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You need to stop using Brave (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months 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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[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

To those asking “which browser other than Firefox”

https://helium.computer/

It’s fantastic. It’s Chrome, stripped of junk, with full (not lite) Ublock Origin natively supported and shipped. What more could you want?

And it can coexist alongside Firefox.

Cromite is also great, but its antifingerprinting is so hardcore it breaks some sites. That's perfect for shopping/private browsing, but a bit much for daily driving unless tracking resistance is your #1 priority.

On iOS and OSX, Orion (from Kagi) is sublime. It’s Safari based (which you want for Apple stuff), but heavily modified with a native blocker, and supports extensions if you really need them. There aren’t many Safari “forks” like it.

I say this because I’ve been through a gauntlet of trying a bunch. Bromite, ungoogled chromium, waterfox, pale moon, Thorium, Vivaldi, all sorts of iOS apps and Firefox/Chromium forks. And these feel like endgame to me. Helium is just about perfect (as long as its development isn’t dropped), and Orion is close aside from some UI quirks.

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[-] silt_haddock@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

I use Firefox/LibreWolf as my primary browser, but for things that don’t work with Gecko or for PWAs, I use Brave.

Is WebKit still a thing outside MacOS/iOS? I know it’s roots are tied to KDE but I haven’t seen much in ages

[-] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 months ago

I'm waiting for Servo to able to play YouTube videos then I'll stop using Firefox (Floorp)

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[-] Xylight@lemdro.id 4 points 3 months ago

I already use librewolf on desktop which is a great experience. But Firefox on mobile is just so horribly laggy and has a dated UI, the only offering it has is ublock origin and reader mode. Brave is the only real mobile browser choice I have since it has pretty good tracker blocking and I can disable nearly all of the problems you've mentioned here.

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[-] Aetherion@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Zen and Qwant

[-] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 months ago

Am I the only person who uses mobile tab grouping and sees it as a must-have? Its ridiculous that Firefox is over 5 years behind on this incredible QoL feature. To me it's almost as bad as if a browser didn't support bookmarks. It's just ridiculous at this point.

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