Been thinking about a switch from #Firefox recently, but I don't know if there's a good alternative out there?
@kev LibreWolf than. It’s Ungoogled Chromium but for Firefox instead.
@fatboy It does, extension store isn’t integrated however. If I remember correctly you need to use a tool to extract extensions from the web store, I don’t know if it’s different now though.
@kev I have the same quandry - it's been kind of sad watching Firefox's fall from grace after its meteoric rise in the mid-00s as the only real IE6 alternative. I like the signal sustainers idea and I'd Happily donate £30/year to mozilla if they sort their shit out (I don't want it to just end up bolstering their CEO's annual bonus). I guess part of the problem is that the barrier to entry for new competing browsers is IMMENSE (https://drewdevault.com/2020/03/18/Reckless-limitless-scope.html)
@jamesravey that's an interesting read. I didn't realise the W3 spec was quite so large. That's crazy.
@kev With the full migration to Manifest V3 next year, which basically breaks adblockers, Chromium-based browsers will become a no-go for me. I'm curious if/how this will affect the Firefox market share.
@darekkay that's interesting - I've not heard of this. Do you have any links that explain it?
@kev Sure, here's a recent summary from the EFF: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/12/googles-manifest-v3-still-hurts-privacy-security-innovation
And here's how it will affect Adblockers: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/338
@kev I switched from Chrome to Vivaldi a little while ago. Based on Chromium (boo, hiss) but it is what resonated best with me among the browser crowd.
@espen@fed.im @kev@fosstodon.org I would 100% be using vivaldi if it were open-source. Its a really good browser, and the only modern one I've used that lets me modify the keyboard shortcuts
@espen@fed.im I'm using librewolf right now. I also use chromium for school, and firefox for things that break on librewolf.
@gray yes! I really, REALLY am! Do you have an invite per chance?
@kev will send the link in about an hour :)
@gray legend. Thanks!
@david @kev by default, no. But you can change that in the settings and then only allow it to load on a whitelist of your choosing, or not at all.
Not sure about the CSS, I’d have to check and my machine is off now.
It’s incredibly customisable in what you want it to do. You can set custom agent strings per site.
I’ll take some screenshots over the weekend. Although, knowing Kev, there will be a post worth reading soon!
@reykjalin @kev I’ve not tried the search engine yet. I’ve been quite happy with Qwant for quite some time. Although I’m keeping an eye on @Mojeek too!
@gray @reykjalin @Mojeek coke onnnnnn can one of you fire me an invite please? 😊
@reykjalin @gray never mind, Gray already sent me one. Thanks, man!
@gray you mention on a Toot that you had some Orion browser codes. I wonder if you might have any going spare. No worries if not, but I thought that I'd ask. Thank you!
@kev
> "Vivaldi is also out because it’s just got WAY too much going on in the UI."
Funny, I consider that a feature compared to all the other oversimplified browsers. 😄
The state of the web has been really sad for years. I think Vivaldi is doing the best as far as user-focused features and customization, but the tradeoff is it's Chrome-based and proprietary.
The way the web feature-creep keeps moving steadily onward, I don't think the browser situation will ever get better. 😔
@AstralPegasus98 I don't want my browser to be an RSS reader, or a mail client, or a different colour depending on what site I'm visiting. I just want a simple interface that allows me to view the web.
I can see the attraction of Vivaldi if one wants to really customise their web experience (just like KDE), but it's not for me. I just want sane defaults and be able to move on.
@kev There aren't any *good* alternatives. There are acceptable ones.
Safari is acceptable, for now. Edge is acceptable, for now. Ungoogled Chromium is okay.
The browser ecosystem sucks.
@nathand yeah it does. :(
@nathand
For me, edge isn't acceptable at all. There is a German blogger, @kuketzblog who made a series about browsers and what they send to their companies. Edge sends every URL to Microsoft.
@kev
@Mawoka @kuketzblog @kev 🤷♂️ I don’t care? Not like they’re not going to find out where I go with the millions of other data points they collect on every site hit.
@kev
LibreWolf
@kev I find Abrowse to be the sanest fork, but it can be a bit hard to get in some distros. Librewolf is too extreme and others are basically the same.
Waterfox is a no no too
@kev OK the thing is pretty hard to find, its a fork done by Trisquel (An FSF approved distro) and I think there is no Mac version, sorry. You can still make Librewolf good too I guess
@kev Well, I'd say that #Vivaldi is the best alternative out there, but why would you take my word for it.
Oh, Laptop Magazine has come out and said the same thing. Among others.
It's a fact. Vivaldi rocks.
https://www.laptopmag.com/features/bye-microsoft-edge-vivaldi-is-the-best-chrome-alternative
@kev stick with Firefox diversity is too important
@kev Please write a post if you found something that works. I'm also more or less actively searching and have quite similar needs (besides the OS).
@kev I'm using mostly Safari, but Waterfox has been a great Firefox alternative. Same gecko engine, and uses Firefox sync, but that's about it.
Vivaldi is pretty good too. Chromium engine but doesn't look Googly
@kev I'm sorry, I shoulda read your post before responding. I still stand by Waterfox, but you can skip the Vivaldi rec. 😃
@kev Ungoogled Chromium or LibreWolf, the former being Chromium-based and the later being a fork of Firefox.
I have used Ungoogled Chromium and I was very pleased with it. Chromium is to this day faster than Blink (sadly). Some time ago, updating it with Homebrew would cause my cookies to be deleted, so I switched to LibreWolf in the meantime.
Both are open-source, lightweight, and protect your data!
@kev Have you looked at ungoogled chromium? https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium