No web browser offers a good out of the box experience. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by the_crab_man@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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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.

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[+] the_crab_man@lemmy.world -14 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] deong@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Qvest@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

You can backup your profile folder. See here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

[-] flashgnash@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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 manually the one or two times they have to set one up

this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023

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