I feel like there is no web browser with a sane default configuration that I can recommend to other people. All browsers are preconfigured in a way that harms the privacy of their users or include services that no one wants such as Pocket and BAT.

Here are my problems with some popular browsers.

  • Mozilla Firefox: Pocket integration, no ad-blocking without extensions.

  • Brave: Everything related to crypto. Also its start page is horrible.

  • Chromium: No ad-blocking without extensions and soon Manifest v3 will cripple all content blockers.

Now, these suboptimal defaults wouldn’t be such a big problem if the configuration files were easy to backup and restore and respected the XDG base directory specification.

  • @stillwater@lemm.eeEnglish
    1•10 months ago

    This list looks like:

    Firefox: comes with different candy than I like but will get me the candy I want if I ask

    Brave: has candy, but stares at me uncomfortably and asks me to lick everything slowly

    Chromium: comes with candy I don't like and I'm pretty sure is going to kill me

  • @VitabytesDev@feddit.nl
    1•10 months ago

    Just use Librewolf. It's a fork of Firefox, with Pocket disabled, Ublock Origin preinstalled, and privacy settings enabled by default.

  • Franzia
    1•10 months ago

    On Android F-Droid app store there are some off-shoots of Firefox that are real good. Fennec comes with a bunch of the most popupar extensions already installed and none of that Pocket nonsense.

    • @flashgnash@lemm.ee
      1•10 months ago

      Why do people dislike pocket so much? I barely even know what it is, used it once to see what it was about and then forgot about it completely, it's not exactly obstructive

  • @words_number@programming.dev
    -1•10 months ago

    What's wrong with pocket integration?Nobody forces you to use it. Apart from that it stores user data e2e encrypted, mozilla has no access to your data (as opposed to chromes sync functionality). Imho, a browser should not block some content by default. But ad-blocking must be easy to enable/install. All of that's the case in FF so I see no reason not to recommend it.

    • ProtonBadger
      -1•10 months ago

      Yeah, Pocket does nothing unless you press the button.

      And as for telemetry that's publicly available on telemetry.mozilla.org if anyone wants to see what's being sent. It's very useful for Mozilla to see what and how features are used.

      Mozilla is our last tiny hope for freedom really, in this Chrome/Blink world…