6 ms·

What're the alternatives to Firefox? The only ones that come to mind are Opera and Brave, and Brave had some controversy too.

anthropodie 5y ago
I read about librewolf the other day which is a fork of firefox. Edit: BTW what happens if I download Firefox from site like Softpedia.All the people who downloaded Firefox from this website have same identifier?
- hiccuphippo 5y ago
  Yes, the article mentions Mozilla's http repository[0] and some other third party as ways to download it without a unique identifier. [0] https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/
- bigbugbag 5y ago
  I've been using librewolf for a while after experiencing issue with waterfox. it is not really a full fork of firefox, it's firefox with a few patches applied and sane default configuration.
moistly 5y ago
Opera was sold off to Chinese investors, and I recall stories about it offering sketchy banking/bitcoin services.
OrlandoHakim 5y ago
What is controversial about Brave? Seems like the best alternative at the moment IMHO
- highwind 5y ago
  One of many controversies: https://www.techworm.net/2020/06/brave-browser-cryptocurrency.html https://www.techworm.net/2020/06/brave-browser-cryptocurrenc...
- vlark 5y ago
  Some folks object to the Brave Rewards system and the embedded crypto wallet.
  - SllX 5y ago
    I just disabled all of that. No Chromium browser is my main browser but when I need one, Brave seems like the best option. If you were to pick between Brave, Vivaldi and I dunno, maybe Edge, just for when you need Chrome-compatibility and pretty much no other reason, which one would you pick and why?
    - GlumWoodpecker 5y ago
      Ungoogled Chromium.
      - SllX 5y ago
        Honestly forgot this existed. I’ll look into it.
      - heikrana 5y ago
        Ungoogled chromium is the most google-less you can go when it comes to using chromium engine.
    - vlark 4y ago
      Vivaldi. Like Firefox, it has cross-system syncing (Windows, MacOS, Linux -- including Android & Raspberry Pi).
  - moralestapia 5y ago
    It is opt-in and also extremely easy to enable/disable. It also comes with a built-in ad blocker that works really good. It's fast and doesn't eat your CPU/RAM. Recommended, 100%. Disclaimer: Not a Brave shill.
- babypuncher 5y ago
  Even without all the controversies, Brave is still Chrome.
  - UberFly 5y ago
    Brave is still Chromium you mean. Chrome is a browser by Google. Chromium is the open-source engine.
- bigbugbag 5y ago
  this: https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html this: https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/blob/master/app/trackingProtection.js#L21 https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/blob/master/app/trac... also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controvers... then this: https://teddit.net/r/FoamList/comments/q4z5js/brave_browser_controversies/ https://teddit.net/r/FoamList/comments/q4z5js/brave_browser_...
- dangerface 5y ago
  They report anonymised data that can be turned off. They also connect to servers for auto updates and safe browsing checks, everything you would expect of a modern secure browser. The people upset with brave for auto updates also consider tor browser spyware because it checks for updates LOL.
yinyang_in 5y ago
I see Vivaldi is good browser, operated by former opera people
- RedHobbit 5y ago
  I've been using Vivaldi ever since reintroduced tab stacking which I loved from the Opera days. Solid browser, no complaints.
  - anthropodie 5y ago
    It's closed source, right?
    - UberFly 5y ago
      The UI stuff on top of Chromium is closed. They don't want it ripped off I guess. Vivaldi an awesome browser for those who like to customize.
- babypuncher 5y ago
  Vivaldi is still Chrome though
  - WaxedChewbacca 5y ago
- abandonliberty 4y ago
  Yes, I'm in Vivaldi as well. For now! We need to avoid making software/product choices part of our identity. A true firefox fan would've raised the alarm years ago, and voted with their feet when it kept moving in the wrong direction and stopped being the best option on the market. Loving a brand no matter what they do is suboptimal.
willcipriano 5y ago
Lynx is the only one I trust, but it's quite limited. Everything else has my suspicion. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)
- jraph 5y ago
  w3m too.
- alfiedotwtf 5y ago
  What's the lynx-but-graphical alternative? I just want a minimal web view and input a URL. Why doesn't this exist
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    > What's the lynx-but-graphical alternative? Dillo or elinks > I just want a minimal web view and input a URL. Surf (suckless project)
    - alfiedotwtf 5y ago
      Also thanks, TIL alternatives do exist
      - NylaTheWolf 5y ago
        Elinks looks like it hasn't had an update in years. There's a fork of it called Felinks [0] which seems pretty actively maintained. The last release was on December 24, 2021. [0] https://github.com/rkd77/elinks https://github.com/rkd77/elinks
  - commandnotfound 5y ago
    It does exist, it's called netsurf[0]. [0]: http://www.netsurf-browser.org/ http://www.netsurf-browser.org/
    - 5y ago
e2le 5y ago
LibreWolf is one alternative. https://librewolf.net/ https://librewolf.net/ https://privacytests.org/ https://privacytests.org/
- cmroanirgo 5y ago
  Looks great, but their only focus is desktop it seems (ie, no android solution)
  - prox 5y ago
    Well, to be fair if you run Android that’s another bag of privacy problems. But phones are a whole different discussion. We need more Linux phones!
  - scns 5y ago
    Check out Mull on Android.
nanomonkey 5y ago
Nyxt,"the hacker's power-browser"?! https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/ https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/
aembleton 5y ago
Librefox https://github.com/intika/Librefox/ https://github.com/intika/Librefox/
- aembleton 5y ago
  As pointed out elsewhere, this is unmaintained, and you should instead use https://librewolf.net/ https://librewolf.net/
  - illiac786 5y ago
    Does not work with 1password for me. Seems I'm not the only one: https://www.reddit.com/r/LibreWolf/comments/qom9br/1password_browser_extenstion_desktop_application/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LibreWolf/comments/qom9br/1password...
coffeeblack 5y ago
Careful, Opera is owned by a Chinese company that is controlled by the CCP. What you want is Vivaldi.
bigbugbag 5y ago
waterfox and librewolf. then otter, seamonkey, falkon, k-meleon, srware iron, qutebrowser, comodo dragon and comodo icedragon, dooble, midori, epic. not sure if maxthon and Avant Browser are still a thing
- NylaTheWolf 4y ago
  I always thought Otter was just a mobile browser! Thanks for sharing! I love hearing about obscure browsers!

anthropodie 5y ago

I read about librewolf the other day which is a fork of firefox. Edit: BTW what happens if I download Firefox from site like Softpedia.All the people who downloaded Firefox from this website have same identifier?

hiccuphippo 5y ago
Yes, the article mentions Mozilla's http repository[0] and some other third party as ways to download it without a unique identifier. [0] https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/ https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/
bigbugbag 5y ago
I've been using librewolf for a while after experiencing issue with waterfox. it is not really a full fork of firefox, it's firefox with a few patches applied and sane default configuration.

moistly 5y ago

Opera was sold off to Chinese investors, and I recall stories about it offering sketchy banking/bitcoin services.

OrlandoHakim 5y ago

What is controversial about Brave? Seems like the best alternative at the moment IMHO

highwind 5y ago
One of many controversies: https://www.techworm.net/2020/06/brave-browser-cryptocurrency.html https://www.techworm.net/2020/06/brave-browser-cryptocurrenc...
vlark 5y ago
Some folks object to the Brave Rewards system and the embedded crypto wallet.
- SllX 5y ago
  I just disabled all of that. No Chromium browser is my main browser but when I need one, Brave seems like the best option. If you were to pick between Brave, Vivaldi and I dunno, maybe Edge, just for when you need Chrome-compatibility and pretty much no other reason, which one would you pick and why?
  - GlumWoodpecker 5y ago
    Ungoogled Chromium.
    - SllX 5y ago
      Honestly forgot this existed. I’ll look into it.
    - heikrana 5y ago
      Ungoogled chromium is the most google-less you can go when it comes to using chromium engine.
  - vlark 4y ago
    Vivaldi. Like Firefox, it has cross-system syncing (Windows, MacOS, Linux -- including Android & Raspberry Pi).
- moralestapia 5y ago
  It is opt-in and also extremely easy to enable/disable. It also comes with a built-in ad blocker that works really good. It's fast and doesn't eat your CPU/RAM. Recommended, 100%. Disclaimer: Not a Brave shill.
babypuncher 5y ago
Even without all the controversies, Brave is still Chrome.
- UberFly 5y ago
  Brave is still Chromium you mean. Chrome is a browser by Google. Chromium is the open-source engine.
bigbugbag 5y ago
this: https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html this: https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/blob/master/app/trackingProtection.js#L21 https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/blob/master/app/trac... also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controvers... then this: https://teddit.net/r/FoamList/comments/q4z5js/brave_browser_controversies/ https://teddit.net/r/FoamList/comments/q4z5js/brave_browser_...
dangerface 5y ago
They report anonymised data that can be turned off. They also connect to servers for auto updates and safe browsing checks, everything you would expect of a modern secure browser. The people upset with brave for auto updates also consider tor browser spyware because it checks for updates LOL.

yinyang_in 5y ago

I see Vivaldi is good browser, operated by former opera people

RedHobbit 5y ago
I've been using Vivaldi ever since reintroduced tab stacking which I loved from the Opera days. Solid browser, no complaints.
- anthropodie 5y ago
  It's closed source, right?
  - UberFly 5y ago
    The UI stuff on top of Chromium is closed. They don't want it ripped off I guess. Vivaldi an awesome browser for those who like to customize.
babypuncher 5y ago
Vivaldi is still Chrome though
- WaxedChewbacca 5y ago
abandonliberty 4y ago
Yes, I'm in Vivaldi as well. For now! We need to avoid making software/product choices part of our identity. A true firefox fan would've raised the alarm years ago, and voted with their feet when it kept moving in the wrong direction and stopped being the best option on the market. Loving a brand no matter what they do is suboptimal.

willcipriano 5y ago

Lynx is the only one I trust, but it's quite limited. Everything else has my suspicion. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)

jraph 5y ago
w3m too.
alfiedotwtf 5y ago
What's the lynx-but-graphical alternative? I just want a minimal web view and input a URL. Why doesn't this exist
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
  > What's the lynx-but-graphical alternative? Dillo or elinks > I just want a minimal web view and input a URL. Surf (suckless project)
  - alfiedotwtf 5y ago
    Also thanks, TIL alternatives do exist
    - NylaTheWolf 5y ago
      Elinks looks like it hasn't had an update in years. There's a fork of it called Felinks [0] which seems pretty actively maintained. The last release was on December 24, 2021. [0] https://github.com/rkd77/elinks https://github.com/rkd77/elinks
- commandnotfound 5y ago
  It does exist, it's called netsurf[0]. [0]: http://www.netsurf-browser.org/ http://www.netsurf-browser.org/
  - 5y ago

e2le 5y ago

LibreWolf is one alternative. https://librewolf.net/ https://librewolf.net/ https://privacytests.org/ https://privacytests.org/

cmroanirgo 5y ago
Looks great, but their only focus is desktop it seems (ie, no android solution)
- prox 5y ago
  Well, to be fair if you run Android that’s another bag of privacy problems. But phones are a whole different discussion. We need more Linux phones!
- scns 5y ago
  Check out Mull on Android.

nanomonkey 5y ago

Nyxt,"the hacker's power-browser"?! https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/ https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/

aembleton 5y ago

Librefox https://github.com/intika/Librefox/ https://github.com/intika/Librefox/

aembleton 5y ago
As pointed out elsewhere, this is unmaintained, and you should instead use https://librewolf.net/ https://librewolf.net/
- illiac786 5y ago
  Does not work with 1password for me. Seems I'm not the only one: https://www.reddit.com/r/LibreWolf/comments/qom9br/1password_browser_extenstion_desktop_application/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LibreWolf/comments/qom9br/1password...

coffeeblack 5y ago

Careful, Opera is owned by a Chinese company that is controlled by the CCP. What you want is Vivaldi.

bigbugbag 5y ago

waterfox and librewolf. then otter, seamonkey, falkon, k-meleon, srware iron, qutebrowser, comodo dragon and comodo icedragon, dooble, midori, epic. not sure if maxthon and Avant Browser are still a thing

NylaTheWolf 4y ago
I always thought Otter was just a mobile browser! Thanks for sharing! I love hearing about obscure browsers!