1. Add the repository to your sources:

    sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/hawkeye116477:/waterfox/xUbuntu_Next/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:hawkeye116477:waterfox.list"

  2. Add the public key:

    wget -nv https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:hawkeye116477:waterfox/xUbuntu_Next/Release.key -O Release.key sudo apt-key add - < Release.key

Replace xUbuntu_Next with xUbuntu_19.04 or whichever version as needed.

  1. Now update packages and install:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install waterfox

    If you have problems, you may need to install some dependencies because the developers used the latest version of the GNU Standard C++ Lib, which isn't available on some systems. (I had to do this manually in 14.04. YMMV.)

    Possible step: 

    sudo apt-get install libgcc1 libstdc++6

  2. Run waterfox at the prompt. Voila!

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