Iceraven-browser: Saving Iceraven

[CharmCityCrab]

See issue #249 for background.

It appears that Iceraven may not currently have anyone actively developing it. One developer announced he was discontinuing his association with the project in the aforemented issue and another has been unreachable for a very long time.

So, of the three primary maintainers, the only one who may be left is interfect, the project's founder and lead developer, and if he is still here, it appears to be 19 days since he (Or anyone) has done anything with unreleased code, and 45 days since the browser has received an actual release update (While the upstream browser it's based on, Firefox, has received at least 4 or 5 updates to it's stable channel).

This is a web browser, and it's important that it get updates for security reasons, among others. It's harder to accept this being just left alone in a world where black hat hackers develop new exploits every day and where we users browse with it for hours a day on our expensive phones and devices.

If Interfect becomes available to weigh in at some point and has a plan on how he wants to go forward, that's great, but I think right now we users who want this browser to continue should think about what kind of action we can take to keep this project (or, if we can't get access to the repo and the name, a fork) going while the existing code is still current enough to work with in terms of integrating those parts of the more recent Firefox releases that would be desirableness to integrate (and while there are still active users left), and continuing from there.

So:

• Are there any developers out there reading this who would be interesting in taking point or joining a team of developers to take over or to contribute to the Iceraven project or a fork of it?

• Do any readers have any ideas on how and/or where we can recruit developers?

• Is there a foundation, a company, or a group we can contact that might be interested in adding Iceraven to it's properties and maintaining it, or creating a fork with new branding?

• Does anyone have any ideas on what we can do to save this thing? I really do not like the other available choices on the Android browser menu. Nothing really offers what Iceraven does. I feel like this is a very important market segment or, at minimum, having this browser or a new browser like it is very important to me. Sure, if Iceraven has received it's last update, becomes too intermitent with updates to be something I'd consider safe to use, or otherwise is off the table, I'll still be using a browser on my phone, because my phone needs a default browser, but whatever I use that I'm aware of is not something I'll be happy with in it's current form, just what I have because I need a browser and all I have is a selection of browsers that are flawed in various ways in terms of facilitating the way I want to browse the web.

I understand that I may not, and in fact, probably don't, have all the answers here. So, if someone else has ideas, please, by all means, throw some out there. I really do want to see this project continue. Though I don't write code and thus am not formally a part of the project, I do feel as if I'm put a lot of energy into it the last few months. It's made Firefox better than it was (Although still not good enough IMO), which is something, but if Iceraven completely crumbles, that still means I'm out a browser (And it's highly unlikely I go back to Firefox right now- it'd be something else.). I doubt I'm the only one who feels that way.

[bbigam]

Hey @CharmCityCrab , I appreciate your passion for this project. Like you I am not a coder. (I made a few small code-related contributions only by looking _very_ closely at the work of others, mainly relan from F-Droid.)

I like the idea of Iceraven and enjoyed what I was able to do, and I am still keeping an eye on the project. But since it stopped getting updates I've been using the new Fenix-based Fennec F-Droid. It doesn't have the Iceraven customization but it does strip out all the proprietary and third-party telemetry bits and enable about:config. Honestly, those were my priorities anyway.

I guess what I'm saying is that if Iceraven continues I'm interested in contributing in my own small ways, but I couldn't be a primary maintainer.

Thanks, Charm. Hopefully interfect or other coders will pick up interest in the project!

[relan]

Just realized I haven't heard about this project for a long time, came to check out how it's going and...

It's a pity IceRaven didn't take off. But I expected this from the very beginning because such complex projects are hard to maintain. It was worth trying anyway.

My question: why save IceRaven? Is it because of practical (e.g. some unique features) or idealogical (absense of corporate dictate) reasons?

The readme mentions about:config and more addons. The former is already enabled in Fennec F-Droid (83.1.0) the latter will be in the next version (84). Just curious: what else does IceRaven offer?

P. S. CharmCityCrab, you would probably get more feedback if you were more concise. ;)

[CharmCityCrab]

My question: why save IceRaven? Is it because of practical (e.g. some unique features) or idealogical (absense of corporate dictate) reasons?

The readme mentions about:config and more addons. The former is already enabled in Fennec F-Droid (83.1.0) the latter will be in the next version (84). Just curious: what else does IceRaven offer?

P. S. CharmCityCrab, you would probably get more feedback if you were more concise. ;)

A GUI option to show protocol (http://, https://, etc.) and "www" (Where applicable) is a big deal to me that no browser other than Iceraven offers on Android, aside from the DuckDuckGo browser, which is missing a ton of other things that are arguably more important. I could do 10 pages on the philosophical and practical value of including at least an option to have protocol and "www", but I want people to read this, so I'll be more concise and just say, I like it. :)

Actually, if Iceraven can't be revived and Fennec could add that, it'd probably be my next browser based on what what else is and isn't out there right now (That may be a not very sneaky feature request ;) Someone coded up a patch for Fenix very early and submitted a patch to Mozilla Firefox, which sat on it- I immediately pointed it out and it got refined and added to Iceraven very early, and Firefox still doesn't have it- which I think speaks to some of the larger issues with Firefox. That is one of the big issues still outstanding that caused the Iceraven fork to begin with- for me, anyway. It probably could be placed into Fennec pretty easily as the code is already written for a Fenix-compatible browser if you folks are willing.)

An option for square pre-Fenix style tabs on their own screen (rather than not at all, or only as a partial screen overlay) is also a big Iceraven hallmark- although I have heard that some version of square tabs is in Firefox nightly, so as long as that isn't one of the features they consider inappropriate to a stable version, it will probably eventually come to Firefox, and, thus, Fennec. It's always hard to tell, at least without following along closely, what features Mozilla intends to hold back from their stable Firefox users, and which it plans to migrate, though.

One thing I see on the horizon is that desktop Firefox now has a new page load in a new tab after updates that has shown ads for their other products like their VPN and Pocket (Regardless of the settings of any visible user preferences). That is not in their Android browser at this time, but it's not a stretch to think that something like that could spread. If it did, would Fennec strip that out?

I know that Fennec's purpose is to strip out proprietary telemetry code from Firefox. Some of the things you mention make it seem like you may be leaning a little bit towards Fennec being release channel Firefox plus porting over some options from beta and/or nightly that Mozilla won't (Which would be to me a significant advantage over the Mozilla offerings which seem to force users to either stability without much in way of options and expandability, or a little more expandibility and options, if one is willing to be their tester on everything else and give up stability that goes way beyond any instability those extra options alone might introduce.). Would you say that's what you're going for- a sort of "best of" compilation of their three channels? Or is ultimately the thought to just do stable Firefox without the proprietary telemetry bits and no other changes?

One thing I noticed while trying out browsers today is that "about:fennec" now says "Fennec is produced by Mozilla". Does that mean you guys are wholly owned by them now? Or did you work out a deal to give them credit in return for certain other considerations? I'm trying to get a feel for what your level of independence is.

Okay, so, broad picture, ideologically. My view is that Iceraven stood (or stands) for as many gui options and as much expandability as possible. Firefox seemed to be cutting out as much as it could to compete with Chrome on stuff that was less important and seemed to take the tact that certain things that drew people to Firefox in the first place were not important and that as long as they provided just a little more in the way of options and expanandibility than most browsers, they'd keep people. There seems to be this sort of constant probing of the tolerances of their userbase where they take away this or that, and then see if the backlash is too big for them to withstand, pulling back only if it is, but maybe not pulling all the way back, or pulling all the way back and then reintroducing an idea later (The number of times they've planned to inject ads into their desktop browser over the years is incredible). They think it's worked, but their marketshare says people are on to them.

I still see Gecko (Though I gave up on Gecko for desktop for now- typed from Vivaldi.) and extensions in general, especially UBlock Origin, but really a full catalog of extensions, as extremely important, which are two things both Firefox and Fennec bring to the table on Android (Kind of. The list of extensions on stable Android Firefox is still very small.).

However, as much as what actually is or isn't in there (Protocol and www would really be nice), there are also ideological problems at Mozilla IMO. And I don't mean ideological as in conservative or progressive (Like most people at Mozilla, I'm a member of the [US] Democratic Party- that's never been an issue I've had with them.) or even as in how open-source it is or isn't, but whether or not the value is placed on giving users as many options as easily accessed as possible with as much information available in the browser about what they are looking at (and what is going on between the browser and the web server) as possible or if the priorities are simplicity and pure speed. For me, Iceraven was (and maybe will be again) the options browser, which is what I want, and Firefox for Android is the simplicity and speed oriented browser. Firefox may "kind of" value having options for users some browsers don't, but where it conflicts with simplicity, 9 times out of 10 they'll choose simplicity unless it conflicts with a really popular option, and that for me is an issue (And also IMO is an issue for them, because everyone's trying for speedy and simple- they've lost marketshare across several platforms while they've been pushing it because they are losing what made them unique. Plenty of browsers out there if you like speedy and simple.).

Where do you see Fennec on that continuum?

Anyway, there is a lot more in terms of specific features Firefox is missing that Iceraven isn't, some ideological questions as to the future of Firefox, but I know my post has already gone on too long, so I'll just say I can go into more detail upon request. :)

[interfect]

I think it's not so much that maintaining is hard as that I am lazy, and not really a Kotlin/Android developer. I have about the effort needed to prepare a build that works for me, but not really the copious free time to e.g. argue with the Kotlin linter, or debug why Travis can't install the Android SDK automatically. That's the sort of thing I do at my job, and it seems to me that the strict testing and linting regimines that work for professional software projects with lots of developers don't necessarily work for spare-time projects with few to no developers.

If people want to volunteer to maintain the project to that standard, please step up and I'll give you the necessary permissions!

Otherwise, I think I'm going to go back to letting the tests rot and publishing the builds I personally run, auto-built by Github if I can manage to keep that bit working. I've been running a build that hasn't been released yet because I couldn't get CI working, but if I stop trying to chase CI issues and only fix bugs that actually impede me from browsing, I can probably have a new release Soon (tm).

[relan]

ads for their other products like their VPN and Pocket ... would Fennec strip that out?

Yes if someone finds time to do this. Ads is general are allowed by the F-Droid policy.

"about:fennec" now says "Fennec is produced by Mozilla". Does that mean you guys are wholly owned by them now?

Nope. :) F-Droid is totally independent from Mozilla.

Where do you see Fennec on that continuum?

I see Fennec as a Firefox fork without proprietary code. We can make some little changes if they don't require maintenance. Thanks for listing IceRaven's UX improvements, now I get the direction of its development. I don't see such changes coming to Fennec F-Droid. Working with the upstream would be the best strategy IMO. Sorry for offtopic.

I have about the effort needed to prepare a build that works for me, but not really the copious free time to e.g. argue with the Kotlin linter, or debug why Travis can't install the Android SDK automatically. That's the sort of thing I do at my job, and it seems to me that the strict testing and linting regimines that work for professional software projects with lots of developers don't necessarily work for spare-time projects with few to no developers.

That's exactly what I meant by _hard_: regular, tedious work that few people can appreciate.

[daffydock]

Automatic update dropped about 1 hour ago.

[CharmCityCrab]

If people want to volunteer to maintain the project to that standard, please step up and I'll give you the necessary permissions!

Thanks for checking in here and giving us something tangible to do. I have set to work to see if we can get some more developers to help you out. I don't know a lot of people personally (Though I did check in with a friend in IT who knows some programmers and told him to keep an ear out), but I can reach out online in various places and see what happens.

I'd encourage anyone else who is interested in the future of this browser to do so as well. My efforts are not guaranteed to bare fruit by any means, but if everyone who is interested sort of advertises that the browser is looking for developers, maybe at least one of us will find someone or several someones who can help code and do whatever else is necessary. :)

I appreciate today's update and all the hard work you and others have put in.

If I seem a little grouchy sometimes, it's just because, well, I'm kind a grouchy person. However, more than that I really am passionate about the project and want to be comfortable keeping it as my default Android browser and recommending it to others. I may not be very good at tact, but I'm trying to help and keep things going within the narrow limits of what is possible for me to do to help given my very limited skill set.

Android is pretty much a vast wasteland right now apart from this project for someone with the preferences I have for a mobile browser. I think there are others who feel the same way.

I was messing around with other browsers over the last day or two in case this project was on its way out and found nothing I really wanted to use. Anything I can do to help, I will do, within reason.

[hbarsaiyan]

@CharmCityCrab your passion towards the project is commendable. But I feel maintaining Iceraven in the long run will be very difficult. I believe maintaining a project like Fennec is easier in the long run since it only removes proprietary code and make little change to the firefox source code in comparision to Iceraven which has features that clash with Firefox's own implementation and need to be adapted to upstream.

[ghost]

currently what differentiates ice-craven from firefox is :

1. about:config
2. more extension support
   3.removing telemetry
   sooner or later the first two will be definitely fixed in vanilla firefox and we can never be telemetry free even fennec on f-droid can't remove telemetry completely. So in the meantime let's be grateful to the ice-craven developers for helping us in the darkest hours of firefox instead of asking for eta's and annoying them.

[CharmCityCrab]

currently what differentiates ice-craven from firefox is :

1. about:config

2. more extension support
   3.removing telemetry
   sooner or later the first two will be definitely fixed in vanilla firefox and we can never be telemetry free even fennec on f-droid can't remove telemetry completely.

I politely and without malice respectfully disagree with the "Firefox will get it right, rendering Iceraven unnecessary" crowd, and with the reductionist perspective wherein only two or three differences between the browsers are cited.

There are more differences than that. Off the top of my head, some of the tab display options and the option to actual show the URLs you navigate to complete with protocol (http://, https://) and www (Where applicable) are things that aren't in Firefox's stable browser that are in Iceraven's browser. Iceraven also has a superior version of the home page, among other things.

Additionally, Firefox seems to have invested in a long-term plan to only provide certain functionality to their unstable nightly and beta builds, and not to their stable release "daylight" channel. I don't feel users should have to choose between a browser that's reliable and stable and a browser that has some of the options they want, especially when one company is making them all. I don't want to be Mozilla's lab monkey just to get about:config access.

Iceraven addresses that by using the stable Firefox as a base and adding in the missing features from nightly and beta that Mozilla has decided will not be allowed to filter back down to it's stable browser channel. Iceraven also has improvements and option in the code that is unique to it.

I also feel that Firefox has long ago decided to go in the wrong direction in their basic approach to building a browser, favoring speed, simplicity, and uniformity over user options, customizations, extendability, and other factors. The Firefox desktop browser even has ads of a sort after updates, and has been trying to work in paid top sites placement on and off for years, only pulling back after a strong user backlash each time, but they're planning it again and it will land, and eventually I would imagine that will come to their mobile browser, too.

Yet, for all Firefox's faults, it provides a better platform for a fork willing to correct as many of those faults as it can and work on providing more user options, informations, and control rather than taking them away. Iceraven is that fork.

However, as the last developer still with the Iceraven project has admitted, it's tough to fulfill that sort of a mandate with only one guy who also has a day job and a life. Regular updates are necessary with the modern web being the way it is, and we need a greater number of committed developers to achieve that. Interfect has openly asked for some other developers to come on board and help.

So let's try to find him developers.

It's kind of naive to think that Firefox will eventually fix all their issues and not create new issues in the future. Their basic approach is not one that will consistently yield browsers that meet the needs of someone who wants the type of things Iceraven to some extent offers and to another extent would like to offer but doesn't have enough coders working enough hours to get done.

The thing with Firefox is that, when your development principles and goals are not what a lot it's users and former users value, it is not reasonable to think that they will always provide end results said users are happy with.

Iceraven's principles and philosophical goals are great. They meet my needs and fill a niche and there isn't any other browser on Android that comes close.

So, let's get Interfect some help and save this project so it's around the next time people with your mindset, after returning to Firefox, realize that it's not what you really want and have a place to go. Iceraven will be here and it'll be better- we just need more devs.

I think it would be a mistake, and I would be very disappointed, if Iceraven just disappeared and sort of declared it's mission is accomplished and disappeared just because Firefox sort of did or may sort of do some of the things they should have had on Fenix in the first place as though half a loaf should be enough and pretending the philosophical approach at Mozilla that made the decisions that produced those early Fenix builds and replaced the old Firefox code with them is not a thing. It is a thing, and that means there will be more issues in the future. I don't know what form they'll take, but they'll be there.

I feel there is a long-term need for a browser like Iceraven that takes the best of Mozilla and expands user choice and options and access. Rather than having to rebuild a browser from scratch everytime some issues with Firefox get big enough that people want a fork, it makes sense to keep the fork going.

There are also some things that the current crowd at Firefox will never fix because they don't see them as broken and they are pretty about anyone who questions them about it.

There are good reasons for this fork that will still be applicable indefinitely, and I am personally going to do everything I can to keep Iceraven going and to make it better. Since I can't code and don't have much money, that may not be much, but I feel that I have contributed in my own way and will continue to do what I do.

Getting some more developers on board is something I am actively working on, because that's what we need (And our founder agrees). I hope I'm not the only one working to do that.

[CharmCityCrab]

@CharmCityCrab your passion towards the project is commendable. But I feel maintaining Iceraven in the long run will be very difficult. I believe maintaining a project like Fennec is easier in the long run since it only removes proprietary code and make little change to the firefox source code in comparision to Iceraven

While removing proprietary code is nice, and something I am in favor of (Heck, I am the one who hooked up this project's developers with the Fennec project's developer and pointed them towards the Fennec code in the first place way before the release of a Fenix-based Fennec), proprietary telemetry is not among my top five reasons of why I am not a fan of Firefox's official mobile releases right now. A browser that is Firefox plus only the removal of that, like F-Droid Fenix, doesn't address the biggest reasons I left Firefox mobile.

Don't get me wrong, the F-Droid Fennec serves it's niche well and is a good thing to have around in an ecosystem sense. It also is a continuing source of good code for this project and any other Fenix forks that are mostly doing something else but also want that feature. Relan is awesome and deserves major props. His browser isn't what I am looking for, though- it's too close to Firefox for my tastes. If it ever broadens it's mission, I may reconsider that assessment, though, of course.

And, yes, if you fork a browser and only want to make and maintain one single change from upstream, it is easier to maintain than something that has a bunch of differences. Duh. But if you use a browser that only has one difference from Firefox, you are using a browser that only has one difference from Firefox.

I need more, though, and I don't think I'm the only one.

[L31FY]

@CharmCityCrab your passion towards the project is commendable. But I feel maintaining Iceraven in the long run will be very difficult. I believe maintaining a project like Fennec is easier in the long run since it only removes proprietary code and make little change to the firefox source code in comparision to Iceraven

While removing proprietary code is nice, and something I am in favor of (Heck, I am the one who hooked up this project's developers with the Fennec project's developer and pointed them towards the Fennec code in the first place way before the replace of a Fenix-based Fennec), proprietary telemetry is not among my top five reasons of why I am not a fan of Firefox's official mobile releases right now. A browser that is Firefox plus only the removal of that, like F-Droid Fenix, doesn't address the biggest reasons I left Firefox mobile.

Don't get me wrong, the F-Droid Fennec serves it's niche well and is a good thing to have around in an ecosystem sense. It also is a continuing source of good code for this project and any other Fenix forks that share are mostly doing something else but also want that feature. Relan is awesome and deserve major props. His browser isn't what I am looking for, though- it's too close to Firefox for my tastes. If it ever broadens it's mission, I may reconsider that assessment, though, of course.

And, yes, if you fork a browser and only want to make and maintain one single change from upstream, it is easier to maintain than something that has a bunch of differences. Duh. But if you use a browser that only has one difference from Firefox, you are using a browser that only has one difference from Firefox.

I need more, though, and I don't think I'm the only one.

You're definitely not alone in this. I don't know where I'd go at this point and I certainly have lost my trust in Vanilla Firefox at this stage with their blatantly hostile response to my bug reporting and any criticism. They went rogue and I can't go back to that on Android at least. I need something that works to my needs and nothing else does that. They have had more than their chances and failed. It's too little too late honestly, and who is to say they won't mess something up in another unpleasant update they should've left in testing much longer?

[Dakkaron]

@all non-coders:

If you really care about this project, you can actually do the biggest part of the work without coding knowledge at all.

If at any point you don't know what to do, google. You will find almost all answers there.
First, clone the repo (e.g. using SourceTree). Then, using the documentation in this repo, manage to build the app. This is the biggest hurdle.

Whenever you want an updated version, pull upstream, merge using something like KDiff3. Create a pull request and get a maintainer to pull it. Done.

No coding required.

For the parts that actually need a programmer (implementing small features of fixing bugs) someone will be found.

But pulling, merging, building and releasing are the most boring and time-consuming task that bogs down programmers.

So if you really care, do it. There are no excuses, it is doable without any coding knowledge.

Programmers have to go through the same crap except they accidentally used exactly the same tools before.

[interfect]

It definitely is a lot easier for me to merge a PR than to go and put one together.

[Namit-Nayan]

My question: why save IceRaven?
Just curious: what else does IceRaven offer?

157

This makes these bugs less painful
#12731
#17005

All of this started here, and is back at same place. (At least from how a user perceives)
#9039

I don't want fenix to keep all the webpages in memory, but at least keeping how much chromium based browsers can should be a must.
reloading pages unnecessarily causes more internet usage, which in turn results in more battery usage, also costs users their time.

(Chromium based browsers also have offline copy feature, but that seems like too much to ask for now)

[abhijitvalluri]

@ALL non-coders:

If you really care about this project, you can actually do the biggest part of the work without coding knowledge at all.

If at any point you don't know what to do, google. You will find almost all answers there.
First, clone the repo (e.g. using SourceTree). Then, using the documentation in this repo, manage to build the app. This is the biggest hurdle.

Whenever you want an updated version, pull upstream, merge using something like KDiff3. Create a pull request and get a maintainer to pull it. Done.

No coding required.

For the parts that actually need a programmer (implementing small features of fixing bugs) someone will be found.

But pulling, merging, building and releasing are the most boring and time-consuming task that bogs down programmers.

So if you really care, do it. There are no excuses, it is doable without any coding knowledge.

Programmers have to go through the same crap except they accidentally used exactly the same tools before.

Totally agreed. These sort of routine work is very time consuming and honestly boring and not rewarding. But if there are merge conflicts, then unfortunately it will take some knowledge and understanding to figure out what code from upstream to keep or remove, and what custom changes we made in the repo to keep or remove or modify. So it may not be that easy to figure out if you do not have some background on the coding aspect.

Also, replying to this bit of text from @CharmCityCrab:

Additionally, Firefox seems to have invested in a long-term plan to only provide certain functionality to their unstable nightly and beta builds, and not to their stable release "daylight" channel. I don't feel users should have to choose between a browser that's reliable and stable and a browser that has some of the options they want, especially when one company is making them all. I don't want to be Mozilla's lab monkey just to get about:config access.

Iceraven addresses that by using the stable Firefox as a base and adding in the missing features from nightly and beta that Mozilla has decided will not be allowed to filter back down to it's stable browser channel. Iceraven also has improvements and option in the code that is unique to it.

I may be out of date from current release of Iceraven, but as far as I can tell Iceraven releases were always made from the master (i.e. main) branch of the repo, which is equivalent to Nightly (but used stable version of the rendering engine which comes from an outside source pulled in during build time, I think). So, it is a strange mix between nightly version of Firefox and Stable FF. So, not something that I would call stable. Consequently, it does have quite a few of the bugs that get introduced in Nightly FF as well.

Also, while I do have experience doing Android programming in Java and Kotlin for work, and I do maintain an app that I released on Play Store as a side project, however I too feel similar to what @interfect has said. That is, it is difficult to get the time or motivation or interest to work on such coding stuff after a regular day of office work doing the same, especially when you also need to spend time with family at home and unwind and relax. But I wouldn't call that laziness, and interfect isn't lazy either, even if he says that! 🙂 It is just natural! Especially given that we will have to work on such hobbyist projects with limited free time, and a very small group of devs and often by yourself, so it takes more time and effort to resolve frustrating issues with CI, or tests etc. So it simply does not make economical sense (or any sense sometimes! :D ) to work on it.

It would be great if someone who is passionate about this, has some experience with Android programming and has sufficient free time can work on this project! Honestly someone in college or high school would be perfect! I used to do such projects back in my college/university days and it was a great learning experience and good way to use my free time, especially when you have ZERO responsibilities, and you don't have a job or family taking up your time! 😃

[CharmCityCrab]

I may be out of date from current release of Iceraven, but as far as I can tell Iceraven releases were always made from the master (i.e. main) branch of the repo, which is equivalent to Nightly (but used stable version of the rendering engine which comes from an outside source pulled in during build time, I think). So, it is a strange mix between nightly version of Firefox and Stable FF. So, not something that I would call stable. Consequently, it does have quite a few of the bugs that get introduced in Nightly FF as well.

My understanding was that the hope was to sync up the entire Iceraven browser with the stable branch (Apart from intentional differences between Iceraven and Firefox, including custom Iceraven code and features from Firefox nightly and beta that are excluded from stable) beginning with Firefox 83, and keep it on that track going forward. There were discussions to the effect that it was a possibility, at least.

I am not conversant enough with code to understand whether or not that actually happened. However, for me from a lay person's perspective, some of the change log entries for Iceraven 1.4 seemed to mention Firefox 83 enough that they seemed like they could have been part of that effort. I had the sense that Iceraven 1.4, which came out after Firefox 83, has sort of been brought into alignment with Firefox 83 in the areas where code is shared, and moved away from nightly and other unstable versions except where needed to maintain features.

If you want, you can take a look at the change log here and tell us if you think that happened or not.