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You need to stop using Brave (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago by FG_3479@lemmy.world to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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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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[-] dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 23 points 3 weeks ago

I'm too ready to ladybird browser to be ready in a few years.

[-] frgl@feddit.org 7 points 3 weeks ago

I was looking forward to ladybird until I saw social media posts from the person who runs the project, like:

In recent years I've attended multiple software conference talks that had unrelated extreme political rhetoric in slides, such as "fuck [name]" and "punch [group]".

Whenever this happened, some of the audience would clap and cheer, I'd roll my eyes, and the talk would get back on topic.

Fast-forward to today, and look at how many people in our industry are openly celebrating the murder of someone they decided was a "nazi" and "fascist". Turns out these people were more serious than I thought.

As someone who's repeatedly been called a "nazi" and "fascist" myself for disagreements with far-left ideology, I know how easily those labels get thrown around. And honestly, this is making me seriously reconsider which conferences I attend.

There's a hateful rot within our industry. It shouldn't be socially acceptable to cheer for murder. We need to do more than roll our eyes.

source: https://nitter.net/awesomekling/status/1967178708852097278

[-] dogs0n@sh.itjust.works -2 points 3 weeks ago

Can you really discount and avoid a whole project because of that statement?

It reads like: "Can we keep politics out of software?"

Which I agree with for the most part.

I'm not sure I have experienced enough of life to make this statement, but it feels like in recent years a lot of people are becoming radicalized through social media, etc, which is seeing its spread into every conversation and space. Maybe he is done with politics and doesn't want to keep hearing about it in unrelelated spaces (software conferences). What's wrong with that?

I've seen the guy on a podcast where he explains ladybird, he seems like a good dude doing it out of love and to see competition in the browser space, I can't fault him for this (nothing burger).

Do you think differently?

[-] frgl@feddit.org 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yeah, ladybird is dead to me. I think the assumption that you can keep politics out of anything is wrong. Everything is political and only if you are in a privileged position (because you are rich or not a suppressed minority or whatever) you can afford to be apolitical because things are already going your way. When someone demands to "keep politics out" I think it should be interpreted as "I don't want to renegotiate the status quo because I don't want to lose my privilege."

Another thing that annoys me about his comment is the victimhood complex. He is complaining that people are being mean to him but if people are "repeatedly" calling you nazi or fascist ... chances are you are saying fascist things and I don't see any self-reflection here.