For those wondering if there are any viable alternatives, there is Brave and Vivaldi - both privacy focused browsers but use Chromium and therefore will have Manifest v2 end this year. Ladybird whom everyone is hoping will be a solution in the long term is currently in alpha and from my brief use of it, is certainly not anywhere near ready for daily driver use. In terms of a Firefox fork that is viable, I have seen a number of recommendations for Floorp being a Japanese fork and likely to be shielded from the SJW's but is several versions behind Firefox at the moment.
There's many but people are wary because now attention is being put onto the forks, a number of them have made it clear what their political alignments are.
Technically speaking, I think most (if not all) of what Librewolf and Waterfox do is configuration changes as far as privacy is concerned. These forks just have those changes defaulted.
You could get basically the exact same result by downloading the normal Firefox browser and using the Arkenfox configuration script (or any other configuration script you like) to "harden" your Firefox configuration settings.
The downside would be that for every new browser version release you'd have to double check your configs and maybe reapply the script after it gets updated to handle new "features" Mozilla throws in, while with a separate fork like Librewolf that team should, in theory, be configuring their browser updates to set those new configs automatically for you.
Really? That's odd, 'cuz I do find Waterfox to run a lot more stable than og Firefox.
I sometimes go on some random autistic data hoarding sprees and when I do, I open a couple hundred tabs at the same time (literally at the same time, using an ad-on). It depends on the site, but where Firefox would croak at about 300 tabs Waterfox would chug along with about 4000 (it would take about half an hour to load, but it wouldn't crash).
The operative part of what I said being as far as privacy, I believe their changes are mostly just configuration. There very well might be performance improvements (or hell, perhaps the performance gains are simply due to the altered configurations), but the privacy benefits are mostly just configuration changes that you can replicate on any Firefox build or fork.
There is. I don't know about currently, but several years ago when I tried it it was not very viable in terms of functionality. Though I am not very tech capable so it could be lack of additional set up was the issue.
I'm the same. I use Vivaldi as my daily driver. The problem I have going forward is the removal of Manifest v2 that I use for a number of extensions that won't be integrated into any web browser, whether Vivaldi, Brave or any other browser.
Unless they don't update the Chromium aspect of their browser (unthinkable), they've only got until later this year. The extensions I use simply will not work on Manifest v3.
Out of curiosity what sort of extensions are you using that are going to make their loss a deal breaker? I've only ever bothered with adblock extensions so I've been having a largely default browser experience for years now and had zero complaints. What have I been missing out on?
Checkout yt-dlp, which is the best fork of youtubedownloader. I use this tool to rip video from basically every site. It is command line, might take you a bit to set the defaults (by editing a config file) to what you want, but once it is set up you just open a command window, type "yt-dlp " and then paste in the URL you want to grab the video from.
You can pass it credentials or browser cookies to access things behind logins or captchas and such, like violent content on youtube or twitter.
The tool has a built in updater, so when youtube adjusts to block it you can type "yt-dlp -U" and it will self update to current. I've never seen them take more than two days to get around youtube's latest attempts to stop them.
Google's on the war path with uBlockOrigin due to their advertising revenue. There's going to be a uBlock Lite version to mitigate the Chromium overhaul, but outlook is somewhat pessimistic to say the least.
LibRedirect is the main one I use to redirect to random privacy-oriented front-ends and avoid registration walls. You'd think Chromium based privacy focused browsers would include support for that but nope.
Unfortunately stuff does still get through pihole with mostly default ish settings. Like Amazon has a lot of sponsored stuff that is Amazon content so pihole doesn't block it, but its sponsored so ublock origin does.
there is Brave and Vivaldi - both privacy focused browsers but use Chromium and therefore will have Manifest v2 end this year.
The problem I have going forward is the removal of Manifest v2 that I use for a number of extensions that won't be integrated into any web browser, whether Vivaldi, Brave or any other browser.
As a longtime, satisfied Brave-using Luddite, could someone explain what these Manifest v2 references mean?
But the internet is actually unusable without adblock...
At work I will literally run sites through Textise in order to read their content because trying to browse the internet without an adblock is an actively detrimental experience.
It also disables functions required by privacy related extensions which allow you to bypass paywalls, get into walled gardens, protect your anonymity and provide a usable viewing experience beyond blocking ads and scripts.
Everyone focused on ad-blocking and tracking but forgot the rest.
Anyone who has a furry anime in their project name needs to be heavily scrutinized.
Then again, the fork I use, Pale Moon, is run by an arrogant faggot named Moonchild who's a furry, but he's of the libertarian type and hates these faggots so I guess the enemy of my enemy etc. etc.
Just to state the obvious: The regressive left will continue to be a menace to society unless dealt with in a permanent fashion that will actually work so that they can never harm the public ever again, and we the dissident right should be putting pressure on the trump administration to make this happen at least domestically in the US.
The globalists also need to suffer a nasty legal penalty for enabling this bullshit that incited suicides and even got people killed.
Unfortunate, I was using Librewolf for around a year now or so.
I miss the days of Waterfox before they sold out, RIP. I guess I'll have to find something else. I already have Basilisk installed but it keeps crashing on me and is pretty slow, what a pain in the neck.
Thanks for the update on it. Unfortunately a betrayal of trust like what he did is something too hard and egregious to look past imo; there's a reason nobody talks about Waterfox anymore since the sale.
For those wondering if there are any viable alternatives, there is Brave and Vivaldi - both privacy focused browsers but use Chromium and therefore will have Manifest v2 end this year. Ladybird whom everyone is hoping will be a solution in the long term is currently in alpha and from my brief use of it, is certainly not anywhere near ready for daily driver use. In terms of a Firefox fork that is viable, I have seen a number of recommendations for Floorp being a Japanese fork and likely to be shielded from the SJW's but is several versions behind Firefox at the moment.
Isn't there another fork called waterfox or something?
There's many but people are wary because now attention is being put onto the forks, a number of them have made it clear what their political alignments are.
I use Pale Moon. Dev is an asshat, but he's never had woke tendencies. He's just an arrogant prick lol
Technically speaking, I think most (if not all) of what Librewolf and Waterfox do is configuration changes as far as privacy is concerned. These forks just have those changes defaulted.
You could get basically the exact same result by downloading the normal Firefox browser and using the Arkenfox configuration script (or any other configuration script you like) to "harden" your Firefox configuration settings.
The downside would be that for every new browser version release you'd have to double check your configs and maybe reapply the script after it gets updated to handle new "features" Mozilla throws in, while with a separate fork like Librewolf that team should, in theory, be configuring their browser updates to set those new configs automatically for you.
Really? That's odd, 'cuz I do find Waterfox to run a lot more stable than og Firefox.
I sometimes go on some random autistic data hoarding sprees and when I do, I open a couple hundred tabs at the same time (literally at the same time, using an ad-on). It depends on the site, but where Firefox would croak at about 300 tabs Waterfox would chug along with about 4000 (it would take about half an hour to load, but it wouldn't crash).
The operative part of what I said being as far as privacy, I believe their changes are mostly just configuration. There very well might be performance improvements (or hell, perhaps the performance gains are simply due to the altered configurations), but the privacy benefits are mostly just configuration changes that you can replicate on any Firefox build or fork.
Ah I see. I misread that completely.
There is. I don't know about currently, but several years ago when I tried it it was not very viable in terms of functionality. Though I am not very tech capable so it could be lack of additional set up was the issue.
Yep. Been using it for quite some time. Been great other than when I had some weird profile corruption once that required a full reinstall of it.
I used to use Pale Moon but IIRC I had some weird site incompatibilities for a while and I ended up ditching it.
I'm still going to use Librewolf for my Fediverse/Kfarming shitposting, and there's nothing that poofter Rossman can do about it.
Wait, Rossman....
Both are good, but I prefer Vivalid for it's customizability.
I'm the same. I use Vivaldi as my daily driver. The problem I have going forward is the removal of Manifest v2 that I use for a number of extensions that won't be integrated into any web browser, whether Vivaldi, Brave or any other browser.
didn't brave and vivaldi said they're going to try to keep manifest v2 for as long as possible?
Unless they don't update the Chromium aspect of their browser (unthinkable), they've only got until later this year. The extensions I use simply will not work on Manifest v3.
Some forks are going to maintain the Manifestv2 code themselves, Brave committed to that.
Out of curiosity what sort of extensions are you using that are going to make their loss a deal breaker? I've only ever bothered with adblock extensions so I've been having a largely default browser experience for years now and had zero complaints. What have I been missing out on?
i use a video download thing a lot, that would be annoying to lose for me
But still worth staying with brave imo
Checkout yt-dlp, which is the best fork of youtubedownloader. I use this tool to rip video from basically every site. It is command line, might take you a bit to set the defaults (by editing a config file) to what you want, but once it is set up you just open a command window, type "yt-dlp " and then paste in the URL you want to grab the video from.
You can pass it credentials or browser cookies to access things behind logins or captchas and such, like violent content on youtube or twitter.
The tool has a built in updater, so when youtube adjusts to block it you can type "yt-dlp -U" and it will self update to current. I've never seen them take more than two days to get around youtube's latest attempts to stop them.
Thanks for the rec!
Google's on the war path with uBlockOrigin due to their advertising revenue. There's going to be a uBlock Lite version to mitigate the Chromium overhaul, but outlook is somewhat pessimistic to say the least.
LibRedirect is the main one I use to redirect to random privacy-oriented front-ends and avoid registration walls. You'd think Chromium based privacy focused browsers would include support for that but nope.
I should turn off all of my adblock extensions just to see what the web looks like behind my Pi-hole DNS.
I'm hoping that losing all of them doesn't change much when it happens.
Unfortunately stuff does still get through pihole with mostly default ish settings. Like Amazon has a lot of sponsored stuff that is Amazon content so pihole doesn't block it, but its sponsored so ublock origin does.
I tried Brave- not impressed. Kept freezing.
As a longtime, satisfied Brave-using Luddite, could someone explain what these Manifest v2 references mean?
Google doesn't like your ability to limit what you see (e.g. advertisements) so that's going away.
But the internet is actually unusable without adblock...
At work I will literally run sites through Textise in order to read their content because trying to browse the internet without an adblock is an actively detrimental experience.
It also disables functions required by privacy related extensions which allow you to bypass paywalls, get into walled gardens, protect your anonymity and provide a usable viewing experience beyond blocking ads and scripts.
Everyone focused on ad-blocking and tracking but forgot the rest.
Anyone who has a furry anime in their project name needs to be heavily scrutinized.
Then again, the fork I use, Pale Moon, is run by an arrogant faggot named Moonchild who's a furry, but he's of the libertarian type and hates these faggots so I guess the enemy of my enemy etc. etc.
As a FOSS project employs more and more leftists, the probability of it being taken over by woke shit approaches 1.
Just to state the obvious: The regressive left will continue to be a menace to society unless dealt with in a permanent fashion that will actually work so that they can never harm the public ever again, and we the dissident right should be putting pressure on the trump administration to make this happen at least domestically in the US.
The globalists also need to suffer a nasty legal penalty for enabling this bullshit that incited suicides and even got people killed.
Unfortunate, I was using Librewolf for around a year now or so.
I miss the days of Waterfox before they sold out, RIP. I guess I'll have to find something else. I already have Basilisk installed but it keeps crashing on me and is pretty slow, what a pain in the neck.
What happened to waterfox? Who did they sell out to?
It was a looong time ago, since then I haven't really looked back at them. In a nutshell they sold themselves off to an ad company.
https://old.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/f3hi8s/privacy_browser_waterfox_appears_to_be_sold_to/
In 2023, Waterfox seemingly went independent again
Thanks for the update on it. Unfortunately a betrayal of trust like what he did is something too hard and egregious to look past imo; there's a reason nobody talks about Waterfox anymore since the sale.
I'd make a joke about how we'll all need to switch to Lynx but I'm pretty sure everything in the Linux ecosystem is compromised.
Brave Browser
Nothing more. Honestly the best browser to use. I especially enjoy it's already pre-built in Youtube Ad-Blockers.
I'm testing out Zen browser. A little odd but I'm liking it so far.
"LibreWolf" sounds like a euphemism for child predators.