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

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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[-] kariboka@bolha.forum 105 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] marlowe221@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

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!

[-] kariboka@bolha.forum 29 points 1 year ago

The difference is brave is shady as fuck.

[-] Ganbat@lemmyonline.com 13 points 1 year ago

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.

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Been seeing a lot of people talk positively about Brave like it's some hail corporate shit

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[-] yukijoou@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago

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
[-] marlowe221@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

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.

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[-] Dotdev@programming.dev 69 points 1 year ago

That is why forks like librewolf exist.

[-] hottari@lemmy.ml 41 points 1 year ago

No browser will ever tick ALL your boxes. You pick one and make it work.

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[-] VitabytesDev@feddit.nl 39 points 1 year ago

Just use Librewolf. It's a fork of Firefox, with Pocket disabled, Ublock Origin preinstalled, and privacy settings enabled by default.

[-] kylian0087@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

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.

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[-] stsquad@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

How many people maintain LibreWolf? How closely does it track the upstream?

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[-] lefixxx@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

don't expect browsers to block ads out of the box

[-] words_number@programming.dev 33 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] ProtonBadger@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

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..

[-] jayandp@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

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

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[-] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

You're going to be spending a lot of time with your browser, make it a 2 way dialog, customize.

Firefox has an extremely vibrant extension ecosystem and seems to overall be doing well, but see what works for you.

[-] TheMadnessKing@lemdro.id 23 points 1 year ago

What'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.

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[-] valentino@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 year ago

Just install u block origin lmao.

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[-] the_sisko@startrek.website 21 points 1 year ago

In other news, emacs still didn't ship my init.el as part of the default configuration! Lol

[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

I didn't know about the Manifest v3 thing, and I found this article. Sharing in case anyone else is out of the loop.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12/chrome-delays-plan-to-limit-ad-blockers-new-timeline-coming-in-march/

[-] priapus@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago

Librewolf or one of the other Firefox forks

[-] doppelgangmember@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Mullvad Browser

[-] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 year ago

On Android F-Droid app store there are some off-shoots of Firefox that are real good. Fennec comes with a bunch of the most popupar extensions already installed and none of that Pocket nonsense.

[-] flashgnash@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Why do people dislike pocket so much? I barely even know what it is, used it once to see what it was about and then forgot about it completely, it's not exactly obstructive

[-] Fushi@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago
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[-] kariboka@bolha.forum 8 points 1 year ago

For me Firefox is perfect as is. I tweak some stuff only because I like to play with css sometimes.

[-] jet@hackertalks.com 7 points 1 year ago

Mullvad browser is perfect out of the box

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[-] slamphear@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Qutebrowser has great, sensible defaults with no telemetry. 😊

[-] poinck@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] slamphear@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

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.

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[-] qyron@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

I have a little known browser which is released by DuckDuckGo. Hasn't failed me yet.

[-] Drito@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Nyxt includes a blocker, and has an appealing minimalistic interface, but I never tested.

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[-] danielfgom@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

You should REALLY try Vivaldi.

Best browser for desktop and mobile. Privacy respecting and great onboarding, plus very versatile and powerful if you want that.

Or keep it simple. They let you choose.

https://vivaldi.com/

[-] Lucia@eviltoast.org 5 points 1 year ago

Yep, also they don't integrate Pocket in the browser, they just have a built-in ~~email client, note-taking software, RSS reader, calendar~~ bloat. Also, Vivaldi is based on chromium (as such subsribed to all Google's bullshit), and uses Chrome extension store.

Honestly, OP, just stick to Librewolf, it's privacy-respecting and actually open-source, pocket's disabled, UBo's preinstalled.

[-] morrowind@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

~~they just have a built-in email client, note-taking software, RSS reader, calendar~~ bloat

You literally get a button when you first install it asking whether you want these things. One click and they're disabled. Also OP post is about privacy not bloat and these features will only improve your privacy over using some webmail.

Also, Vivaldi is based on chromium (as such subsribed to all Google’s bullshit)

All google stuff is either removed or toggleable from settings.

uses Chrome extension store.

What's wrong with that? It's a good deal larger than mozilla's

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this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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