not very brave
10d 18h ago by lemmy.blahaj.zone/u/not_IO in microblogmemes from lemmy.blahaj.zone
Librewolf
đș
Waterfox?
Both?
That and Zen.
Nothing much, what's up with you?
Brave users will probably prefer Waterfox, as it has a couple QoL features that are useful.
Zen?
I like the idea of Zen but hate the tabs on the side. Can I change it?
There is a specific reason why you prefer horizontal tabs? If the problem is space: there are many way to fix this, if not, then you are better off using another browser, many Zen features are made around the vertical tabs
For me, the key to dealing with the vertical tabs was to set the tab bar to auto hide. I'd still prefer horizontal tabs, but at least I get the space back.
Use natsumi browser instead :3
I keep meaning to try Zen. I have it installed on my desktop for like, jeez, at least a year. Yet to start it up.
Floorp
đŠ
LibreOwOlf
UwU
Also, it's still Chromium, meaning it can be affected by Google's decisions.
i tell you what, i'll keep an eye on the brave usage numbers and if they keep heading up because it's such a great browser i'll keep it under my hat
deal?
Come and delete this comment when you're sober again.
Why would I use something other than firefox?
Well, I would recommend waterfox over firefox because waterfox has just straight up removed any AI stuff rather than giving you the option to opt out of it.
Sounds like a lot more work than just opting out
~ish, waterfox is reconfigured firefox. They have a single button sync on first launch to clone your firefox data over, it took me like 60 seconds to swap everything over. And you get a lot more than just removing AI from firefox, it's essentially a preconfigured firefox. Removes a lot of telemetry and analytic stuff, strict-enforces better security protocols, prettier layout and stuff.
It doesn't really buy you any new functionality, but it's way quicker to just use waterfox than it is to spend hours configuring the weird shit like private DNS in firefox.
I agree, but also Waterfox just generally has a more free/unmonitozed default and the AI stuff is just an example. It's a one-time switch to Waterfox and it' will forever turn off/on the stuff that you would otherwise have to do manually.
Packagemanager Install waterfox
because Mozilla insists on sucking major ass? idk
Mozilla sucks more ass than Google in your opinion?
absolutely not! that wasn't part of your question though.
It's the important yet subtle differences that matter most between sucking ass and blowing goats.
You can maybe try Ladybird (most websites is kinds usable now I guess)
the lead developer for ladybird had a controversy regarding transphobia though
while checking to see if anything happened regarding the controversy, i found that the same person that claimed that suggesting using gender neutral pronouns instead of assuming the reader was a man was advertising personal politics, the lead developer for ladybird, also complained about white men being actively discriminated against in tech and said he hopes "many more debate nerds carry on his quest to engage young people with words, not fists." regarding the death of Charlie Kirk
i was going to link sources for everything here, but this article has all of them already and its easier to have a single link
I never knew about any of this, damn.
Itâs not even in alpha release yet
Ohh yes, obviously not in the condition to daily drive, and you need to compile from source.
ight straight up what is the use case for ladybird? Who do you think is going to "try" it?
It doesn't work yet - there's not really a reason to "use" it unless you're going to try and develop it
I donât usually take the software creatorâs ideology into account if it works well on my computer. However, I stopped using Brave when I found out that itâs a company funded by Peter Thiel, the founder of Palantir and one of the most toxic investors around today. The combination of Brendan Eich and Peter Thiel has now pushed me past the point where I can separate software from its creatorâs ideology.
I donât think âtoxicâ covers the kind of evil Peter Thiel.
An actor with mildly spicy views on stuff is âtoxicâ.
Thiel bought a fucking Vice President and got him to do a 180 on his views on Trump.
This is the guy that Epstein sent an email to saying:
"Finding things on their way to collapse, was much easier than finding the next bargain."
3 days before Brexit vote. Peter Thiel is named over 2,200 times in the Epstein files, confirming their extensive correspondence.
And Thiel did nothing but sabotage society for finding the next bargain. He's a caricature super villain from James Bond, that should be at the bottom of a volcano somewhere not funding web browsers.
Technically the order was:
Buy
180 on views
Make him VP
He didn't really buy a ready-made VP, he groomed him.
Brave Browser: "Privacy Forward"
Funded by Peter Thiel of Palantir, the most un-privacy corporation that ever pravacied.
That math ain't mathing for me.
As others mentioned, Thiel is basically a cartoon supervillain. There's definitely something more sinister at play that he's trying to accomplish with this "privacy forward" web browser. Not sure exactly what it is, but I don't trust it for a fucking second.
Shocking number of people under-informed about browsers here.
Brave just released a $60 paid (except on Linux Desktop) version without bloat. It worked barely OK in the first place, but didn't obfuscate all of your browser fingerprint. It spoofed fonts, that was its major innovation.
Only Tor truly anonymizes web traffic. This is not opinion, this is fact.
LibreWolf, Mullvad, and hardened FF help, but they all give their own fingerprints. As does Vivaldi and Floorp.
Personally, I cycle through all 7 of these. Only things tied to my name on stock FF. Everything else gets its own different browser private mode and VPN location.
Use whatever you want, but understand that unless you're on Tor or spreading your risk across multiple tools, it's trivial for Google to triangulate you across the web.
Thanks. Very good comment, I agree.. And yet...
Ironically, not being on what most people are using (stock Chrome without extensions) is already a fingerprint. And tor browser, even if it is providing anonymity, is also a huge fingerprint on itself, by blocking all the fingerprinting stuff...
The irony is lost the moment you come up with a proper threat model upon which you base the decisions of what security and privacy measures are going to be taken for a given online activity.
I really liked (and used it for quite a while) that extension, Ad Nauseam, that would actually follow behind scenes all ads and shit...
This is a bit like the "If you're not doing anything, you have nothing to hide" argument. You're thinking this is an all or nothing position, and it's very much not. It depends on one's threat model, but there's two sides to the coin worth considering.
First, that your entire life is open to anyone with money. Individuals so motivated can spend a couple grand and buy your advertising data and stalk you. Everything you think, every little whim, every random question, is used to build a profile on you that benefits someone else financially. All you get is free email and a mediocre browser from a billion-dollar company that derives an average of $1,600 from you a year if you're in the US ? You can pay for those services for a tenth of that. So you're 90% profit to Google.
On the flip side, by giving up so much high-value data, that profile becomes active in real time. Even if you use ad blockers and don't see the ads (which as a Chrome user, you no longer can do). You are an active target by companies. Not just you, everyone around you. Friends, family, coworkers. For some big ticket items, advertisers will target anyone connected to your profile. So your parents, your kids, your neighbors, might start to get ads about a cruise. Not for them, but for you, since it looks like you might be a good mark for a cruise. These companies manipulate people around you to be the ads, so that when you bring up "we're thinking about doing a cruise" at some point, everyone around you jumps in with the same "oh, well I've heard that XYZ Cruise company is good."
You trust a company that much to manipulate you and everyone around you without bias? With your best interests in mind? You want to cede your agency as a human to real-time auctions?
Personally, this is fundamentally abhorrent to me. And I understand that other people are fine with this. However, I'd rather leave a small and bland trail of a few occasional and useless crumbs, and then leave "redacted" as a middle finger because that deprives Google and Meta of using me as a revenue source. The nice part is that even partially masking your footprint and traffic, it's enough to break the real-time value of you as an individual. So not only does every little bit help, every little bit has effects to protect you and your family.
I'm not super deep into this, i2p doesn't anonymize web traffic? What does it do then?
i2p is a separate network entirely, and part of that is routing your traffic to someone else's connection. So your exit node is someone else's laptop or server. And you're letting other people doing who knows what else use your connection as an exit node. Which, for me, is an absolute deal breaker. I don't trust other people online to let them use my connection.
Team Librewolf reporting in.
IronFox for Android standing by
Librewolf logouts from all websites and also dark mode settings is reverted once i quit the program and re run. Is it how it is supposed to be?
Librewolf by default deletes all cookies when you close it. So that will log you out of every website, but that also makes sure things like tracking cookies don't hang around.
You can tweak those settings if you want.
Waterfox is just as good with less setup work.
Sounds like a "delete all cookies and session data after closing the program" type of setting.
Maybe try to look at your settings :)
Imagine reading the settings... Gross
Yeah did. It worked fine now. Tanks.
Correct! Logging in via password manager is easy! And I add exceptions for the few sites I want to stay logged in
Brave has ran a bunch of youtube ads. Like raid shadow legends style. That's how I know it's a shit browser
It's good that OG directly linked to the toot but I always hate when dates are cutoff. This toot is from 2024 when Google started introducing manifest v3 which prevented ublock origin from working, hence many people were looking for alternative browsers and Brave was one of the more popular ones. While I would not recommend Brave, I've heard the crypto rewarding program is opt-in and the affiliate link injection was removed soon after getting backlash.
Brendan Eich is still an ass though, and Brave has very bad business practices. Only recently Brave announced a 60$ (free on Linux though) minimalist variant that removes unwanted features like the crypto rewarding program, Brave VPN and AI chatbot which are built-in for the default browser variant.
The fact that they did it in the past is proof that they'll pull shit like that again.
Brave is asking for money to remove the bloatware it has added over the years and to be able to use the original browser it first released.
I'm a big fan of the duckduckgo browser. Love me the burn-all-the-cookies-and-history bonfire button that make it great as a default browser and I click random links more confidently now that it's my go-to.
If you don't use Firefox (or webkit) you want Google to control the entire web. Simple as that.
Firefox depends on google for funding and failed massively when they tried to go without them for funding. Google already controls the web.
Wrong. Firefox is still a valid alternative. While those exists Google can't do anything they want. If they will go too far they will have the same issues Windows has.
- webkit exists
you're implying specifically firefox.
Ok, or webkit.
ngl my second point doesn't make too much sense.
Haven't seen much talk about Zen on Lemmy, i think i'm gonna try that when i have more time since it seems like the most radically different browser ever
Iâve been using Zen for about 3 months after using Floorp for about the same. I prefer Zen because itâs different and the workflow just feels better.
You should be made aware that your account is flagged as a bot.
Hmmm thanks Iâll try to figure that out. :/
It is a flag in your profile that you can toggle.
Thanks! No idea how that got checked.
Also Pale Moon is still borked from the Tobin saga.
Firefox will sign you up for 'Studies' that phone home and disclose your browsing data without consent, you need to check this periodically. Turning it off is not enough, you need to check it as it will periodically turn itself back on with updates.
Waterfox is clean after you turn off crash telemetry.
Source on firefox re-enabling telemetry on its own? Mine never did it
Thats quite a claim about firefox studies.
Whatâs the Tobin saga?
Firefox will sign you up for 'Studies' that phone home and disclose your browsing data without consent, you need to check this periodically. Turning it off is not enough, you need to check it as it will periodically turn itself back on with updates.
On desktop? Thatâs fucked, idk how thatâs not more publicized
Librewolf and youâre done, just look at the settings a bit if you need a website to remember stuff. Thatâs it, your search is concluded.
I stopped using Brave for Peter Thiel reasons. Using Librespped, Mullvad browser, Zen browser and Helium. Helium isn't fully finished, but looking amazing. I like options
Just wanted to say thanks, this spurred me to swap over to Zen until I hear how that one is also terrible for me however far down the road.
And now you can pay $60 to get less of their features!
Brave is the default in Zorin OS, for some reason.
Zorin is a piece of shit thats only reason of relevance is that a bunch of sloptubers jumped on the âLiNuX iS uSeR fRiEnDlY now????â train. There is nothing to learn from Zorin except that you could sell 80% of humanity an overpriced and underperforming product by marketing everything but their product as overly complicated and only for nerds
That bad, huh?
Its the most sub average you can get.
It works, but the package maintenance is sub par, with some apps being years old, the ui does not allow a user to have more advanced options, like the updates executable just being a loading bar instead of something fully featured like KDE discover, etc
I test drove it for a couple days and it worked well enough for a noob. I don't think it's intended for advanced level use.
I'm checking out Linux Lite nextâmy laptop is ancient lol
It's why I don't recommend it anymore
Well, they have paid and education versions, so likely it's the default because Brave paid to be the default. Gotta get cash from the free users too.
The unfortunate truth is that on iOS it's the only acceptable browser option since it is by far the best at adblocking.
But you have to deactivate all the crypto stuff
Anyone with alternatives welcome (except Safari)
Edit: Went on a quick search to find another browser. It is just not possible on iOS. I don't want to download 2 apps and configure a dns just to not see ads ffs.
Edit 2: DDG Browser (iOS) has added the ability to block ads on YouTube (2 June 2026) and has a good ad blocker in general it seems. If anyone is reading this and is using iOS you should give ddg a try.
uBlock Lite is available for Safari. Itâs free.
or if youâre not averse toto a paid option, Wipr rocks
on iOS
there's your problem! My android phone needs repairs and I'm using my old iPhone in the interim, which is several months bc I don't have a lot of disposable phone repair money rn, and my GOD the amount of ads and downright unhappiness I'm dealing with right now that I'd forgotten about thanks to android. No thanks to Google, obv, but Fdroid and the lovely FLOSS software that just isn't available on iOS. Even my Syncthing is half broken because Mobius sync caps you to only sharing a couple MiB without paying!
Orion browser is fantastic and blocks ads out of the box
Unfortunately Orion is closed source. Though last I heard, Kagi was working towards open sourcing it.
Ddg browser
Unfortunately no adblocking
Edit: this comes two days later and after using DDG's browser app on iOS the adblocking is nowhere near as effective as brave's adblocking and when playing videos the phone heats up a lot and it drains the battery way more. So unfortunately I may switch back to Brave.
You can say what you want and you can downvote me into oblivion. Brave's adblock (on iOS) is leagues ahead of the competition. All while not tanking your battery.
Incorrect.
Well, after a search, it turns out that as of June 2 2026 you can block ads on YT with ddg. It still serves you some Microslop ads though the search. Also it seems pretty strong at ad blocking.
I will start using that from now on and and see how it goes.
Edit: You'll have to forgive my bluntness it was a recent change I was not aware of it. Also the Videos can be played in PiP Mode which is really cool. I am finally free from Brave Thank You
They actually have their own built in YouTube player. Itâs nice.
In the early days, ddg's browser used to block YouTube ads direct. But now it only blocks ads through the duckplayer.
An interesting thing about ddg is it does stop websites seeing how much battery you have. I don't know why this is useful, I just thought it was a fun fact.
That's actually really cool, websites can deduce the model of your phone by how quickly or slowly it drains (of course not on it's own but it helps for fingerprinting)
This is what I get:
you're reading this on a device that doesn't have a battery in it, or the battery is at 100% while plugged in.
I found the site:
https://yhvr.me/about/
Also eff has a similar one:
https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
Just install uBlock on iOS. No need for these alternative browsers.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id6745342698
Vivaldi is my favourite Chromium browser, if I have to/want to not use Firefox European based software is becoming as important as foss to me.
BTW if you want to free yourself from Brendan Eich completely, you can't. he made Javascript.
Librewolf for everything I can. If something is broken I use ungoogled chromium for that specific task.
âNot the droid you're looking for
Yeah. I stopped using it when I heard about the bigotry. Fuck that. Easily replaceable garbage browser.
I liked the idea of the crypto thing they implemented originally, so I opened a wallet.. Actually ended up costing me money. Never made ANY crypto from it
Happy to stick to Firefox. Been using it since the original betas when they added proper theming and addons.
Vivaldi Browser đ
I need a Chromium-based Android browser for a few particular sites that don't work in Waterfox. Whet do you nice folk recommend?
Cromite is what I use when firefox-based browsers fail me. It does the job ok, but I barely use it.
Thanks a lot for the suggestion. But Cromite is giving me javascript errors on one of the pages. =(
To be fair, still better than Chrome, though.
Itâs just a reskinned chrome, which is bad for the internet
Itâs just a reskinned chrome
Well, so is everything except Firefox and Firefox forks.
And Safari
âI put a wrap on my Tesla, itâs a whole different car nowâ - energy
There's a lot of people in these comments that don't quite understand browser differences... And forks.
Not really. Chrome + crypto bro ad-ons by an ad company is worse than OG chrome.
You don't get ad revenue if you don't specifically opt-in. Same with crypto support. You have to specifically set the wallet. I don't care about the gender war thing and I don't care about the investors. All I care about is decent browser with decent privacy and it works.
I just don't care.
its a good browser
can you back up that claim
i like it
you are allowed to have that opinion, but that opinion signifies to other people you are okay with crypto schemes and homophobia.
you are allowed to have that opinion, but that opinion signifies to other people you are okay with crypto schemes and homophobia.
by that logic, everybody who uses Firefox and forks must be okay with Google's data empire, because that's what funds Firefox
Lesser of two evils. Directly endorsing a browser based on googles codebase, known for crypto and having a scummy ceo , or endorsing a browser thats only real fault is "under capitalism, they need to be funded by the competitor so the competitor can dodge a fine"
and defining "lesser" is where people disagree. Some don't care about the ceo of their tech products, they just care about the product itself. The crypto is an alternative source of funding, that some might prefer over getting funds from Google's data empire. And being based on Chrome means it supports more websites.
My point is that using brave doesn't mean they support crypto or homophobic CEOs, for many it's just their definition of the lesser of two evils
Some don't care about the ceo of their tech products
and some do, and will regard those that don't care as people who can't be bothered to advocate for the less privileged through minuscule actions.
And being based on Chrome means it supports more websites.
already gave a list of alternatives that use the chromium engine in this thread.
for many it's just their definition of the lesser of two evils
Again, welcome to have that opinion. Doesn't change the fact that other people are impacted by an individual's decision and they will base their judgements of the individual on those impacts.
Every decision has an impact. Google's data empire impacts the less privileged too. So yeah, other people are impacted by people's decision to use Firefox, and they can judge those individuals based on those impacts.
"I can choose to kill 1 person or 2 people. i guess I will kill 2 people because every decision has an impact."
Which one is the "killing 2 people" one here? Whichever you pick, I'm sure many would disagree
Its more up to you to say what its problems are.
Claims need to be supported, you dont try to counter an unsubstantiated claim.
My claim: I have never had any ads on brave. Seems fine to me.
Claim of the poster: The creator of the browser is homophobic and apparently some people encounter advertisements.
Your claim, thusfar: How is it a good browser?
I will respond, assuming I understand your claim that has no supporting or explanatory statements: No ads.
Heres my response to the claim: Is the browser bad, or is the creator of the browser bad?
Is the browser bad, or is the creator of the browser bad?
They're both bad.
CEO has been discussed ad infinitum so, here's why I dont like the browser and feel it is bad:
Its a bloated version of chromium. Its got too many stupid fucking settings you need to turn off to have a halfway decent experience. Examples include (but are not limited to) autofill, brave wallet, brave AI, brave sidebar, braves proxy search engine, that weird brave triangle crypto rewards icon
In addition to that, it's also chromium based. You are using a browser that supports googles monopoly on the internet.
You can very easily use Cromite (multiplat), Ungoogled Chromium (Desktop), or Vandium (GrapheneOS) if you need a chromium based browser for work or some edge case, and in my experience they feel a lot lighter and faster by default. Cromite has even developed extension support for Android, which to my knowledge is the only chromium based android browser to do so.
If you dont have one of those edge cases, why even support googles monopoly on internet traffic if you don't need to? LibreWolf, Mullvad Browser, Waterfox, Celenitys Pheonix, IronFox, Tor, Fennec, Floorp so on and so fourth exist. They're all fantastic, and they cover pretty much every workflow and threat model.
I have a lot of that turned off, I hadnt realized it was such an issue to others. I guess I am pretty likely to fiddle with things.
Support of elgooG is a good reason to convert to another browser.
Cromite does sound more appealing now, I usually have around 50 tabs open, so I dont know how it would handle that. But its definitely worth my time to look into.
Thanks for an actual response! I will probably change my browser because of your recommendations and explanation of why those alternatives are better. I guess Ill do that during lunch or when I get home from work.
... Definitely looking up Floorp because it seems like a great thing to name a browser
On Android I can say Cromite handles lots of tabs pretty well, I forget to close them so I currently have the ":D" icon instead of a number.
I'm happy to hear the response was good, ive had my share of people on lemmy just dismissing whatever is said so it is nice to hear its appreciated.
Floorp isn't my jam but I do find it interesting. Despite my bitching I believe they're trying to go for something similar to default brave but with more UI customization (and less crypto and paid services). I tried it out a couple years ago before Firefox had the sidebar option, but Floorp did have a sidebar. I was kinda curious about having a sidebar but it wasnt for me.
thatâs googles fault not firefox
youâre not wrong but the user is an idiot
iâm not going to celebrate their short sighted decisions
stupid laziness is half the reason weâre all racing to the bottom
if people would take the 10min to halfway think about the choices they make
fast browser with a great adblocker. all google services work perfectly with it
https://www.google.com/chrome/
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm
What is the term for when the internet collectively latches on to hyperbole and half truths for something it decides to to hate; but the hatred is entirely due to the continued spread of those same bits of hyperbole and half truths; and also viciously attacks anyone who tries to point it out?
I swear, Lemmy's hatred of Brave is like... mass psychosis? No, that doesn't seem right. It's like everyone's argument against it stems entirely from surface level skimming of hit piece headlines. And then the vitriol is dialed up to 11, all based on shit that you learn is overblown to the point of comedy once you spend even a single minute reading about it.
Wait till you see the hard on Lemmy has for Jellyfin.
"Fuck Ford, fix or repair daily! It's Chevrolet all the way. Dodge Chrysler ain't bad though.". The same conversations from the past still live in the future, only the focus has shifted, with added suspicion that didn't exist before.
In this case, no. This isn't about brand identity, this is about technical implementation. To make your analogy work, it's more like "Don't buy that Ford because the 5.4L Triton in it is notorious for sparkplug ejection."
In this case, Brave is notorious for everything in that post, and more. The CEO got fired from the board of Mozilla after something like 10 days for being a piece of shit about gay people wanting to be married.