Hi,
I was demonstrating SFOS to someone, but they became frightened by how outdated the browser was. So I said that the project is open so I get to the repo to see if there is an explanation but no component have received a commit in 9 month.
Do Jolla have abandoned it ? It seems critical for device security (not only the browser, but the apps might use it) and relying on ASS to get such a central app is weird.
No, not orphaned ESR version 102 will come in one of the 5.1 releases.
No. There is active development. Try the search here, please.
No, there was a daily reported ongoing project on upgrading the browser to newer ESR. Yet there are still remaining problems related to drawing, and this was not merged.
Nowadays browsers are non-modular, monstrous pieces of software. Furthermore, Gecko is not native in Qt land so it needs to be reconciled with the env.
And it will continue to be outdated.
Its too big of a project for jolla to handle and you cant install any of the normal browsers on linux. Its one of the things that you have to tollerate on SFOS.
I use Firefox from Aurora store, works fine. Don’t have to use the default browser (except for when an integration like accounts fires it off) 
Yeah i always forget about android support. (which i never used)
For this reason (outdated native browser), I use the native browser for simple searches, but when I have to use credentials I mainly use AAS + Ironfox. Actually Ironfox is the only reason I use AAS nowadays.
Best way to explain how hard and complicated it is to update a web engine is to expose @flypig’s diary: Gecko-dev Diary
I did and that was not talked recently. Thus, as the official documentation still point to the outdated Github repos : Browser | Sailfish OS Documentation , I was a bit biased and didn’t push too far.
Anyway it’s weid that we have to go to a discourse search in replies to find something that could clearly be visible in the official repository pointed in the official documentation.
It’s in the repos, just need to change to the esr102 branch
Your are right, it’s hard to gather all the information here as needed. But this (and the older forum) has many insights and it is the best way to navigate over the Sailfish ocean. The documention is not so a good place for discussions or future ideas.
Beside from the browser there are many here to discover. You are welcome.
Ah, you’re right ! I checked the tags but forgot the branchs, my bad.
Fennec from F-Droid works like a charm! So no problem surfing the web with Sailfish OS phone. Also Add-on’s do work, including uBlock Origin.
The problem with browser is not only the outdated engine that is a pain to update and still be years behind, it’s all the missing browser functionality from the last 15 years that sfos browser is missing.
I’m using Android version of Firefox and brave for quite a few years now.
Yes we have solutions by using one of Android browsers but it’s pity SFOS native browser has been (and likely will be) outdated as browsers are so essential parts of mobile OS.
I wanted to point out the angelfish (a chrome based kde browser) is quite up-to-date and stable. That’s native compiled using @rinigus and @piggz qt 6 libraries …. it can be installed from chum with a couple of steps …. for reference: Packaging Qt6 (6.7.2) for Sailfish OS - #49 by nephros
It’s a pity that people know how to complain but not how to contribute.
The skill difference required might be substantial, though. 
There are 3 edit: 5 different things that maybe look similar at first glance:
complain about something,
report a bug or error,
ask for some feature or functionality,
critisize some behavior,
wanting some things different as they are,
…