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submitted 4 days ago by FG_3479@lemmy.world to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

Brave is essentially just Chrome with an adblocker, a bunch of bloatware, and a bunch of controversies.

Brave took BAT donations in YouTuber's names without their consent, with them keeping the money if the YouTubers didn't claim it. https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2019/01/13/brave-web-browser-no-longer-claims-to-fundraise-on-behalf-of-others-so-thats-nice/

Brave's search engine crawler hides itself from websites by pretending to be Googlebot, and Meta (Facebook) buys API access from them to train their AI. https://stackdiary.com/brave-selling-copyrighted-data-for-ai-training/

The business model of Brave rewards as a whole is to block all other ad networks to replace them with their own, which is unfair as only YouTubers and websites that have joined can make money from most Brave users.

If Brave actually cared, they would create an acceptable ads style feature which was free for everyone and allowed simple contextual banners while blocking ads which track you, take up most of the page, or have NSFW content.

Their approach is monopolistic as they have full control and can strangle YouTubers and websites by dropping pay at any time.

And Brenden Eich has said on Twitter that he plans to release "Brave Origin", which is a paid version of Brave without the bloatware. That name is ironic as he is admitting that his browser is commercialised and bloated, which is similar to when gorhill gave uBlock way to Chris Aljoudi who commercialised it, which led him to create uBlock Origin.

If you use Brave, ditch it and look at using Librewolf or Helium instead, which both include no ads nor tracking and don't have Brave News, Rewards, Wallet, Talk etc bloatware.

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[-] kratoz29@lemmy.zip 38 points 3 days ago

I am pretty set with Firefox in Android and desktop to be honest.

I cringe a little when users praise Brave as being the best ad-less YouTube solution (especially android users since we have revanced here!), no bro, there is no way using the web version of YT is better than revanced, or any other apps on mobile.

[-] Void98@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

And now Morphe too, continuation of the revanced project, and it's acually really good i have to say

[-] kratoz29@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

... This is how I found out about the Revanced situation... Oh boy I swear the open source community is one of the biggest ones that carries some drama ๐Ÿ˜‚ (not saying this is bad, the switch is something totally justified).

[-] Void98@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

I just saw a random post about it here and i switched since revanced isn't really getting updated, although i still use the revanced reddit bc it blocks ads, bit buggy but it works and i also have their pirated lightroom xd.

[-] kratoz29@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

I see, I still main Sync for Reddit thanks to revanced do you know if Morphe has parches for it? As far as I can tell it only has parches for YT stuff...

[-] Void98@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

Only yt so far sadly......

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this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2026
782 points (96.2% liked)

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