'Portable' Edge for Linux - new release : v107.0.1418.62....and NOW with updater!

[mikewalsh]

Evening, all.

Right. Now then.....

Here, for your perusal, boys & girls, is the new M$ "Edge for Linux".....released today. Huh? I hear y'all gasp. Has Uncle Mike "lost it" at long last? I mean, I know I've been fairly close to the 'edge' for a long time ( ), but....oh, never mind.

Why? Simple. It's a Chromium 'clone', no more nor less than that.....and I like to offer as many 'alternatives' as I can.

Since it's in 'portable' format, it's self-contained. It won't 'contaminate' your Puppies in any way, so.....why not? Have a look - if you're brave enough (or daft enough!)

We're currently at v106.0.1370.42.

MyCrudSoft have 'tweaked' it and messed about with it, it's true. 'Bookmarks' are now 'Favourites' (inherited from generations of Internet Exploder, of course). And importing them is not as simple as in Chrome, either. You CAN import an HTML bookmarks file, sure.....but it won't fill the bookmarks bar the way it should. It's all squashed into a single folder, and then you've got menu after nested menu.....urrgh. Not MY favourite way of doing things. The usual 'Bookmarks Manager' (Ctrl + Shift + O) doesn't exist here.

YouTube works fine. Widevine is installed - it's all where it should be - and 'edge://components' lists it.....but the browser says 'Not available'. So no NetFlix/Spotify/Hulu/Amazon Prime, etc. Not YET.....

It's very early days for this. It's Build Number One of Edge for Linux on the Edge-dev channel.....this is their equivalent of the Chrome 'Canary' channel. For a first effort it's not bad; I've seen better, but then I've seen much worse, too.

I won't be making a regular thing of this (unless I get requests to the contrary.) It's just to let y'all get a look at it.....you form your own opinions..!

Runs as 'root', too.....

----------------------------------------

You'll be able to find a fairly up-to-date build here, at my MEGA.nz a/c:-

https://mega.nz/folder/WOBEHZwJ#JvLISpulJk2AGeWJfbfOBg

MD5 sum included. Feedback'll be "interesting", of that I'm certain!

Mike.

[galbi]

Uncle Mike, please, don't get me wrong, this it's not against you or against your hard work which is much appreciated.

M$ Edge, for a simple test, it's OK, but think about it twice for regular use:

...is a real nightmare, according to the study.

Microsoft Edge not only collects the same amount of data as Chrome or Firefox. It additionally sends persistent identifiers that can be used to link requests (including location and IP address) to the company's servers, as well as details of web pages visited that "do not appear to be related to the search suggestion and autocomplete functions," the study notes.

To top it off, Microsoft Edge sends a unique identifier of the hardware - impossible to disable, according to the study's authors - on which it runs, so Microsoft can track the user even if he or she reinstalls the operating system.

Source (in spanish): https://www.muycomputer.com/2020/02/27/ ... rivacidad/

I think that this behavior won't change in future versions, but that's just my opinion.

Saludos.

[mikewalsh]

Hiya, Galbi. Long time no see, mi amigo.

Nah, this is like most of my portable-browsers; my motto has always been 'choice in all things'. You've been knocking around the kennels for a while.....I think anyone who knows me is aware of that by now. Bit of a laugh this one, if I'm honest...!

I know it's a Microsoft 'knock-off' ('cos they can't build a decent browser to save their lives!) But it's worth a look, if nothing else. I was actually surprised how easy it WAS to get running; when you look at their original wrapper-script that comes with it, it's a direct rip-off of what was in use in Chrome when I joined the kennels over 6 years ago. They're definitely playing it safe with this first release.....perhaps rather more aware than usual that "first impressions count"? Dunno...

As a 'clone', it's nowt special. I actually prefer the Russian Yandex over this if I'm honest, but there's no accounting for tastes, is there? You think Edge takes some doing to remove as much of the crap as possible? Try the same with Yandex; the stuff they want you to save back to a KGB-monitored 'cloud' is un-be-lievable, mate, I tell you....

Have fun with it. (And I mean that MOST sincerely, folks...)

Bit of a Hughie Green for ya there..! Ah, hell; you've gotta have a laugh now & then, ain'tcha?


Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Most recent 'dev-build' update for M$ Edge:-

89.0.752.1

Should soon be seeing the first of the more stable 'beta' builds.....though if M$ prove to exhibit the same kind of coding diaorrhea with this as they do with Skype, it'll still be getting updates every couple of weeks.

Available from the link in post #1. Enjoy!

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Afternoon, all.

Newest update for Edge:- 91.0.825.0.

Small, steady improvements.....though STILL no NetFlix. (*grrr....*) Ah, well; can't have everything, I suppose..!

Available from the link in post #1. Enjoy.

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

.....and another update; this time, to v91.0.864.1.

It's getter slicker & slicker, release after release. M$ are now providing the Widevine stuff for the Linux version, unlike in earlier versions.....but ya STILL cannae use it!!

I suppose we MIGHT get there.......eventually.

Available from the usual location in post #1. Enjoy!

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Right, boys & girls.

We've finally moved on from the "Dev" build phase, and we're now into the first of the "Beta" builds.

These are supposedly more stable, and are released approx. every 6 weeks instead of every 7-10 days. So; here's the 'portable' version of the initial "Beta" build - v91.0.864.19.

Widevine is there by default, but still doesn't function.......the error code still sends me to an M$ page requesting that I install Silverlight..!!??!! WTF? Even M$ themselves knocked that thing on the head a while ago.....

I suppose they might eventually get their act together!

---------------------------------------

Aside from that annoyance, it is, as previously stated, becoming smoother & smoother all the time. MyCrudSoft do seem to have added several Windoze-specific dependencies over the last few releases, including one for touch-screen support. No idea whether or not this functions, 'cos I have nowt I can test it with. All your normal extensions from the Chrome store are freely available.

If you can live without NetFlix, etc, it's a pretty fuss-free browsing experience. And that's high praise for an M$ product, coming from me. Those who may be interested, you can find the 'Beta' builds at the new link in post #1.

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Right, guysn'gals. Edge for Linux has finally gone stable.

I'd kinda forgotten this one until I was trawling through OMG!Ubuntu! last night:-

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2021/10/mic ... now-stable

So I figured it was time to update both the repos and this thread. This is based on the very latest Chromium code, same as Chrome itself, and is currently at v95.0.1020.38.

---------------------------------------------

Nothing really new to report. I still can't get NetFlix to work, although some are reporting that a user-agent switcher, set to Chrome under Windows will enable this. I think I need to create a new profile, since I've been using the exact same one all the way through from the original dev release a year ago. Which is probably not helping!

---------------------------------------------

If interested, you can find it at the link in post #1. As always; d/l; unzip; move it anywhere you like.....preferably outside the 'save'. Click to enter, click the appropriate 'LAUNCH' script to fire it up. The 'LaunchReadMe' clarifies which one you'll need.

Other scripts permit adding a Menu entry if required. The 'MenuReadMe' explains how & when to use these.

Enjoy.

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Right, gang.

New version of Edge-portable now out. Current release is now v95.0.1020.53.

No change - at least, for me; NetFlix still won't play, despite messing around with user-agent switchers and all sorts. Apparently, Edge has big 'issues' with the Linux Nvidia drivers.....so unless I remove my GPU, remove all the drivers and revert back to the onboard Intel UHD610, it won't 'play ball'.

I have several alternative browsers that happily run NetFlix under the proprietary Linux Nvidia drivers. Why should I go to all that trouble for one single browser....that isn't even all that special?

(It's still a decent browser, despite all that. YouTube functions fine, and for many that's all they need. For those of you running onboard Intel GPUs, you'll probably be fine with DRM-related stuff.....)

(*grrr....*)

--------------------------------------------------------

It's available from the usual link in post #1. As always; d/l; unzip; put it anywhere you like, preferably outside the 'save'. Click to enter, and now click the single 'LAUNCH' script to fire it up. Easy-peasy.

Enjoy.

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Afternoon, gang.

Now then; new build of the Edge for Linux 'portable' browser for y'all. We're now at v99.0.1150.46 - stable.

For anyone who likes this, sorry for the delay, guys; I produce & work on so much stuff, it's an uphill task to remember everything.....and some stuff has higher priority than other stuff. This is NOT one of them..!

----------------------------------------

Still no joy with NetFlix if you have an Nvidia card. Seems M$ assume that everybody is running either Intel or AMD.....at any rate, I am NOT removing my GPU and resetting all my drivers just to watch NetFlix on one, niche browser. Especially when everything else is perfectly happy with the GPU.....

Apart from that moan, it seems a pretty competent browser these days.

---------------------------------------

You can find the new version at the usual link in post #1. As always - d/l; unzip; move the portable's directory anywhere you like outside the 'save'. Click to enter, click 'LAUNCH' to fire it up.

Scripts permit the addition/removal of a Menu entry, should it be required. The 'MenuReadMe' explains how to use 'em.

Have fun!

Mike.

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh I'm having a slight issue getting it to run on KLV. LAUNCH looks for /etc/DISTRO_SPECS for example.

[mikewalsh]

@rockedge :-

@mikewalsh I'm having a slight issue getting it to run on KLV. LAUNCH looks for /etc/DISTRO_SPECS for example.

Whoops! My bad, Erik. That line in 'LAUNCH' should read:-

Code: Select all

if  grep -q 'tahrpup64' /etc/os-release

The line with 'Quirky April64' is a modded version for my own kennels; although Quirky April was Tahrpup-era, it was one of Barry's custom builds, and, as such, didn't use '/etc/os-release'.....so I had to grep in 'DISTRO_SPECS' instead.

Replace that line, and let me know if it behaves itself. It should do, since that's how I run the portables in KLV. I'll re-pack & re-upload it over the weekend.

Mike.

[OldAcer]

I was told by support staff at a site that didn't like my PaleMoon that MS had a 32-bit-for-Linux Edge. I presume your "portable64" build will not work on 32-bit Xenialpup7.5, but I don't see 32bit at microsoft either. Know where to get something that will run on Xenialpup?

[mikewalsh]

I was told by support staff at a site that didn't like my PaleMoon that MS had a 32-bit-for-Linux Edge. I presume your "portable64" build will not work on 32-bit Xenialpup7.5, but I don't see 32bit at microsoft either. Know where to get something that will run on Xenialpup?

@OldAcer :-

You're quite right; it WON'T run on 32-bit Xenialpup.

Researching the download channels for Edge just now, they no longer even do a 32-bit version for Windows. They did in the early days of Edge - the pre-Chromium days - but since moving to a Chromium base, it's now 64-bit only, I'm afraid.....

I believe you'll find that M$ don't even provide 32-bit builds of Windows any more. They dropped them at some point during the course of the pandemic. After all, 64-bit HAS been around for almost two decades by now, and TBH, not much hardware from all those years ago is still functional, never mind in regular use.

Can't help with that. Sorry!

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Morning, gang.

Another "occasional" new release of M$'s Edge browser in Puppy-portable format for y'all. We're now at v102.0.1245.44.

----------------------------

Nowt much to report. Runs as smoothly as ever; pretty much to be expected from a Chromium-based browser these days. Still no joy with NetFlix, although Auntie Beeb's iPlayer works perfectly. This, too, uses DRM protection, so I have to conclude it's just some incompatibility between Edge and NetFlix on Linux. Either that, or it's due to my GPU; reports I've heard suggest that those using integrated Intel graphics are having no issues. But I refuse to remove my GPU, and blacklist the Nvidia drivers right across the kennels, when I must have a dozen other browsers that give me no problems at all on that one site...

Hey-ho. I've given up worrying about it. YouTube gives no problems, so for most people it's perfectly adequate.

---------------------------

Download link as usual, as given in post #1. As always:-

• Download

• Unzip

• Move the 'portable' directory anywhere you like, though preferably outside the 'save'

• Click to enter

• Click the 'LAUNCH' script to run purely as a portable.....or, for greater system integration, scripts permit the addition/removal of a Menu entry, should one be required

Posting from it now. Enjoy.

Mike.

[xenial]

Okay,
I downloaded the portable edge and it runs remarkably well on my old laptop.Around 300mb in total so very satisfactory in that regard.

I am not a paranoid sort of person and aware of the redmond espionage stories but eh i love software that runs well and is just another portable in the arsenal.

From a personal perspective i still feel the brave browser is far more user friendly and i may keep this one hanging around but in terms of speed i find most chromium clones are about the same.

I can't use firefox anymore as the resource usage has got worse with every update and puppy freezes are more frequent with firefox so alternatives had to be found for this aging laptop.

So the chromium browsers are a must from here on in.

[mikewalsh]

@xenial :-

I think you'll find with Firefox, it's nowt to do with age of hardware. It's more to do with version of glibc.....dynamic libraries.....libstdc++.so.6.....etc, etc. In other words, they've "upped" the requirements again, due (I would guess) to moving to a newer build-environment, and using newer dev-tool-chains, etc.

It used to run fine for me natively in both Tahrpup32 AND Quirky64 April (which is approx Tahrpup-era). Since v101, I've had to switch to running Tahr's FF in a Xenialpup chroot, and Quirky's FF now runs from a Fossapup chroot.

Trying to run it natively in either of those two now results in a blank window opening, and nowt actually showing. Either that, or it launches, but is completely unresponsive.....at this point, it's now generated a "zombie" process that has to be killed via the Task Manager (and that's after 'killing' FF from the tray first!)

I've always preferred the clones, myself.....for the simple reason that they're very largely completely "hassle-free" (and just WORK, without issue.) The clone the user runs boils down to personal preference at the end of the day.

Mike.

[p310don]

Hi @mikewalsh . This works really well in Fatdog.

Is there a way to get the IE compatible mode working?

I deal with a company who insists (persists) on using a website that is only compatible with IE. I don't even know if compatibility mode will be enough, but worth a try rather than having to resort to using the actual thing..

[mikewalsh]

@p310don :-

Hi @mikewalsh . This works really well in Fatdog.

Is there a way to get the IE compatible mode working?

I deal with a company who insists (persists) on using a website that is only compatible with IE. I don't even know if compatibility mode will be enough, but worth a try rather than having to resort to using the actual thing..

Umm....heh. You may be out of luck, Don.

This site describes how to enable and use IE-compatibility mode in M$ Edge.....but this is for the Windows version:-

https://allthings.how/how-to-use-compat ... soft-edge/

Under Puppy, we have never been able to set the "default browser" in such a way that Chromium-based browsers actually recognise it as such. The Puppy tools will certainly set it & make it start/call as the default.....but the particular 'clone' in use doesn't think it IS. So, WE don't get the same options come up that this site shows.

FatDog may perhaps be different. I believe this is largely connected to the effectiveness - or otherwise - of whether "xdg-open" works as it should. I think mainstream distros use this to set defaults.

Let us know what happens, please..?

Mike.

[rockedge]

@mikewalsh The Edge portable works well in KLV-Airedale, but also can not recognize whether or not it is the default browser. So even the button to select it as default browser remains grey and disabled in the Edge settings. Means no IE mode.

I have dLink 930L network cameras that after a recent firmware update suddenly can only have the settings and options controls reachable with the IE browser! Totally unbelievable that dLink did this just before IE became the past. But here we are, so what works is an extension for Firefox that spoofs the user-agent string to appear as IE. The extension I use works really well and has successfully worked on other IE only web interfaces.

Screenshot_2022-07-02_09-39-00.jpg (14.17 KiB) Viewed 3402 times

[mikewalsh]

Morning, gang.

Right! Now then, boys & girls; I'm pleased to finally be able to report that - in my opinion, anyway - Edge 4 Linux is now at long last a fully-functional alternative to the other 'clones'.

After some re-jigging in my personal profile, Widevine DRM appears to be playing ball at long last.....which for me, means access to NetFlix. Yay!

(I think I need to qualify this, if I'm honest. Many months ago, I installed a user-agent switcher extension.....to try and get NetFlix functional. I tried all sorts of recommendations off the web (none of which worked, as it happened). I'd completely forgotten it was installed; this morning, I've updated to the current build again, just on the off-chance things might be working. Once again, the usual NetFlix error messages appeared, so I was about to give up on it when I spotted the extension icon at the top right...

I thought to myself, "I wonder?" and un-installed the user-agent switcher.....thereby resetting to the default Linux user-agent. I went into 'edge://components', clicked on the Widevine updater a couple of times - this ensures the browser finds Widevine in the correct $PATH - shut the browser down, then re-started it again. Annnnd.....

(*drum roll*)

.....whaddya know? NetFlix fired up, and played what I'm currently watching; a re-run of Star Trek "Voyager". Everything behaving itself, just as it should.

I now suspect that Edge may have been running Widevine properly for some time.....but the mis-configured user-agent switcher that I'd forgotten about was in all likelihood blocking it. D'ohhh.... )

--------------------------------------

So; here's the current Puppy-portable package for Edge 4 Linux - v106.0.1370.42. You can find the download link in post #1, as usual.

As always:-

• D/l

• Unzip

• Move the portable anywhere you like, though outside the 'save' is best

• Click to enter

• Click the 'LAUNCH' script to fire it up and keep it self-contained

A Menu entry may be added via the included scripts IF one is required. Otherwise, just run from the 'LAUNCH' script as a 'portable'.

-------------------------------------------

I know it's from MyCrudSoft, and for that reason alone many of you will turn your noses up at it. I'll just say this; do at least take a look at it, 'cos it's a really good-looking & easy-to-use browser that's worth evaluating.

Posting from it now. Enjoy!

Mike.

[mikewalsh]

Evening, kids.

I still say Edge is a half-way decent browser. But I'm beginning to see just why Windoze users get so annoyed by the OS.

The 'New Tab Page', for instance. Doesn't seem to make a scrap of difference what you do with it, or how you set it up. Every time it comes up, MyCrudSoft have decided to set it all back to their preferred defaults, with news feeds, stupid sayings, quotes, multi-coloured backgrounds that sear your eyeballs.....and if you're really unlucky, you'll get a video playing a Microsoft product presentation "in-yer-face"!!

Sheeeit.

Methinks I need to change this, before I throw summat thru the screen. Grrrr.....

Mike.

[bigpuppyfan]

Thanks for continuously providing all the portable @mikewalsh
Although on Puppy I still prefer Pale Moon, unfortunately web compatibility is increasingly reducing, and on several websites is quite slow on very old machines.

As an alternative, I personally quite like Edge - uses less ram than chrome, has some neat tracker blockers and according to the web, it looks like it is a little less privacy harmful compared to the google version. And it seems to do a good job blocking ads even without ublock origin (but I still install that)

I've edited the chrome updater script for it to work on edge, and the launcher to run as spot, for added security. I've also tweaked the former so that it uses less ram while doing the upgrade (on pup mode 5 can be crucial). I think it could be useful to display the live output of the updater script on terminal when it's downloading, but not yet sure how to do that.

Also, a hint: within the portable folder, under /msedge, there is a locales folder. It's relatively big. I opted to deleted everything except en-US.pak (choose accordingly as needed), and reduce the size of the portable, and this has worked fine. This has to be repeated after every update

For those who were using the provided portable and running as root, running as spot now will create a new profile under a directory spot, on the portable folder, so the previous /PROFILE content might have to be moved to /spot/microsoft-edge if necessary.

I leave both files here, on a zip, in case someone is interested. Perhaps they can be included in the next portable release if satisfactory

EDIT-Remembered that the launcher I have attached as the --inprivate flag set. If you don't want to open in this incognito mode as a default, just remove the 2 --inprivate entries towards the end of the of the file, at the end of the lines.

[mikewalsh]

@bigpuppyfan :-

Hey, nice idea. I've downloaded the .zip to take a look at it.

Unfortunately, it's not working for me. It downloads the .deb fine, but then deletes the browser directory and doesn't replace it....

Whoah, whoah. Backpedal, Walsh; put your thinking cap on..... Ah. Yes, of course. Since I never had an updater here before, I haven't got the available "ar" stuff that the script is calling for. Sooo......copy the 'Ar' directory across from Chrome's 'DATA' directory, stick it in Edge's 'DATA' directory, and try again. Annnd.....

------------------------------------------------------------------

Bingo. Yes, that's better; it's now working nicely. I've modified the scripts 'back' again; I don't run either "in-private", or as 'spot'. 'Root' & normal work for me, A-OK; folks look at me "gone-out", as though there's summat wrong with me, but I've never worried too much about privacy & security. In over 8½ years of running Puppy, I've taken no 'special' measures, yet I've never had even the sniff of any kind of infection.

Right. Now; if you're OK with it, I'll use the modified 'run-as-root' LAUNCH & 'Update' scripts in a new upload, and I'll also include your 'in-private', 'run-as-spot' scripts as options for those that want them. Thanks very much for the work on these; for the longest time, I kept up with progress on Edge more out of curiosity than anything.....but since NetFlix has suddenly become functional for me with the last few releases, this is now getting quite a bit of use.

I'm not keen on MyCrudSoft, but I DO like their new browser. I'm quite impressed with it, performance-wise.

Ta very much, lad!

Mike.

[bigpuppyfan]

Sorry, my fault, had forgotten to mention that I snatched the ar folder from your portable chrome But you figured that out immediately

Yes, please, modify it and distribute it as much as you want It was yours anyway, I just adapted it to edge.

One thing to note: if you run it as root, the update script won't run properly as it is, it needs modifying (in line 8 of the LAUNCH file). Similarly to the chrome version, this checks for the current version in /PROFILE/spot/microsoft-edge/Last Version. If you run it as root, that file will be located in /PROFILE instead

Another thing - I've come across this very useful post from smokey01
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... 84#p739974

Replacing line 20 of the UpdateEdge file with this works to show a download progress bar (for some reason, the MyCrudSoft server throttles me down when I download the deb, so one could be left wondering if anything is happening for several minutes):

Code: Select all

export MAIN_DIALOG=' 
<vbox> 
<progressbar> 
<label>Downloading Edge</label> 
<input>wget --content-disposition -P /tmp/edgenew "'https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?linkid=2149051'" 2>&1 | sed -nru "s/.* ([0-9]+%) +([^ ]+).*$/\1\n« \1 downloaded \2 »/p"</input> 
<action type="exit">Ready</action> 
</progressbar> 
</vbox> 
' 
gtkdialog --program=MAIN_DIALOG

But it needs some work, since if you click the X, the script moves on and deletes the browser directory like it happened to you on the 1st attempt

[mikewalsh]

@bigpuppyfan :-

One thing to note: if you run it as root, the update script won't run properly as it is, it needs modifying (in line 8 of the LAUNCH file). Similarly to the chrome version, this checks for the current version in /PROFILE/spot/microsoft-edge/Last Version. If you run it as root, that file will be located in /PROFILE instead

Waayyy ahead of you there, mate. I've been messing around with these launch scripts for quite a few years, and I've developed my own routine for dealing with them. Checking, and modifying $PATHs is almost the first thing I do, pretty much before anything else!

With regard to your 'comments' on lines 44 & 45 of your modified 'LAUNCH' script, I'll give you this advice:-

Whenever you want to run anything as 'spot', you must make sure that anything the program itself interacts with during the normal course of operation is ALSO owned by 'spot'. So the 'msedge' directory will be the first thing that gets chowned.....followed by the 'libs' directory (if it can't access these because of permissions, it won't run, simple as that).....and the same goes for any profile you wish to re-use. Otherwise it'll keep creating a new profile every time, overwriting itself ad infinitum. (Although, if you're running with the "--in-private" switch, that's probably not a bad thing).

I may make some further modifications, yet, so that both LAUNCH scripts can be present in the directory, with a way of chowning the profile for each script so it can be used either way. Or it may be advantageous to have a profile set-up for each 'mode', chowning the browser and libs to accommodate this. I'll have to have a think about that one.

What are your thoughts on these last suggestions?

Mike.

[bigpuppyfan]

I see, of course Sorry, just an amateur here
As for the LAUNCH script, my personal suggestion is perhaps to just make it the way it already is for the Chrome portable, seeing how very similar the structures are?

In the meantime I tried to play with the script above from smokey01. I don't know programming, so takes me much longer, just have to search the web on how to do this or that, as I did for the above 2 scripts. But have made some progress on the gtk-dialog button to exit, using some code from /usr/sbin/shutdown. When time allows, I'll finish it and post it, if of any use

[mikewalsh]

Now then, gang:-

With many thanks to bigpuppyfan, we now have an updater for the Edge-portable browser!

The Chrome-portable updater script has been modified for downloading the current version of M$ Edge for Linux, so those of you who like this browser - myself included! - can now easily keep it up to date. How's about that, then?

-----------------------------------

I've uploaded a new build to the usual location. As it comes, OOTB, it runs-as-root, as it has since the beginning. Inside the main directory, you'll find an additional directory, named 'run-as-spot'. Within, you'll find a second 'LAUNCH' script; this will run the browser as restricted user 'spot', AND in 'private browsing' mode.

There's an extra 'ReadMe' file in the main directory. Please read this before firing it up for the first time; it contains instructions for deciding how you want to run it, either as 'root' or as 'spot', and will determine how the profile is to be set-up.

Within the 'run-as-spot' directory, there's another 'ReadMe' file; this gives instructions for how to disable the 'private browsing' mode if you don't wish to use this option.

It's possible to set things up so that both 'root' and 'spot' can make use of the same profile, though if you wish to remain in 'spot's' private browsing mode, this will be impractical.....since a lot of stuff like extensions is disabled by default in that mode, and is not allowed. I CAN investigate doing so if anybody wants to, though I shan't bother unless I hear anything to the contrary.

---------------------------------------------

You can find the re-built version in the usual location, as given in post #1. Enjoy!

Mike.