Firefox

clickit888

clickit888

clickit888

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Joined
8 May 2022
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50
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Is this browser just going down hill now it seems to just do what it wants when it wants and struggles to open webpages, spell checker does not work on youtube but is fine in google even though all the setting are activated and the dictionary is installed. Is the peasant's browser coming to an end now?
 
It's been dying a slow death for over a decade from poor decision making, but they remain the best actor in the space and they've done and continue to do a lot of good for consumers and FOSS. We're lucky really that they've been as good as they have been and for as long as they have, it'll be a sad day when they turn to the dark side or turn off the lights.

They've been on the trend-chasing game for a while now which currently means AI nonsense, thankfully it can be disabled. Maybe spell checker functioning weirdly has something to do with that? IDK, firefox works well for me.
 
I've moved to a Firefox fork called Floorp. It was more the insistence of AI that pushed me.

I'm waiting with baited breath for Ladybird to be an actual alternative.
 
I switched to Brave recently. So far it's faster and the built in ad blocking works as well as ublock origin on firefox. I had to manually export bookmarks and passwords from firefox and import them into Brave but it worked perfectly. Worth checking out
 
49er said:
I switched to Brave recently. So far it's faster and the built in ad blocking works as well as ublock origin on firefox. I had to manually export bookmarks and passwords from firefox and import them into Brave but it worked perfectly. Worth checking out
Click to expand...

Google brave browser controversy.
 
49er said:
From what I've read all those issues were debunked. The only one that hasn't is their ceo being a bit of an a*** which most are anyway. Is there any browser that doesn't have some controversy around it?
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Blocking competing ads whilst trying to become an ad platform themselves cannot be debunked, it's fact. They're chrome with good marketing, an ad blocker and crypto scam nonsense built in.
 
santa said:
Blocking competing ads whilst trying to become an ad platform themselves cannot be debunked, it's fact. They're chrome with good marketing, an ad blocker and crypto scam nonsense built in.
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You can change privacy settings to block their own ads - though I haven't seen any ads myself even using the standard settings. Same with the crypto stuff it can be disabled. I don't think they're anywhere near Chrome in that regard. And I repeat there is no completely ethical browser out there - they're all trying to make a profit one way or the other.
 
Librewolf is nice but for the most part it's basically Firefox with branding + config changes, along with few codes being ripped out, I know they have AI related stuff scrubbed out, so even with AI options being left in and enabled, they wouldn't even work.

I just use Firefox with my own user.js changes to put it close to Librewolf in terms of security and privacy while keeping website breakage to a minimum, I do have Librewolf installed as a backup though, along with few other browsers, each browser has their own use case + specific sites I visit.
 
Firefox with ublock origin and noscript is all I've used for many many years, whitelisting the parts of websites you use often is a pain but most people don't use that many websites you're quickly just done, no ads on youtube no tracking that can be avoided. Used to have chrome for my bank which didn;t like firefox but it's since changed to working on all browsers as long as you spoof the user agent to windows (yes, the bank is terrible).
 
Librewolf is also my main atm. I've been using it for a while so I've forgotten how it compares to a chromium-based browser, however there aren't any deal breakers for me. I think my three biggest issues are;

1. favicons don't sync which can be pain when installing,
2. some websites demand chromium-based browser
3. no-matter what add-ons, or combination of settings I've tried it still gives out a unique fingerprint (Brave has a randomised fingerprint on EFF test, but fails the test at fingerprint.demo).

I did read about the new Brave Origin (Link) paid browser in the last few days ($60, but free on Linux) which is just the Brave browser including privacy features and shields. Removes everything else like TOR, crypto-stuff, VPN, Wallet, AI etc. I've downloaded the nightly and it's really snappy and I ought to give it an extended test drive. Although I still feel conflicted about using Chromium over Firefox which is one of the things that sent me back to a FF-based browser.
 
Timber said:
Librewolf is also my main atm. I've been using it for a while so I've forgotten how it compares to a chromium-based browser, however there aren't any deal breakers for me. I think my three biggest issues are;

1. favicons don't sync which can be pain when installing,
2. some websites demand chromium-based browser
3. no-matter what add-ons, or combination of settings I've tried it still gives out a unique fingerprint (Brave has a randomised fingerprint on EFF test, but fails the test at fingerprint.demo).

I did read about the new Brave Origin (Link) paid browser in the last few days ($60, but free on Linux) which is just the Brave browser including privacy features and shields. Removes everything else like TOR, crypto-stuff, VPN, Wallet, AI etc. I've downloaded the nightly and it's really snappy and I ought to give it an extended test drive. Although I still feel conflicted about using Chromium over Firefox which is one of the things that sent me back to a FF-based browser.
Click to expand...
Helium Browser is worth your time if you don't want to pay for Brave Origin. Only thing it lacks is the ability to play DRM-enforced content.
 
Spleen Sauce said:
Helium Browser is worth your time if you don't want to pay for Brave Origin. Only thing it lacks is the ability to play DRM-enforced content.
Click to expand...

I've not tried it, so will give it a look (although there are too many browser forks to keep up with them all). Two immediate knocks for my requirements are lack of a mobile version for sync and it's in beta (this is true of Brave Origin too).

I was always happy with Brave's performance; minus some of their shenanigans, but happy to pay for something as it helps with development. However after a few years on Brave I really wanted to go back to supporting Firefox and this is how Librewolf won out. Although apart from Brave Origin, I need to give Mullvad Browser a look too given it's use of standardisation to prevent fingerprinting.

I think the other one on my radar is Ladybird. Listening to the developer talk about his own personal journey and the work going on is heartwarming. So hoping this turns out to be something.

EDIT: Just downloaded Mullvad on this laptop (CachyOS) and it also fails the fingerprint.demo test like Brave/Origin and Librewolf. So I assume you just have to run a VPN to beat fingerprinting. I do have Proton Unlimited for VPN use but I know not everything plays nice with VPN.
 
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