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You need to stop using Brave (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day 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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[-] KhantoBlackhand@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago

For all my folks on android a really good chromium browser would be Cromite which is a fork of Bromite a really good privacy browser. I use it with Kagi as my search engine and it works so well for me.

For FF, I used IronFox for a bit. But it had issues with using alternative search engines as defaults. But it's still a solid browser.

I recommend using the TOR browser as a heavy security measure and for privacy if you need it the most. Remember to change the defaults to the strictest security measures for the best privacy and protection from Malware (ads) and the works.

[-] observes_depths@aussie.zone 23 points 7 hours ago

Honestly what do people have against Firefox that can't be fixed with plugins? It's the only decent browser that isn't chrome based, and I think that deserves support. And with plugins and sync it's a great experience.

[-] dRLY@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 hours ago

My main browsers are FF or Zen (a fork of FF), but I think a lot of sites aren't able to work with just a plug-in due to how deeply they are coded for Chromium. Some of them being Amazon sites like Luna, Amazon Music, and Audible (pretty sure their other media sites/services also refuse to work if any hint of non-Chromium browsers are detected. I have run into non-Amazon sites with media or similar tell me to "update your browser" or "use a supported browser" (which is at least more honest than telling me that my FF is "out of date").

While there are likely elements in some sites that actually can work with FF (I have had really random moments where I got part of a song to play on Amazon Music but then gives the "browser is out of date" message). The Chromium focused coding is IE all over again. Just a self-fulfilling cycle of making it look like FF is not as capable. And I hate that in the instances where changing the User Agent to be Chrome works, that it just keeps stats looking like Chrome and forks are what people are using (and might lead to seeming like FF is used less than it actually is).

[-] sobchak@programming.dev 3 points 4 hours ago

Mozilla changed their privacy policy and terms of use about a year ago in ways that show they cannot be trusted. I think Librewolf offers more privacy/security features than Firefox can with plugins (disabling some canvas features that are used for fingerprinting for example). I think Firefox has some advertising/tracking crap enabled by default too (PPA API?). IDK, I just don't trust them anymore with their policy changes. Mullvad Browser is even more "hardened," but less convenient than Librewolf.

[-] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 12 points 9 hours ago

Desktop = Librewolf, Mullvad and hardened firefox browsers. Strictly separating uses. Mobile (Android) = Cromite, Brave, Firefox and Tor. Again, separating uses.

[-] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 7 hours 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.

[-] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 1 points 5 hours ago

What is this feature?

[-] yoz@aussie.zone 3 points 7 hours ago

Brave is the best browser if you want privacy. All companies do shady stuff like google and apple have done so much but still we use it. Brave hasn't had any single controversy from past couple of years.

[-] texture@lemmy.world 10 points 7 hours ago

ive been on lemmy for 23 days. this is easily the worst comment ive seen yet.

"all companies do shady stuff like google and apple" is a wild thing to say in an opensource community.

[-] yoz@aussie.zone 1 points 5 hours ago

Stfu nerd

[-] Jako302@feddit.org 3 points 7 hours ago

If you want privacy, then the Tor browser wins, after that is mullvad, then a lot of Firefox forks, then firefox itself, then vanadium, then ungoogled chromium and maybe after that is brave.

Its somewhat decent I'm terms of security features in comparison to all the Firefox derivates, bit that's simply cause its based on chromium.

Its only real feature is the ease of use which makes it a viable alternativ for non tech savy people that aren't comfortable with the additional settup that the Firefox forks take to be on the same level.

[-] yoz@aussie.zone 1 points 5 hours ago

Tech is gay hence nobody wants to learn

[-] gwl 34 points 13 hours ago

An extra reason: Eich is a homophobic asshole and an anti-masker

[-] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 4 points 8 hours ago

...and? Are you going to stop using the transistor?

[-] gwl 6 points 6 hours ago

Man's dead.

Don't matter what he thought when he's rotting in the ground.

Does when you're still alive

[-] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 hours ago

Oh I see, outrage of convenience.

[-] gwl 9 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

No.

It's very simple: if someone is alive and holds detestable views, then giving them money gives them a chance to then use that money to lobby for their views. And in many many many many many cases, they do exactly that.

If someone is dead and holds detestable views, they're unable to do anything about it (cause they're dead)

[-] DylanMc6@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago

What?

[-] VoxAliorum@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago

Name a solution for a mobile phone webbrowser without ads including youtube ads that allows playing youtube while the screen is turned off and I am ready to switch.

[-] BigPotato@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago

Firefox... I mean, regular old from the app store Firefox... Not even Waterfox or anything, just Firefox.

How did you end up at Brave without knowing Firefox could do all that?

[-] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 3 points 9 hours ago

Dude, just use NewPipe or PipePipe from Fdroid. They are much better than using the Youtube mobile website.

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Just use Gflghtdhh instead.

[-] dai@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Or Grayjay, I found NewPipe / other frontends had their fair share of issues while I was using them. Their desktop app however I've not used as it was failing to build on my NixOS machines.

[-] DrunkAnRoot@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 hours ago

or libretube

[-] FG_3479@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Morphe takes the official YouTube app and modifies it to remove ads and add background play morphe.software

[-] Xylight@lemdro.id 3 points 10 hours 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.

[-] PKscope@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

I'm kind of surprised to hear you say that. I've been quite happy with Firefox mobile. I haven't experienced any of the lag or whatever you mentioned. The ability to use extensions far outweighs any updated visuals in the UI department for me. It does everything I need a browser to do.

What is it that you need that isn't already there? (genuinely asking)

[-] Xylight@lemdro.id 3 points 7 hours ago

If Firefox used a more modern Material UI and fixed some of the gestures (the expanding website menu makes no sense, it doesn't follow your finger) it would be much more appealing. As it stands now chromium based browsers naturally use standard material components and feel a lot nicer to use on my phone.

When I scroll in Firefox, there's quite a lot of stutter and it struggles to maintain 120 fps.

If any 1 of these 2 issues were fixed I'd switch to Firefox in a heartbeat, ublock origin is great

[-] PKscope@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Fair. Thanks for answering.

[-] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Tab grouping is the killer feature for me. Chromium lets me group tabs into boxes, color code and name those boxes, easily switch between tabs in that boxed group with icons on the bottom, close all the tabs in the group, and reorder the groups. Here's a video showing this awesome, intuitive, actually valuable feature that many people have begged Mozilla for for years only to be ignored: https://youtu.be/P6mcduJFSsM

It allows me to keep lots of tabs open, social things, shopping things, travel research, etc etc. Without needing to bookmark everything (a lot of stuff you only need for a few weeks, and bookmarks are kinda supposed to be forever).

If you haven't used that feature on mobile, it's hard to see how life changing it is. Like actually life changing in the sense that it allows me to keep an eye on much more things, remember about them, follow up on them, and easily get rid of them when their usefulness is over. If I'm looking for information on some event I can have a group for that and with just one tap access any of like 10 tabs and quickly cross reference them. If I'm shopping I can have products in different tabs, groups for the different things I'm shopping for.

There are no Firefox extensions that provide this functionality, which, to me should be an absolute baseline feature for any web browser now that's been awhile since its been introduced. Especially for mobile browsers where screen real estate is so limited, and where we use our browsers for all sorts of sudden brief things that are ephemeral enough not to bookmark but also longevitous or time-consuming enough that I want to have them open for more than a few minutes.

Compare this with firefox, where all I get is this clumsy two column list of tabs which quickly becomes navigable, and the worse-than-useless "old tabs" feature or whatever they call it that automatically hides tabs I've had open too long. On Chromium I will literally have hundreds of tabs on there at times, and it's great because I can quickly access a "workspace" of things depending on what I'm doing right now. On Firefox the best I can do is roughly reorder them, and even then it takes two taps instead of one to switch to one of my choice, in addition to scrolling if it's more than 4 away. It's such trash that it makes me mad every time I use it and every time I think of it, because I KNOW the Firefox team could replicate the Chromium feature, but instead they fuck around adding AI doodads, while ignoring this silver bullet feature that single handedly keeps me from switching to them as my only browser. Keep in mind this functionality has existed in Chromium browsers 5 years ago, albeit slightly less usable than it is now. It has been this great for probably 4 years. I just can't go back, for certain things.

[-] PKscope@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

That was informative. I stopped using Chrome/chromium browsers on mobile specifically because I was attempting to lighten my google-load. I'll have to give the grouping a try sometime. FF has it on desktop, I use it a lot now that it's on there. I think that was somewhat recent. I never even thought about it being on the mobile version, yeah, that would be handy.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 13 points 14 hours ago

Don't forget that they used to add referral parameters to links you clicked so they got a kickback from you clicking things from anywhere even if they didn't make that link for you.

[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours 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.