One project · two browser variants · a 42-day clock

Two minerals.
One clockwork.

Cryolite and Fluorite are twin hardened browsers produced by the same discipline: a pinned upstream tag, a scripted transform, a reviewable patch layer, an optimized build and a smoke gate — every six weeks, without fail, with security advisories watched weekly in between. The only thing that differs is the engine underneath. Pick your mineral.

2Engines: Chromium & Gecko
42 daysShared release cycle
7×/weekSecurity watch
100%Scripted pipeline

Fluorite — the Chromium line

A hardened Chromium browser continuing the Bromite → Cromite lineage. Built from a clean Chromium source tree every six weeks with a scripted patch layer for ad blocking and privacy hardening on top.

Pick Fluorite if you live in the Chromium world but want it de-googled, patched and predictable.

Enter Fluorite Downloads

Cryolite — the Gecko line

A hardened GNU IceCat fork carrying Firefox's free-software line: ESR stability, the GNU freedom layer (free licenses only, LibreJS, trademark-safe rebrand), rebuilt entirely by audited scripts.

Pick Cryolite if free software licenses are non-negotiable and you want the Gecko engine without compromises.

Enter Cryolite Downloads

The methodology: same skeleton, different transform

Both variants run the identical seven-step clock. The pipeline never changes; only the transform step speaks the language of its engine.

  1. PinFreeze the cycle to one upstream tag: the newest vX.Y.Z-gnuN IceCat tag for Cryolite, the current Chromium stable milestone for Fluorite.
  2. TransformThe engine-specific pass: makeicecat applies GNU patches and the freedom layer to the ESR sourceball; Fluorite re-applies the Cromite-lineage hardening stack to the Chromium tree.
  3. BrandA single audited script performs the mechanical rename and re-art of the tree.
  4. PatchEverything beyond branding lives as discrete, reviewable patches applied to a pristine tree.
  5. BuildOfficial release configuration only: optimizations on, debug symbols trimmed, updater and crash reporter off.
  6. TestThe smoke gate: every build must identify itself (--version) and render a page headlessly before promotion. Failures stop the line.
  7. PromoteBlessed binaries land in dist/<version>/ with checksums and archives. In between cycles, upstream advisories are watched weekly and respins ship when needed.

Fluorite methodology

Base: Chromium stable, pinned each cycle — a fresh, clean source tree every six weeks, never an incremental branch.

Transform: the Bromite/Cromite patch heritage (ad blocking, privacy defaults, feature hygiene) is kept as a scripted layer so every rebase is reproducible rather than hand-merged.

Watch: Chromium security releases are tracked weekly; critical fixes trigger off-cycle respins instead of waiting for the next scheduled window.

Full Fluorite pipeline →

Cryolite methodology

Base: Firefox ESR as packaged by GNU IceCat — the branch Mozilla itself deems enterprise-stable, resolved from gnuzilla and GPG-verified before anything touches it.

Transform: makeicecat applies the GNU freedom layer — free licenses only, LibreJS, privacy defaults, trademark-safe rebranding — followed by the scripted IceCat→Cryolite brand pass.

Watch: ESR security advisories are watched weekly; respins land any time they're needed against the frozen base tag.

Full Cryolite pipeline →

Which mineral?

  • Engine philosophy: Fluorite continues the de-googled Chromium line (Bromite → Cromite); Cryolite continues the free-software Gecko line (Firefox ESR → GNU IceCat).
  • Licensing posture: Fluorite ships practical hardening on Chromium's licensing terms; Cryolite enforces the four freedoms end to end, LibreJS included.
  • Release identity: Fluorite tracks Chromium milestones; Cryolite tracks vX.Y.Z-gnuN ESR tags. Both promote through the same smoke gate onto the same download servers.