In light of Mozilla’s recent policy changes, we no longer feel assured that Firefox aligns with our commitment to protect your privacy. This prompted us to revisit the choice of default web browser in Zorin OS 17.3.

  • enkers
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    1719 days ago

    While FF’s evil quotient has been on the rise, Brave definitely isn’t a better option. If anything, librewolf is the way to go.

    • @[email protected]
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      319 days ago

      Doesn’t Librewolf log you out of every site when you close it, by default? I don’t think that’s a good default

      • @[email protected]
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        149 days ago

        It has to be the default tho, bc the whole point of Librewolf is that it’s trying to by default be untraceable and private.

        It’s very easy to disable that and re-enable cookies and the like, but your default experience will fundamentally be private, which is its goal

        • @[email protected]
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          89 days ago

          Ok but like, that makes a terrible default for Zorin OS users. They’re gonna be confused and think it’s some hot garbage

        • enkers
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          139 days ago

          That’s not the only point though. IIRC, they also remove telemetry, and pocket as well as some other things. I personally turn back on persistent sessions and history, but leave all the other privacy features there.

          • @[email protected]
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            48 days ago

            I personally turn back on persistent sessions and history

            I did as well.

            My point is just that it makes sense to be the default in that browser given its inclination towards privacy.

      • enkers
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        9 days ago

        That is the default behaviour, but it’s pretty trivial to change. Also, I’d imagine the distro maintainer could choose to change the default settings as part of a post-install script, if they wanted to.

        Edit: Not sure why you’re being downvoted, as I do think it’s a valid concern.

    • @[email protected]
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      9 days ago

      What’s wrong with Brave?

      • Based on Chromium so good web support
      • Decent privacy
      • Built-in adblock
      • Easy to customize
      • Open Source

      It’s the browser I’ve chosen to use after getting fed up w/ Gecko’s terrible web compatibility these days (coming from Librewolf).

      What’s wrong with it? How is it evil?

      • enkers
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        9 days ago

        Asides from the kinda-shady crypto stuff and the other things that’ve already been mentioned, just philosophically it should be kinda evident that over-concentration on one corporate controlled rendering engine isn’t a good thing. Google wants the internet to be a walled garden with themselves as the sole decision makers so they can stuff ads down your throat.

        Gecko’s web compat is bad largely because of this over-concentration.

        • @[email protected]
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          18 days ago

          just philosophically it should be kinda evident that over-concentration on one corporate controlled rendering engine isn’t a good thing

          Totally with you on that point.

          However, I feel now that Gecko has already lost. I was a long-time FF and later Librewolf user, but Websites don’t care to support FF as much, so I’d have important sites break. I’d have to have a Chromium-based backup anyway.

          So I’ve now given up on that from. I have no real choice but to use Blink in some capacity.

      • tuckerm
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        399 days ago

        The thing I dislike about Brave is that Brave intends to be an advertising company. Brave’s original idea for revenue was that the browser itself should be the ad platform. Brave doesn’t block ads because it has a pro-user manifesto; it blocks ads because it dislikes competition.

        That’s why it makes no sense for people to abandon Firefox for Brave. I understand the backlash against Mozilla’s recent ad-focused shift, but Brave invented that idea. So leaving Firefox for Brave is not an improvement.

        It’s the browser I’ve chosen to use after getting fed up w/ Gecko’s terrible web compatibility these days (coming from Librewolf).

        I’m curious about what those compatibility issues are. It’s been years since I’ve noticed any problems – and back when I was seeing problems, it was mainly because Google could afford to implement new standards faster than Mozilla could, not because Mozilla was doing anything wrong. Could it have been because of Librewolf? Librewolf has a ton of privacy-focused settings that can sometimes make pages behave in strange ways. (It doesn’t use your real time zone, it ignores dark mode, it lies about which OS you’re on, and it constantly clears your cookies to name a few.)

        And on a meta-note: I dislike Brave, but I don’t think the parent here is a comment that needs to be downvoted. We can just explain why Brave is a bad idea.

        • @[email protected]
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          18 days ago

          Could it have been because of Librewolf?

          Some issues definitiely were, but I also noticed issues when going back to regular Firefox and on Firefox mobile and Mull (which is sorta like Librewolf principles but for FF Mobile).

          it was mainly because Google could afford to implement new standards faster than Mozilla could

          I think that’s exactly what happens.

          It definitely wasn’t Firefox’s fault for the compat issues.

          Websites would work for months, and then one day only work in Chromium browsers. Sometimes they’d come back. Sometimes only parts would fail. Sometimes they’d never come back. These sites were changing things and breaking Gecko compatibility, but never Blink compatibility. I’d try turning off all the privacy settings, disabling ad blockers and extensions too, but nothing could fix it except using a Blink browser.

          So I don’t blame Firefox/Librewolf for this, but it also means I suddenly couldn’t, say, access my loan payment as an example in Firefox. That’s one that broke. I need that to work. It works in Chrome, but not in FF (actually I think it came back to working in FF eventually)

          I was always having to have 2 browsers installed, Firefox-based for most things and a Chromium-based backup.

          One day I realize that it doesn’t make sense to use a FF-based browser, since if I have to have a Chromium-based backup anyway, I might as well just use a Chromium browser. I didn’t want to use a it, I’m generally against it Blink, but I feel that Gecko has already lost the war. I have no choice. FF is not long for this world

      • Jakob Fel
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        49 days ago

        What’s wrong is that we’re on the Fediverse and many here write off Brave because the founder is “homophobic” because he’s a conservative Christian. Sure, they make up all sorts of shallow justifications like “it’s a crypto scam” but it definitely boils down to the “homophobic” whining.

        • @[email protected]
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          8 days ago

          Found Brendan Eich’s sockpuppet :)

          A conservative can’t be a Christian, and vice versa. Jesus was absolutely clear: He cares as much about the sex of who you sleep with as He does about the fabric of your underwear. Hatred is never justified.

          Homophobia is a plenty good reason not to use a browser. Eich is an unscrupulous person at best, and his name leaves a stink on any project he is involved with. Unsurprising that Brave has decided to embrace the crypto fad and is moving towards becoming an ad platform.

          Brave is a scammy project founded by a scummy person. I’m not sure FOSS development can fix that as long as he is in charge.

          • Jakob Fel
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            39 days ago

            Read the Bible. Even the apostle Paul reiterates that it’s sinful.

            As I said before, it all comes down to the “homophobia” argument. No good reasons, just a hatred of its founder. Pretty sad, if you ask me.

            • @[email protected]
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              8 days ago

              To take that passage (Romans 1) and to interpret it to mean that Homosexuality should be persecuted is to ignore Jesus’ lessons in favor of one’s own hatred. That’s not Christian at all. It also ignores the rest of Romans.

              • Jakob Fel
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                18 days ago

                Again, read the Bible. That’s all I’ll say because it’s obvious to me that you’ve probably only read scraps through third parties within the context of progressive “Christianity”.

                • @[email protected]
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                  8 days ago

                  You’ve got me wrong, but do what you think is best.

                  A comprehensive reading involves slowing down and taking context into account. It was included for a reason.

                • Loren
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                  25 days ago

                  I’ll never understand why this cult-like shit is accepted in the mainstream. Where is some tangible, irrefutable evidence that your god exists?

                • @[email protected]
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                  77 days ago

                  Actually I think they had a kind of committee to decide what was “scripture” and what wasn’t.

    • @[email protected]
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      499 days ago

      As a Librewolf user I wouldn’t make it default for casual users this kind of distro is aiming for. Sure enabling logins to use it as a main browser is piss easy, but that’s still more work than the average person wants to put into setting up their system.

      Waterfox would be the better choice since it’s just default Firefox in every way besides Mozilla’s spyware.

      • tuckerm
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        189 days ago

        Agreed, I wouldn’t recommend Librewolf for casual users. I understand why Librewolf makes those decisions, and I’m glad that it exists, but you definitely run into some quirks when using it. I’m thinking about switching from Librewolf to Waterfox myself.

      • @[email protected]
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        129 days ago

        there’s Zen also. that also has normie defaults, however the drastically changed UI/Uxmight not be for everyone.

  • @[email protected]
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    1149 days ago

    “Mozilla has a bit been shady lately, so we are making the difficult decision to change our default browser to something significantly more shady. We are confident our users will feel safer knowing their data is in even worse hands than before"

  • azron
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    1299 days ago

    How is brave the lesser of those two evils?

  • @[email protected]
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    279 days ago

    The distro sucks anyway. They ship really fucking old packages, even more so than Debian or other stable distros.

    • @[email protected]
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      59 days ago

      Why are you guys so obsessed with the latest packages? A lot of new stuff doesn’t work on older PCs which is also Linux’s target market.

      • @[email protected]
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        9 days ago

        Not all of us use older PC’s. I really don’t care what other people use but I like being on the latest version of whatever software I’m using. Also, I used endeavourOS on a Thinkpad T-420 and didn’t have any issues with running the latest software on that laptop from 2012. I’m not saying you haven’t had issues but it isn’t exactly black or white. Older PC’s are not Linux’s target market. Everything is Linux’s target market. Linux will run on everything from a Pentium II laptop to a $50,000,000 super computer.

        • @[email protected]
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          9 days ago

          Not all of us use older PC’s. I really don’t care what other people use but I like being on the latest version of whatever software I’m using

          I stopped reading about here. I can already tell the rest is a “me, me, me!” ramble about how the world should appeal to you and you only.

          Just don’t use Zorin, you’re not their target market.

          Kind regards.

          • @[email protected]
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            109 days ago

            If you actually read it you’d know that wasn’t true. My point was Linux is very scalable and what works for me might not be what works for you and vice verca. Use whatever you want, I don’t care. You can use fucking Windows for all I care.

    • @[email protected]
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      39 days ago

      It is marketed as direct windows replacement, so it appears they choose absolute safety, over possible breakage. If that GRID product they tout ever launches it will be great for companies.

      • UnfortunateShort
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        129 days ago

        …Except there are three players in that game already. Go by the names of Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu

        • @[email protected]
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          49 days ago

          We see SUSE and REL at corps and enterprises, not so much Ubuntu. None offer something like GRID though. Central management tool for Admins to deploy all systems equally from central location, with dashboard view, without having to run scripts or autoYAST to keep systems the same

          • @[email protected]
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            17 days ago

            Ubuntu is deployed all over the place for data science.

            I’m fairly sure this is because data scientists got used to running it on their personal machines and can’t be bothered to learn another distro.

            • @[email protected]
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              27 days ago

              Ubuntu made Linux easily accessible to anyone, so you are probably right.

              For the enterprise stuff we work with only REL and SUSE are certified to install on, and work with the software. OpenSUSE works too because of the shared binaries with SUSE

  • @[email protected]
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    328 days ago

    “we replaced the browser with ad ware, that we even admit we had to ship settings to minimise its malware effect”

  • funbreaker
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    299 days ago

    I feel like if they were gonna go chromium, they should have gone with Vivaldi. It may not be open source but it’s not doing a crypto scam. Waterfox would have also been a good choice, probably better because it’s Gecko.

    • @[email protected]
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      49 days ago

      I don’t know the details, but I hope they will at least remove the VPN and crypto wallet integrations from the default installed version.

  • @[email protected]
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    528 days ago

    Brave marketing has gone crazy to convince people it’s less dodgy than Firefox. Come on!

  • arsCynic
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    579 days ago

    They should’ve picked LibreWolf which ships with uBlock Origin. Brave is a disappointing choice because it supports multi-level marketing pyramid schemes which says enough about their moral compass.


    ✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.

    • @[email protected]
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      58 days ago

      I kinda dislike the default LibreWolf settings. Unsure if they changed it, but I remember that you have no history except you change it in the settings.

      A Windows refugee wants a history. Addituonally, many pages just dont work.

      My University also does capture a picture and reads it from the Canvas or something, which LibreWolf blocks. It doesnt show again if something is okay or wrong. I just got a Mail that I need to reupload it and go by myself to pickup my University-Card.

      I wasnt the only one as Informatics has many Linux users and some Librewolf users.

  • @[email protected]
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    119 days ago

    Maybe this was not supposed to have been posted until April fool’s day. Silly Zorin was too early for the joke.

  • @[email protected]
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    8 days ago

    I’m actually not familiar with this distro. But if I installed a Linux distro, and it had brave installed. I would immediately switch.

    • @[email protected]
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      128 days ago

      Brave is a fairly recent outlier, and while it isn’t quite proprietary, it stinks a fair bit of something capitalist/crypto.

  • @[email protected]
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    9 days ago

    Wow, never recommending zorin to anyone again. Switching from gecko to chromium is a dumb move.