I feel like there is no web browser with a sane default configuration that I can recommend to other people. All browsers are preconfigured in a way that harms the privacy of their users or include services that no one wants such as Pocket and BAT.
Here are my problems with some popular browsers.
-
Mozilla Firefox: Pocket integration, no ad-blocking without extensions.
-
Brave: Everything related to crypto. Also its start page is horrible.
-
Chromium: No ad-blocking without extensions and soon Manifest v3 will cripple all content blockers.
Now, these suboptimal defaults wouldn’t be such a big problem if the configuration files were easy to backup and restore and respected the XDG base directory specification.
That is why forks like librewolf exist.
Just use Librewolf. It’s a fork of Firefox, with Pocket disabled, Ublock Origin preinstalled, and privacy settings enabled by default.
deleted by creator
I still like firefox. I configure it using a json file. Just load that file and the browser is configured for all users on the system.
I like Firefox too and I use it. But OP talks about adblocking and disabled pocket by default, so this is why I commented this.
(Actually I don’t even use Librewolf, I have just heard of it) EDIT: I saw that OP says that configuration files are an issue, so your comment is okay.
No problem. My comment was more to add some info. Perhaps i formulated it a bit odd.
How many people maintain LibreWolf? How closely does it track the upstream?
Just install u block origin lmao.
And I’d have to do that manually for every computer on which I install the browser. I can’t just tell someone to install a browser and use it as is, there are always several additional steps required after install to have a decent experience. This is especially a problem for people who are not tech savvy.
Or just use their built in sync and sign in one time, and all your addons will be installed and enabled for you.
If your argument boils down to “none of the browsers are exactly pre-configured for me, one of the 7 billion not special people on the planet”, I’m not sure there’s a productive conversation to be had here.
deleted by creator
Use NixOS, nix package manager or home manager, declaratively add all the extensions and config you want, boom same browser every time
People who are not tech savvy can handle installing a browser extension the one or two times they have to set one up
deleted by creator
What’s wrong with pocket integration?Nobody forces you to use it. Apart from that it stores user data e2e encrypted, mozilla has no access to your data (as opposed to chromes sync functionality). Imho, a browser should not block some content by default. But ad-blocking must be easy to enable/install. All of that’s the case in FF so I see no reason not to recommend it.
Not to mention they have a freaking Help page explaining how to remove it if you really don’t like it for some reason.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/disable-or-re-enable-pocket-for-firefox
Yeah, Pocket does nothing unless you press the button.
And as for telemetry that’s publicly available on telemetry.mozilla.org if anyone wants to see what’s being sent. It’s very useful for Mozilla to see what and how features are used.
Mozilla is our last tiny hope for freedom really, in this Chrome/Blink world…
Just remove pocket in about:config
Ad blocking shouldn’t be tied to the browser, anyway. ublock is superb, imagine if firefox devs should have to develop it along with the browser (that nowadays is a herculean task).
Anyway, extensions give user freedom to chose how they use their browser.
Pocket take 2 seconds to disable.
It’s kinda the same with Brave. Just take 2 seconds to turn off the crypto thing and forget it was ever there.
I’m primarily a Firefox user but keep Brave around for Chromium-based browser testing.
Just turn it off, folks!
though brave has 2 issues you can’t turn off:
- it’s chromium-based, and strenghtens the browser engine monopoly
- the company behind it seems quite shady, and afaik the ceo/leader/founder/… is homophobic
Yeah, obviously not great. Hence why I only use it for testing.
I would love to ignore Chromium based browsers completely I’m a web developer, so I can’t.
I wish there were a Chromium browser I could have the warm fuzzies about, but I’m not aware of one.
the browser engine monopoly
I don’t think you understand what a monopoly is. Chromium was developed specifically to avoid a monopoly…
Chromium was developed specifically to avoid a monopoly…
[Citation needed]
No one at Google is going to say that out loud. But it’s a fairly obvious assumption.
Same reason that Firefox is almost entirely funded by Google
Wasn’t Chrome also sort of a ‘reference implementation’ for years and years?
The difference is brave is shady as fuck.
Been seeing a lot of people talk positively about Brave like it’s some hail corporate shit
LOL it’s not “hail corporate shit”, it’s just a good browser…
deleted by creator
Yeah, and there’s definitely some pay-offs going on with their reviews. Almost every one of them says something close to “This browser pays you just for browsing the internet!,” most of them don’t mention that it’s crypto, and none of them mention that it has nothing to do with browsing, but is instead for clicking integrated ads.
it has nothing to do with browsing, but is instead for clicking integrated ads.
It doesn’t show you ads if you’re not browsing… 🤔
And you don’t have to click the ads.
Brainlet response.
Getting popup ads is a far cry from “just browsing,” and despite claims otherwise, I always noticed a fairly stark difference from month to month that seemed to coincide with whether or not I was clicking the ads. 🤔
My favorite part of all these mad shilling comments in getting as how not a single one of them addresses the carbon copy “BRowSeR tHAT PaYS YoU!!!” reviews, they just all go “Hmm, but it says you don’t have to click, haha, you fool, you liar! You are discredited!”
Brainlet response.
Dafuq is a “brainlet”?
Getting popup ads is a far cry from “just browsing,”
I don’t know what part of this you’re not getting but you have to be browsing in order to get an ad, so it has absolutely everything to do with browsing, despite your insistence to the contrary.
that seemed to coincide with whether or not I was clicking the ads.
Wait you actually clicked the ads?
mad shilling comments
God I just love these comments. As if no one can actually genuinely like a product and any correction of disinformation makes you a “shill”… such big brain energy over here.
how not a single one of them addresses the carbon copy “BRowSeR tHAT PaYS YoU!!!” reviews.
Because we don’t care. We don’t read reviews from randoms online. We listen to experienced privacy and security advocates, and we actually use the browsers ourselves.
You’re not a shill for “genuinely liking a product” or “correcting disinformation” (which, btw, are both obvious b.s.), you’re a shill for denying any lying about genuine issues.
You’re a shill for your staunch refusal to accept that there’s a difference between “using a browser” and “receiving advertisements that pop up over your content or in your notification bar.”
You’re a shill for responding to mention of the half-truths they (and people like you) propagate with the dismissive “Wait you actually clicked the ads?”
You’re a shill because you willingly admit that you don’t care about the shady shit they do, and you clearly don’t want other people to care.
You’re a shill for implying that anyone who would point out the shady shit they do is simply dumber or less informed than you.
Clicking doesn’t improve earnings.
What are you on about? Clicking is literally the only way to get anything from it, period. I used to use Brave on both mobile and desktop, and that was true universally. You don’t get BAT unless you click the ads.
Liar
Shill.
deleted by creator
Regardless of what they claim, I noticed a large difference between months where I did and didn’t bother to click their push notification ads. Well, as large a difference there can be on a maximum of $0.75/month.
Is it not open source? You can literally audit the code and point out any shadiness yourself.
That’s just three browsers. There are more. You don’t have to use Pocket in Firefox. An extension is no better or worse than an integrated ad-blocker (moreover, Librewolf simply comes with uBlock Origin). I don’t see what’s the real issue here. There are many other versions of Firefox with enhanced privacy.
Qutebrowser has great, sensible defaults with no telemetry. 😊
Can confirm, I only configured some visual changes, font, minimal font size and alike.
Only problem I have with it is, an increasing number of webpages tell me, my browser is outdated and rarely some pages don’t work correctly.
I am thinking of moving to Epiphany (gnome-web) some day, but I may start missing the vim-like interaction with qutebrowser.
I am thinking of moving to Epiphany (gnome-web) some day, but I may start missing the vim-like interaction with qutebrowser.
There’s a WebKitGTK-based web browser called Luakit. Pretty good from my experience, although webkit can be problematic at times.
you might be able to fix webpages telling you you’re outdated by changing your useragent string.
Have you updated Qutebrowser recently? It was running a pretty ancient version of Chromium under the hood before the 3.0 release (2 weeks ago), but it’s up-to-date now.
Thx for the reminder; I need to do that update.
deleted by creator
No browser will ever tick ALL your boxes.
Why not? Is it that hard to NOT include bloatware in your browser and respect XDG Base Directory? As for content blocking, the code is already there because extensions make use of it, just integrate it into the browser UI and use uBlock Origin’s block lists.
Is it that hard to NOT include bloatware in your browser
I mean obviously it is, yes. If you want to build a good browser, that takes resources. How else would you monetize it? God knows no one is paying directly for a web browser…
deleted by creator
In other news, emacs still didn’t ship my
init.elas part of the default configuration! LolWhat’s the problem with using uBlock on FF. Gets rids of ads, has ton of features to custom add filters and more.
Also, I kinda like Pocket Integration on FF. Found some interesting articles that way.
The problem with Pocket is: most of us don’t want it, and cannot get rid of it like you do with extension.
Pretty sure there was a flag to disable it.
Well you can just remove the button by right-clicking on it. But if that’s not enough, Mozilla has a help page to completely disable it.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/disable-or-re-enable-pocket-for-firefox
Disabling it (even “completely”) is not the same as removing it. The code is still there. Mozilla don’t even provide a method to exclude it when building from source code.
idk what you want theb, disabling it is pretty much the same as completely removing it. It simply doesn’t do anything. Doesn’t send data no nothing
IMO that logic is really absurd. If you can disable it so that it doesn’t bother you, nor steal your data, then it’s completely fine. They are giving you the option to opt-out.
Just use tor
overkill for almost all people with convenience out of the window
Nyxt includes a blocker, and has an appealing minimalistic interface, but I never tested.
Nyxt can’t load 9/10 sites without crashing, as it’s still using Webket instead of something Chromium based. For a better experience, try qutebrowser. It’s my daily driver now.
I didn’t know about the Manifest v3 thing, and I found this article. Sharing in case anyone else is out of the loop.
True.
I wish someone can fork Brave on desktop and mobile and take out all the other stuff. And if someone could fork firefox for desktop and mobile and make it a hardened browser out of the box.
Firefox has librewolf for desktop.
But not for mobile, especially Android. I would like librewolf to maintain a hardened Android app with their own F-Droid repo.
On Android there’s Bromite
Mull’s good
Mullvad browser is perfect out of the box
Ive actually been considering switching to it you know how is it?
its great, works out of the box, i have it on multiple computers and I dont have to fiddle with settings.
