Or even better, a fork of Firefox which disable all that telemetry crap and bundle with uBlock Origin : LibreWolf.
Is it as simple to use out of the box as Firefox or does it require some tinkering first?
LibreWolf is so clean and minimal, whenever I go back to Firefox it feels bloated in comparison.
Fr, people need to stop the lies that firefox itself is a privacy respecting browser, which it isnt- not since it was bought out years back.
LibreWolf and Mullvad are great examples of Firefox Forks that are ACTUALLY privacy focused browsers.
Stumbled over that last week. There is a company where I buy nearly all my computer stuff from, and I'm a customer for more than 20 years.
I wanted to order parts for a high-end PC, but simply could not add the motherboard to the shopping cart. Everything else was already in there. I called them, and they asked me if I used Firefox. And they told me in no uncertain terms that Firefox was dead and would no longer be supported for "safety and security reasons", I should use Chrome or Edge instead.
If their site is too stupid to cope with Firefox, why the heck does it not tell me about this upfront, e.g. when I try to enter an item into the shopping cart?
I've had a few websites tell me to view their website in Chrome. I just leave, because no way am I putting any kind of personal data into a website run by such incompetent people.
I used to be a web developer. Back 8 years ago, you used to have to do a lot of special tricks to make your website look and function the same in all the browsers. Now, you really don't. Unless you're using some really obscure closed source codec or something, websites literally render and function properly without needing any browser specific code fixes.
There's no excuse, unless you're blocking older versions of every browser for security reasons, which is fine, because browsers update automatically these days, and it's very rare for someone to be running a really old version.
Usually the thing about the webpage not working is just codeword for "we have not tested it and we won't". If you really need to access it, there are some extensions that can change your user agent so the page thinks you are in chromium.
This is the one I use.
I use an user agent switcher in those cases. Most of the time it works and I dont have to change the browser.
This is not fully true. Recently I had problems with keyboard press event propagation working differently on button elements and CSS scroll snapping behaving differently when new items are appended in the scroll container. Both are not really obscure.
Funnily enough, I can't log into my bank on chrome, but Firefox works just fine.
That sucks.i am not going to not use Firefox, fuck chrome
LOL I work in IT for a rather large company and we are supposed to use FF because it's actually more secure and is more reliable than chromium browsers.
I work at home in the health field and the only browser they have us use for everything is chrome. It makes me laugh honestly.
What's the source for that claim? To my understanding, Firefox first got sandboxed processes for sites in 2021, and only recently this year got features to sandbox the GPU processes as well - playing catch-up by many years to Chrome, and exposing attack vectors for sites to gain access to OS-level API's to meanwhile. And to my understanding, neither are enabled by default on Firefox for Android, because of ongoing compatibility issues for years https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1610822
My take is that Firefox or its' derivatives are better for privacy, while Chromium is better for security, due to the vastly greater development resources.
I had issues with my banking app and a few other sites that use my personal government issued 2 factor auth..
But only in firefox.
Firefox rules, people need to smarten up. Hell, Firefox on Android has an Adblock extension. Firefox is what's up.
It's also as fast, if not faster, than Chrome now.
I recently switched from Opera to Firefox.
I was getting 59 FPS average in Opera, full bore 165 FPS / Hz in Firefox.
I didn't -want- to switch but it's objectively faster, especially on Linux.
The issue for me with Firefox on Android is it would sometimes refuse to load pages when switching back after being suspended from the background and I have no clue why. I'd have to open a new tab and copy the URL to force it to load and it was so frustrating.
I use Brave now (with the promotional stuff off, even though I still don't fully trust them), since it seems to be the only other ad-blocking browser on Android that's even decently easy to use. However, I still use Firefox on Windows with tree style tabs and raindrop.io to sync bookmarks, both of which are god tier productivity tools.
I get this issue every now and then with Chrome.
Wait it does? I need to go look into that.
does android firefox have a desktop mode for tablets / dex?
Privacy is like the least important reason I use Firefox. With Microsoft Edge and Opera being based on Chromium now there are just so many of them. With Chromium essentially becoming the de facto standard because everyone uses it that means Google can ignore web standards and just do whatever they want.
What are the important reasons?
Everything else I said, sorry if that wasn't clear!
Essentially there are organizations like W3C and IEEE that define standards for how the internet works and how websites behave. All browsers follow these so everything works properly. Let's say you have some idea you want to add to your browser you develop. You do it and tell everyone about it. You don't have many users. Maybe a few sites do it but it isn't really a problem that it doesn't work on other browsers because so few people do it.
Chromium has a massive market share because so many browsers use it as their base. Even Opera and Microsoft Edge which historically have been alternatives to Google Chrome now use Chromium as their base. The danger is that Chromium has such a large user base that they are essentially what the standard is.
As a quick aside, Chromium is the name for the open source base of Google Chrome. Chrome itself is technically not open source. This jus thust in case you or other readers haven't seen that word.
Imagine a world where everyone uses Chromium. Why would you (if you were in charge of Chromium) need to listen to what standards organizations say about how the web should work? You're literally in charge of every browser! You can just add some new features or take some out and every website would have to comply because you (in this hypothetical) truly do control every single web browser on the planet. Their websites would not work otherwise.
Sure, out of the goodness of your heart you might behave and be a good steward but there will always be reasons for you to act against the standards that you don't view as "bad" that other people might think are bad. I'm not saying all standards organizations are perfect and good or anything like that, but I believe I trust them more than Google.
Even if Google never does anything "bad" (naive thinking lol) avoiding the situation where they have that kind of power is a good thing.
To me that's the most important reason to use a non-Chromium based browser. To avoid Chromium becoming the one true browser.
And just for some context, Google has done bad things before with regards to web standards and then having the de facto standard with Chrome. The recent changes to the extension API to neuter ad blocking being a prime example. And we don't even have to speculate and sound like nutjobs. They're a public company. They've said before that ad-blocking is one of the biggest threats to their ad revenue. Not that it feels tin foil hatty to suggest even if they hadn't said it, but they actually have said it in reports.
websites not supporting firefox is the site's fault, not the browser's. firefox is not some niche browser. almost every website i have used is fine on firefox, and when it rarely doesnt work (usually bc i have a configured librewolf), i just open brave or whatever.
I just use chrome when it doesn't work since it's such a rare occurrence. There is no reason for me to use chrome on a daily basis.
Not everyone has this luxury, but I just close the website and never use it. So far, I haven't run into anything major that doesn't work with firefox, so this strategy has been working for me so far.
i'd recommend using edge there instead of chrome, because it's the same browser and google is legitimately less trustworthy than microsoft at this point. neither of these companies are the same that they were in the early 2000s, for better or worse
I occasionally switch to chrome as a troubleshooting step when a website doesnt work, and it rarely is firefox the problem.
Im really confused by this sentiment. Ive been using Firefox since like 2007 and I was just a teenager who didn't know any better.
Its been working fine for 16 years now.
Personally, I stopped using Firefox when mobile became my main computing device. When I had shitty phones and mobile browsers were newer, Chrome was much more stable for me than FF. I should try to break the habit and go back to FF now that they are both structurally sound, but by now I have years of stuff saved to and remembered by Chrome. It would be a hassle to switch, and somewhat more control of a portion of my data isn't worth the trouble to me. I'm still gonna use Instagram for professional networking and personal posting, so I'm gonna be in packaged data anyway.
Damn you stuck with it during it's trash years, too?
It wasn't even acceptable until pretty recently, and it's still missing a lot of QoL features that make me keep Vivaldi around (except on my Linux machines, those just run Fox cause Vivaldi isn't available.)
You have been writing comments on this thread for 5 hours. Have you gone outside today? Make sure to drink some water as well.
What are you talking about? Firefox has always been very much acceptable for me. What qol features are you missing?
Nah, for any functions I've missed there has been a Firefox addon so far. My fave QOL addon is Tree Style Tab
Then you want to hide the horizontal tabs bad in the top, with an extra CSS file in the Firefox folder. Instructions here
ive alwasy had a high end PC around so ive never had issues with it.
Depending on which distro you're on, Vivaldi is most certainly on Linux. I use mostly debian stuff and it works great on there.
Perhaps I'm missing something but I've been a Firefox user for years- at work and home. I have yet to find a website that misbehaves or under-performs. Mayyybe a few sites here and there a fractions of a second slower or have slightly less acceleration or something that I'm just not noticing?
Without Firefox and its ??forks?? like LibreWolf, the internet would be a total Chromium monopoly at this point, wouldn't it? That would be bad..
I've been daily driving Firefox since 3 years ago, the only time it doesn't load a site properly is when I lost internet connection mid-loading. Some people keep saying some sites don't work with FF and yet none of them was able to give a single example.
The Oklahoma Natural Gas website sometimes won't let me pay my bill if I'm using Firefox.
Some websites do poorly on it. However it's rare and easy enough to just open it in a different browser. I've used Firefox for over 15 years and it's not a serious issue. Usually bad government websites or shitty corporate webapps.
I’m a die-hard Firefox user (in part because I’m a web developer and prefer the dev tools). But I have seen a couple of sites that only work with Chromium-based browsers. Both are owned by Microsoft, though, so I assume they’re breaking things on purpose to push Edge or something. There’s no significant features Firefox is missing. (Safari is the problem child for web developers now. They tend to be last to support new CSS/JS features.)
Same here, only I use a few different browsers between work and home. I've never once had to skip over to a different browser because Firefox couldn't do it. Only thing that ever stops a website from working for me is uBlock Origin, and that just means it's usually doing its job.
Microsoft apps somtimes shit themselves in Firefox more often I find
Maybe it's because I use sidebery but Firefox is very Laggy for me in comparison to chrome, I use it Firefox because I don't like google's practices, and I like my sidebar, but I do miss the speed of chrome when you have several tabs open
However, my problems may also be due to windows, I've been having issues with my pc and I Def need an OS wipe
I've used Firefox as my main browser for a year or two now, and it definitely wastes the most battery life and uses the most RAM on my laptop. I've had some websites (job sites) not display "Apply to Job" buttons properly. My Yubikey wasn't supported on many websites with Firefox (only Chrome/Safari) until recently. Chrome feels stagnate, though - I love Firefox's auto-pause, PiP, bookmarks tagging and keyword searches.
Pretty sure Safari runs on Gecko as well, but still, "Chromium monopoly" is such a ridiculous idea.
It's like saying cars have a "V shaped engine monopoly" or clothes have a "YKK zipper monopoly." Does it exist? Yeah. Does it affect the actual lineup of available products and their differences? Not really.
Gecko? Do you mean Blink?
Gecko is the name of Firefox’s renderer. Blink is the name of chrome’s. WebKit is the name of Safari’s.
It would not be correct to say that Safari uses Chrome’s renderer, but since Chrome started as a fork of WebKit, they should have some similarities.
But there is no genetic relationship whatsoever between Gecko and Safari.
Chromium could be spying on you, as it communicates with google servers. You should use ungoogled-chromium, and hope they did a good job...
spoiler
or just use Firefox
Using ungoogled-chromium still contributes to Google's browser engine monoculture.
That's kind of awesome actually. I've been looking to replace brave for a while now while retaining the chromium feel.
If it really has to be a Chromium browser, Vivaldi will do the trick.
And if you REALLY take security seriously, LibreWolf is based on Firefox but without the annoying stuff from Mozilla attached to it.
Vivaldi a privacy respecting browser? It's closed source and barely has any concern on the matter.
Nah, they have a big concern on that matter. Not collecting or selling your data is one of their main selling points lol. Also, while not completely open source, the main changes they do to the chromium base is open for everyone
God, I wish there was less monopolies in the world, I hate when there is no alternative other than a product developed and maintained by evil corporation that profits off of selling my data.
Anyway, the only browser that everyone should use is Chrome, if you don't use Chrome you're dead to me.Buddy we have something called suckless you know, USE FUCKING SURF
I use firefox for obvious privacy reasons but also because I can customize the UI. Chromium's interface is oversized, ugly, and locked down while on firefox I can change any aspect of it using my own CSS.
Also addons against ads which Google obviously wouldn't allow on their crap browser.
I initially read your comment as "I use firefox for obvious piracy reasons" and thought "yeah, that's fair".
How are you doing this? Firefox's stock UI is even more oversize than Chrome's and they are actively removing customization options to the UI.
I just prefer the UI of Firefox
It's Internet Explorer - Google edition.
such a base
Vanadium on my phone.
Vanadium is a chromium based browser.
Indeed. But privacy is good. No point in using Firefox on phone since webview is chromium based.
After the quantum update i switched to firefox, as now in performance it is almost on par with chrome or sometimes better.
I remember I switched to chrome way back when chrome was first becoming popular because of its speed compared to Firefox in like 2010 or something. Firefox caught up within a year and I have never missed Chrome for a second.
Oh, I was similar. When Chrome was new I liked it, but it seems to be vulnerable to get these weird superfluous add-ons that I may have acquired through malicious links. When I switched to Firefox I wasn't as suseptible to malware, and the speed was just as good.
You mean it uses a bunch more of ram ?
For me Chrome uses more RAM, plus it's usually some addon that slows down firefox more.
I think a lot of people turned away from Firefox after that Mr Robot promotional 'stunt' they pulled.
What stunt?
Mozilla thought it would be cool to install a Mr Robot addon as a paid stunt, didn't go over well.
I'm out of the loop on this one. What happened in Mr. Robot?
Wondering this as well.
Didn’t they have some anti-gay-marriage CEO for a while?
Yeah, they had. Now he's the one that works on Brave afaik.
it kinda pisses me off that Chromium is the default browser on Raspbian.
There is no privacy on chromium, it phones home to Google a lot and those communications are encrypted so you will never really know what data is being sent but assume Google can link everything you do in Chromium to you.
Users who think they are "ungoogling chromium" are fooling themselves.
All the commercial browser reeleases like Mullvad browser, Brave or duckduckgo browsers are just window dressing.
Firefox or its children really are the only option.
Ungoogled Chromium doesn't send data to Google servers, if that's what you are implying it is misinformation.
Also, Chromium is open source - you can very easily know what is being sent. I appreciate privacy awareness, but not baseless fearmongering.
Mullvad Browser sue Firefox as base not Chromium
Specifically speaking it branches off tor browser bundle which itself is modified firefox-esr.
I hate Google and Chromium's dominance on the browser market as much as the next person, but this is straight up false information.
Chromium itself is open source, it is 100% possible to make forks that remove all Google telemetry, and such forks do exist.
Mullvad is based on Tor Browser.
Correction: Mullvad is based on Firefox, and Tor is also based on Firefox.
Do you have a source for this?
Just wondering as a Mac user without much experience: how is Safari in terms of privacy compared to say Firefox?
If a lack of privacy is like being nude in public, Apple is an expensive bouncer at an expensive club where you take your clothes off for free in front of people who pay apple a cover charge, because Apple promised them you have the biggest tits.
It's kinda flattering, but is it really privacy?
I don't think u need to worry to much about ur browser when ur os is always sending info in the background.
What info? god knows, but its concerning how it increased after apple introduced his plan to do some shady Facebook like business just after u guessed, blocking Facebook for doing the same without giving him his part of the cake.
when ur os is always sending info in the background.
Flashback to the Windows 10 launch, when typing anything while the resource manager was open revealed a small spike in internet traffic.
No clue what actually happened in the background, but it was consistent over multiple friends computers. Very fun.
You're using an apple product, you didn't have any privacy in the first place. Browser choice isn't going to change that either way.
IMO much better. It’s Apple product. You give your data to them anyway while using macOS or iOS so that’s one argument: no need to share your data with anyone else.
Apart of that they have built in tracking blockers and I think they fiddle with cookies because I get logged out from services more frequently than on other browsers that I use for web development.
Firefox's supremacy 😆
I have a vendetta against Chromium because of Valve having to cease support for older OSes. They did that because of Chromium being built into the Steam client.
Firefox is also going to stop supporting Windows 7, are you going to develop a vendetta against it too?
Older OSes are unsupported for a reason.
Firefox 115 is the last version to support Windows 7, so Valve using Gecko instead of Blink wouldn't have made a difference here. Maybe it's time to move on from a 14 year old operating system on the internet with known zero-day exploits that aren't going to get patched.
Can someone make a comment on if and how chromium development changed since Edge uses it? I often hear that Google dictates chormium dev, but what about MS? Are they doing dev work, too?
But sadly, in privacy matters their interests are likely aligned, so that we can expect to be it further hollowed.
Vivaldi is nice.
Pleading ignorance here and genuine questions. Is anyone, within the context of browsers able to define privacy and what it is that FF does that is superior to other say, Chromium based browsers? And what the real world effects are of not using FF for the purpose of privacy? Either reply or point to sources on the Web would be much appreciated.
Chrome is run by an ad company with a vested interest in your data and has been outspoken about banning adblockers in the past.
Firefox is a completely open source project run by a non-profit organisation who accepts donations to cover costs.
Other Chromium-based browsers can generally be fine but the overuse of chromium reinforces web standards that are hard to reproduce. A web browser is a fairly complex beast these days even for the best programmers. Just see XMPP for an example of where things could lead to.
While it's true that Firefox receives some of those donations from Google for being the default search engine, they have no influence over decisions made by the Firefox team whatsoever. That's the short version of it.
As I understand it, you can make a Chromium browser just as privacy friendly as Firefox. I use Vivaldi on my home PC and mobile which is strongly privacy focused and has a ton of small QoL features neither Chrome nor Firefox has (I use both at work, prefer FF over Chrome). (Going off the tangent here) for example, it's incredibly easy to re-open recently closed tabs in Vivaldi with just two clicks—a feature I use all the time—as the recently closed tabs list is very obvious and easy to access in the tab bar itself without the need to futz around in the menus to find browsing history. The customizable speed dial, sidebar menu for things like bookmarks and downloads are really nice and the download manager in Vivaldi is IMO better than FF, too.
The bigger problem is Google having defacto monopoly over browser market and thus having too much influence over how web standards work and how the user can browse the web (I'm old enough to remember "This web page is best viewed on Internet Explorer" messages on websites). The move to manifest v3 to curb content blockers is one such example.
Thanks for your reply. I am a Vivaldi user myself currently after trying numerous browsers over the years. I was trying to reconcile in my mind what am I giving up in terms of privacy for my choice. I do tend to lean on and learn from other more knowledgeable myself. I do have a few privacy related extensions installed. But you touch on something there that extends further than personal privacy but Googles influence on web standards, good one.
I'm sure you can just Google what the benefit of using Firefox is. When "privacy" is talked about in terms of web browsers and apps, it's mainly about blocking trackers. Ad companies inject trackers into websites and apps, which collect your data. Google has their own ad company, and by using Chrome, you're supplying them with personal information without them even having to pay. Firefox doesn't sell your information. They also have many extensions available that will block any data collecting attempts from websites.
Duck Duck Go is even more secure. The whole point of their browser is for user privacy. Their app even blocks other apps from tracking you. You'd be amazed by the data collected by apps. My fucking shopping list app has trackers from multiple companies.
Yeah I could google it but sometimes I also like to converse and ask questions. Hence why we're here. Thanks for explaining, I have prior understanding of what most you mentioned, Im just hazy how it relates to browser choice since you can block with extensions on most if not all browsers. So if someone is using any chromium based browser, you info is still going to google or is that exclusive to Chrome?
Our of curiosity I checked out the Threads app and after about 20 minutes I had 35 companies try to track me over 600 times. DDG blocked it. Hell I used my webcam app and it tried to track me as well. It's ridiculous.
This is A+
Mullvad Browser is perfect for privacy. Firefox is good with the extensions too. Both of them are better options when it comes to preserving your privacy.
Librewolf is also magnificent
It is the Tor Browser fot the clearnet, I would also use it for browsing eepsites woth the i2pd server
Might need to use chrome so I can blur my video background on google meet. Firefox not a supported browser for video filters. Ungh.
Firefox is the last good browser.
Might need to use chrome so I can blur my video background on google meet. Firefox not a supported browser for video filters. Ungh.
That's exactly what Google wants you to do, when it writes its software to anti-competitively discriminate against Firefox users. Don't let it get away with it.
Oh yeah that was quite clear. I thought we decided to do away with that when with IE. I wonder why the sudden push with chromium.. unless it was micro$oft all along with edge!
Its not about Firefox it is about the website code
is that really a deal breaker lol... have u tried using obs virtual cam ?
My room is very messy. I just turned it in last time but obs virtual cam is a great recommendation! I could at least do some cropping with that.
Tbf, OBS does not make it easy to install plugins and the background removal plugin kinda sucks.
I committed to opera a long time ago and now I'm too many saved passwords deep on shit websites I've not visited in 4 years to make the change.
Let me help you and from there, you can import all your passwords into Keepass or KeepassXC
I was in the same boat many years ago with Chrome until I discovered how to migrate the passwords to Bitwarden.
Not gonna try and force you or anything, but if you want to move over to firefox try this: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/import-data-another-browser
Also, be sure to turn off telemetry in firefox. It's not as safe as people say, but it's pretty good
That's brilliant, cheers for the heads up
No way to export that stuff to Firefox or a Firefox derivate?
My man, Opera has been sold to a Chinese company years ago. It's probably the least trustworthy major browser by a large margin.
I wouldn't trust it with my pornhub account if I had one for some reason.
It’s not privacy focused but Arc is the best browser I’ve ever used once I got used to its quirks.
A single entity running the web is dangerous. Using different flavours of what is essentially Chrome is just as bad as using Chrome.
People should really switch away from chromium based browsers if they want to preserve the web. Google is really, really close to having full control.
This is the biggest reason to use Firefox.
Isn't Arc just chromium but it treats every page as it's own app?
It’s chromium (unfortunately), but yeah it kind of does that. It can open external links in a pop up. So for browsing sites with tons of links you don’t drown in tabs. It also has spaces, which is basically profiles but much easier to manage. And vertical tabs is probably the best feature.
I love Arc on my mac. It's great just looking at a site and not seeing any tabs. I just hate the fact it's chromium based.
No oldies remember Camino? It was such a great browser!
I recommend ungooogled chromium
I was a die hard Firefox fan since it was Netscape navigator. But their refusal to adopt PWAs will always keep me one foot in edge/chrome.
I’ve been flirting a bit with Opera GX because of the sidebar, hard ram/cpu limits, and “my flow” feature. super handy when you’re moving between max and windows all day. But it also doesn’t do PWAs so that’s still super annoying.
On Mac I really do like safari. But they don’t have it for windows so I guess I’m just doomed to use multiple browsers.
Wut. Firefox was Netscape navigator? TIL
In a manner of speaking. But basically it was Firefox’s great great grandpa.
It's true!
What do you mean? Just install the plug-in PWAs for Firefox. I have a Firefox based WhatsApp PWA that runs separate from my main Firefox process. It launches on its own and uses the WhatsApp icon on the taskbar. (I was having so many issues with the official WhatsApp app).
It does have a dependency on a package you’ll have to install outside of FF but you can install it using Chocolatey so it’s pretty quick and easy.
I would definitely not trust Opera due to its Chinese owners.
But it doesn't though, not really. There are quite a few things which are still sent back as telemetry. One hell of alot better than chrome but it's still watching you. It's still not respecting your privacy.
There are some privacy respecting browser out there but they're quite inconvenient to use. I haven't found a real reasonable middle ground personally, but altering librewolf or the mulvad browser to keep you signed in has been nice enough for me
To expand:
Here's a usefull tool: https://ffprofile.com/
Firefox based privacy browser: https://mullvad.net/en/browser
To clarify why this is important, this data can be de-anonymized where anonymized and be used for fingerprinting your internet usage. If you're concerned about privacy this is a pretty big red flag, especially if your government is getting this information, which many have and will be able to in the future.
Fingerprinting isn't a perfect system and can incorrectly flag innocent people. Or, if you unfortunately life in the wrong place, whether true or not being flagged as gay/trans or the wrong political party can very much harm you. Texas has asked the government for a list of trans people inside their state, which was denied, what happens when it isn't? what happens when it's not just trans people, and is instead your group? Caution is king.
Do you have any info on what data Firefox sends home? Have been using Firefox forever.
about:telemetry should tell you if its enabled or not and has links that go into more detail about whats collected and their policies.
This page explains a bit more about it: https://www.howtogeek.com/557929/how-to-see-and-disable-the-telemetry-data-firefox-collects-about-you/
Does it run better than it did fifteen years ago? Because that was the reason I switched to Chrome.
of course not, it hasn't been updated for FIFTEEN YEARS and definitely didn't even get an engine upgrade in 2017 let alone a new version half a month ago and a hotfix last week
Damn I've heard Android is really shitty and full of malware that haven't been updated since 20 years ago. I don't know why idiots still buy their shitty androids, iPhone is clearly the superior platform!
/s
Significantly
I switched from Chrome to Firefox somewhat recently. The experience really isn't any different, except Firefox doesn't use 110% of your CPU.
I have a ton of privacy extensions which causes a few issues when creating accounts by linking to your Google account (the pop-up is blocked) or opening redirect links to apps (I think it's only Discord that I've had an issue with). I don't consider those drawbacks because the browser is doing its job. Instead, I go copy and paste the link in Chrome.
Yes. In fact, I'd say that Firefox runs clearly better than Chrome does these days. An inversion of the past.
A hell of a lot smoother than chrome
Okay, okay, I get the point! I'm a total Rip Van Winkle when it comes to Firefox. I just stopped using it at one point and never looked back. However good it is now, it was just as not good in the 2000s.
I've tried a bunch of time but I feel going back to Chrome.
I'm currently trying or Oprah for the first time.
Is Brave ok?
No, it's a Chromium based browswer.
The swap from Brave to FF is very easy btw. I did several months ago.
better than chrome. honestly its possibly better than vanilla firefox for normies who dont want to change configs or use a hardened fork
Maybe. Probably not.
Very likely no
For anyone considering Firefox but still reluctant for reasons check out Waterfox. It's been the best for me for years now. Honestly the best fork.
this feels like a joke lol
I've never used it. Is it better than Librewolf or substantially different?
I switched to Arc recently and kind of hate myself for it, but it has improved my browsing experience too much to go back to FF.
Stay strong out there.
I've used "Firefox" since Mozilla 1995 0.x release. It's great software, but it has issues. I use Brave as primary these days, because the entire internet is QA'd with Chromium, and FIrefox just hits too many issues, even on the most recent versions. I use Firefox as secondary every day though too. I need multiple browsers to separate o365 AD creds.
I switch back and forth between Chrome and Firefox but always end up sticking with Chrome for longer:
- screensharing via Firefox freezes the entire computer
- FF sync is too slow between devices
- FF does not allow VOD streaming above 720p (except YT obviously; Chrome works up to 4k!)
- both are memory hogs but at least you get responsiveness in Chrome
- FF on Android does not support tablet layout
- FF on Android keeps refreshing pages when changing tabs
- FF password manager on Android does not work when needed outside the browser in 99% of cases
I wish I could switch to Firefox
I never use a password manager and a tablet so I can't comment on those, but for everything else, what kind of devices do you have to run into those problems? Even my shitty laptop from 2016 that is on live support can run Firefox without issues. Are yours from the last century or something?
And "FF on Android keeps refreshing pages when changing tabs"? Dude, that's called resource management, even Brave and Chrome do that if you have 20 tabs opened, you expect a damn phone to be as powerful as a normal average freaking PC?
Even my shitty laptop from 2016 that is on live support can run Firefox without issues. Are yours from the last century or something?
2018 i7 Zenbook with 24GB of ram. Of course it "runs" Firefox all fine, but it's just these little things that force me to switch back to Chrome because I encounter small, but key issues which make me unable to continue working in it
And "FF on Android keeps refreshing pages when changing tabs"? Dude, that's called resource management, even Brave and Chrome do that if you have 20 tabs opened, you expect a damn phone to be as powerful as a normal average freaking PC?
I have 8 gigs of ram on my phone so I wouldn't expect this to happen with just 2 tabs open especially since Chrome does not do that, at least not every time I switch between tabs, even within seconds.
Don't get me wrong, I understand how shitty it is for Google to monopolise the internet and web market and I would love to be able to permanently switch to Firefox, but let's stop acting like Firefox is perfect, because it just isn't. Sure, neither is Chrome, it has its issues beside privacy as well, but all in all performance- and usability-wise Firefox is just inferior.
I was looking for the best all-rounder for Android and Windows and after watching some videos and checking privacytests.org I landed on Brave
Chromium is OSS so it is fine.
If I wrote some malware and published it to GitHub, would that make it safe?
No? dont do that
how exactly does chrome not respect my privacy?
and i don't just mean "because it's google and google is an ad company". what specifically is it sending to some internet server that firefox doesn't? both the firefox and address bars send what you type into them to a search provider. as near as i can tell, firefox's committment to privacy is to say "we protect your privacy" while doing all the same stuff that chrome does.
I'll keep avoiding firefox as long as they keep pushing weird decision with each update, the latest one being forcing "pocket recommendation" on the new tab page, even if the built-in (that is, you can't remove it) pocket extension is disabled. Sure, I can go look for the new advanced parameter to disable every time, but why pull this shit in the first place.
What are those? I have never seen pocket recommendation.
It seems they're rolling this up by regions, for whatever reasons. And they're proud of it too. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/view-articles-recommended-pocket-firefox-new-tab-homepage
Cant you say that about chrome pushing weird decisions like manifest v3.
You can, but there's a big difference : the average user (=the vast majority of people) will not see the difference. In some tech circles, or if you're actively looking for it, you'll know that it happens, and what it might (or might not) do, but 90% of people will not see a change. User interface remain the same, features remains the same, and extensions that could adapt will already have done so.
Firefox choices, for better or for worse, are very visible. The pocket extension was bundled in it, making it so that everyone have it show up one day. It being named after a (formerly) third-party service is not a good look. Then the new-tab page suggestions, which I can only see as an intrusive way to push content onto me (something I actively try to avoid, the samy way many "social network" keep pushing what their algorithms think is good for you). Add to that some decisions about actively ignoring user settings (and page content) about PDF handling, subsequently breaking tons of SPA because "they know better" (there was a long discussion, and the change was half-reverted once big enough sites showed issues).
The list could go on, ranging from "interesting" UI choices to bundling more and more advertisement for their own service, only to backpedal later with "oh, we didn't think it would annoy people to do the exact thing you're running from other browsers for".
Chrome changes might be insidious, but they have limited impact to the actual users. Mozilla keeps changing Firefox in very glaring ways and not always with a sound reasons, user-wise. One could argue that these changes are all minor, but they do act as a deterrent for people that really can't handle changes (remember, for most people changing the icon on a button is enough to make a feature "disappear" for them).
Brave is pretty good too
well no
Why? I'm a noob.
What about brave ????
I heard bad things specifically about brave recently, can't recall the details
Brave + privacyBadger is about the best you can do. If you turn all the features on it anonymizes your plugins and screen res returns enough that you can't be identified by a unique configuration.
It supports TOR for private browsing natively.
I don't trust them more than Mozilla, but the do a better job at keeping my browsing habits out out the hands of my ISP and the sites I visit.
Debloated Brave
God this community is so pathetic
It doesn't have to be Chromium, but asserting that Firefox is the only browser that respects your privacy is just untrue. Edit: I use FF and Brave for different browsing, as some websites just don't like FF.
Brave is a poor example of a privacy oriented browser. Its a very good example of a browser lying to you about your privacy
I've been using Firefox full-time since I switched to it 3 years ago and I haven't seen a single website that doesn't work with Firefox
Appearently brave is the most privacy focused browser. At least according to this paper from 3y ago.
https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Doug.Leith/pubs/browser_privacy.pdf
Edit: guys I know that Brave is not the best browser and I wouldn't recommend it, but I haven't seen studies or in depth articles about technical details of privacy concerns.
And I'm not being sarcastic, I wanna see them so I can make a more informed opinion.
Not sure if you’re making a joke or if you’re just unaware about the recent news, but it’s amusing either way.
This isn't really a "privacy concern" from a user standpoint. It isn't user data they're selling, it's data they've scraped from websites for use in machine learning. It's more of a legal grey area in the same way that OpenAI is being sued for their use of data in training ChatGPT.
Nothings safe anymore. Everything's a lie.
I hate PDFs of papers. I want to read like this
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6 8duckduckgo browser is promising and not built on chromium
Is there a firefox based browser like brave? And preferably without cryptobro bullshit?
I heard mullvad is looking promising but no android app (yet?)
Umm... just use firefox?
On PC and Android, you can get privacy extentions like uBlock Origin that blocks most ads and trackers. What about firefox do you not like?
On Android, I personally use Fennec, which is a fork of Firefox maintained by the same non-profit organization but without any Google-Play shennanigans.
Assuming you mean built-in adblock and so on, Librewolf on the Desktop and the Mull Browser on Android. The latter is the default browser for DivestOS, a custom rom based on LineageOS.
Well, Mull doesn't have a buil-in blocker, but you can use uBlock Origin
Brave? 😅
Chromium. It also has done some shady shit in the past with crypto
miningand refferal links.smartest emojiposter
Brave is on of the few Chrome based browsers that security types will back. but still has its own issues.
C r y p t o
Tbh seems good enough for me, when I turn that stuff off
