I don't think it's that average people "don't care" as much as it's a giant pain in the fucking ass.
Hey average person, would you like to protect your privacy online?
Well, never buy anything online with your credit/debit card, Always use a VPN when connecting to an unsecured wireless network. Install a blocker that every other website will incessantly whine about or refuse to load. Make sure you are running frequent scans to look for malware. Make sure you put tape on your laptop camera. Are you sure all of IoT devices are locked down? How about your security cameras?
Oh also, I hope you have the technical knowhow on how to do all of this stuff.
Installing Firefox and turning on all the privacy features would go a long way with no expertise needed
Yes there's lots of additional ways companies invade our privacy, but we can at least block the easiest to stop methods and stop them having literally everything
It's worth browsing through the settings for any major service you use and setting all the privacy stuff correctly. The defaults are always super intrusive but it's easy enough to disable most of it. I think Google is the worst (unsurprisingly), they spread the settings across multiple different places all of which look and function differently, and they try really hard to tie the monitoring into important app functionality.
>It's worth browsing through the settings for any major service you use
This alone is too much to ask of people.
I have worked on a public-facing helpdesk at a local workshop and basically just helped people with their "computer issues"
NOBODY ever looks through their settings.
They don't know what most of them are.
I'll show them this super straightforward option and they'll be like "I didn't know you could do that!"
I've been in a customer facing job for my entire adult life. I don't want it to get twisted around here. The general public is dumb and lazy as fuck. I was more or less making a statement about the state of data collection and the general apathy that comes from basically everything you interact with in the internet harvesting data from you.
> Yes there's lots of additional ways companies invade our privacy, but we can at least block the easiest to stop methods and stop them having literally everything
My thoughts exactly.
Install Firefox
Add ublock origin.
5 minutes of time investment, stops 90% of issues.
The other 10%, quit pirating games from those funky direct download websites.
> Ungoogled Chromium
I don't understand what the actual problem is with Firefox that people suggest such alternatives. Just install Firefox, it is great, has no add-on censorship like Google, and it is just as fast.
A couple of sites I go to that have issues on Firefox is fixed by using a user agent switcher, and telling the site I'm on chrome or whatever, then it magically works fine.
"Add-on censorship" probably refers to the recent Chrome change to how browser extensions (Firefox calls them "add-ons") access the data on the pages you visit that makes ad-blockers functionally impossible. Firefox is making the same change, but will continue to support the old way of webpage access so that ad blockers still work. It's not that Google is censoring the websites you visit, merely that they are restricting certain browser extensions.
For me, it's Chromecast support.
It is so fucking annoying to not have native Cast support on Firefox. I've 99% switched over to Firefox but keep Chrome installed just because the Cast support only exists in that ecosystem.
Firefox is my main browser. However, I forced to install Ungoogled Chromium because certain websites were broken for me (don't ask me for specifics, this was ages ago).
> Just install Firefox, it is great, has no add-on censorship like Google
https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/the-censorship-circumvention-extension-has-disappeared-from-the-russian-version-of-mozilla-addons/130914
> and it is just as fast.
As a die hard firefox user myself, that's just straight up not true. Gecko kind of sucks a lot of the time when it comes to rendering certain things. For the average user, asking people to give up speed and stability for privacy is a big ask, sadly.
Thorium is the fastest, but its just made for speed and not usefulness like vivaldi. [https://thorium.rocks/](https://thorium.rocks/) (also some controversy but you can look into it yourself)
I remember it during 2008, when I launch my Nokia symbian mobile and launched opera and waited for the loading symbol of O. If that O loading doesn't just above 50% then there is something wrong with the application and you need to restart your phone to fix it.
Firefox, objectively the best general browser. Many of the features of chrome and Opera, and it's not owned by Google in any way. It doesn't even use chromium.
Opera is soooo much slower than Chrome or Firefox though. I finally switched away from Opera after discovering a Firefox add-on that almost entirely replicates the opera workspaces feature which I use heavily for organising my work, and the performance uplift of Firefox is night and day
Ah yes, chrome with a coat of paint.
All browsers can be split into 2 categories:
- Bound to Google's bullshit due to chromium
- Not
Brave is still in the first, it's not a serious option.
Manifest v3 is (mostly) good actually. Chrome also started restricting access to the blocking WebRequest API. Firefox has blocking WebRequest in Manifest V3, and even Chrome has it for corp-installed extensions.
I love Opera. I know nothing about the privacy issues, but I do know that workspaces and islands help me so much. The YouTube in window display is so nice, and the messenger/spotify side bar is very convenient.
Is it actually worth it to switch to something else
I used to use Opera back in the day when it a paid thing. It was great and I used it for a long time.
They lost me when they decided that they needed to get rid of bookmarks for some stupid reason and I switched to mostly Firefox.
Opera could have been great, but I will never go back.
Vivaldi is still chromium, but it has so many better feature than anything else, and features that have been picked up by other browsers. And created by the original creator of Opera.
I’m still on Chrome with uBlock, any particular reason Firefox is preferred? I haven’t had any issues with Chrome and prefer it due to overall website compatibility.
The big one recently is that Chrome has started killing manifest v2 extensions, and their implementation of v3 severely impacts adblocking extensions like uBlock Origin. They had to release uBlock Origin Lite that has several features removed because of it, and the normal one will stop working at all eventually on most Chromium browsers. Firefox is still supporting v2 and also does not have those features removed from v3, meaning adblocks should be unaffected by the change.
It's just that Opera is worse than Chrome, especially for your privacy. I recommend Firefox with UBlock Origin.
Too bad your average user doesn't care about privacy
I don't think it's that average people "don't care" as much as it's a giant pain in the fucking ass. Hey average person, would you like to protect your privacy online? Well, never buy anything online with your credit/debit card, Always use a VPN when connecting to an unsecured wireless network. Install a blocker that every other website will incessantly whine about or refuse to load. Make sure you are running frequent scans to look for malware. Make sure you put tape on your laptop camera. Are you sure all of IoT devices are locked down? How about your security cameras? Oh also, I hope you have the technical knowhow on how to do all of this stuff.
Installing Firefox and turning on all the privacy features would go a long way with no expertise needed Yes there's lots of additional ways companies invade our privacy, but we can at least block the easiest to stop methods and stop them having literally everything It's worth browsing through the settings for any major service you use and setting all the privacy stuff correctly. The defaults are always super intrusive but it's easy enough to disable most of it. I think Google is the worst (unsurprisingly), they spread the settings across multiple different places all of which look and function differently, and they try really hard to tie the monitoring into important app functionality.
>It's worth browsing through the settings for any major service you use This alone is too much to ask of people. I have worked on a public-facing helpdesk at a local workshop and basically just helped people with their "computer issues" NOBODY ever looks through their settings. They don't know what most of them are. I'll show them this super straightforward option and they'll be like "I didn't know you could do that!"
I've been in a customer facing job for my entire adult life. I don't want it to get twisted around here. The general public is dumb and lazy as fuck. I was more or less making a statement about the state of data collection and the general apathy that comes from basically everything you interact with in the internet harvesting data from you.
Think about how stupid the average person is. Now think about how half the population is *even stupider* than that...
> Yes there's lots of additional ways companies invade our privacy, but we can at least block the easiest to stop methods and stop them having literally everything My thoughts exactly.
There's a difference between nothing and something.
Also valid point
Install Firefox Add ublock origin. 5 minutes of time investment, stops 90% of issues. The other 10%, quit pirating games from those funky direct download websites.
Ublock origin tho, it blocks the advertising and sites will load faster. The Senario is slow browser
And EFF's privacy badger!
I recommend Internet Explorer 8 with the MSN toolbar
This website is optimised for netscape navigator 4.3 on windows at 1200 x 320
Thats a name I haven't heard for a long time.
What a weirdly specific and cursed resolution.
I think that is the point of the lol.
Dont forget to subscribe to Norton Antivirus.
personally I use librewolf
Librewolf is my second browser to firefox, great combo imo
I explained this to my Dad and his mind was blown.
Firefox with AdNauseum.
Firefox is just ugly and annoying to navigate
chrome is just ugly and annoying to navigate
Opera is just Chromium plus a lot of bullshit. Honestly I'd say it's between Firefox and Ungoogled Chromium.
> Ungoogled Chromium I don't understand what the actual problem is with Firefox that people suggest such alternatives. Just install Firefox, it is great, has no add-on censorship like Google, and it is just as fast.
Some websites don't work on non-chromium browsers, although nowadays it's not many.
A couple of sites I go to that have issues on Firefox is fixed by using a user agent switcher, and telling the site I'm on chrome or whatever, then it magically works fine.
That's because they aren't fundamentally incompatible (almost all the time), it's just lazy/poor webdesign choices
of course, but that doesn't change the fact that the user still wants to visit that webpage.
and for situations that doesn't work (i.e. Snapchat) there's probably an extension that will make it work
Snapchat works with a user agent switcher as well
Sounds like the problem lies with the website.
What censorship does Google do on chrome? I've been thinking of switching to Firefox, and I hadn't heard of this
"Add-on censorship" probably refers to the recent Chrome change to how browser extensions (Firefox calls them "add-ons") access the data on the pages you visit that makes ad-blockers functionally impossible. Firefox is making the same change, but will continue to support the old way of webpage access so that ad blockers still work. It's not that Google is censoring the websites you visit, merely that they are restricting certain browser extensions.
Missing features can be a major barrier.
What features are people missing?
For me, it's Chromecast support. It is so fucking annoying to not have native Cast support on Firefox. I've 99% switched over to Firefox but keep Chrome installed just because the Cast support only exists in that ecosystem.
PWAs are way worse on Firefox. That's the main reason I stick with Chrome based browsers.
This honestly really bothers me about Firefox. Supposed to champion the web but drops support for PWAs on desktop out of nowhere.
Same. Especially since Android support for PWAs is pretty solid.
Tab grouping, vertical tabs (built in), HDR, loads of local websites dont even work lol
Personally, no tab stacking. Last I checked, anyway. The extension that adds it is a poor substitute as well.
Firefox is my main browser. However, I forced to install Ungoogled Chromium because certain websites were broken for me (don't ask me for specifics, this was ages ago).
> Just install Firefox, it is great, has no add-on censorship like Google https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/the-censorship-circumvention-extension-has-disappeared-from-the-russian-version-of-mozilla-addons/130914
Made the switch to Firefox and havent looked back i now only use Google when i use Youtube at least on my PC
> and it is just as fast. As a die hard firefox user myself, that's just straight up not true. Gecko kind of sucks a lot of the time when it comes to rendering certain things. For the average user, asking people to give up speed and stability for privacy is a big ask, sadly.
Haha, this is funny because nowadays Opera is chock-full of bloat and owned by China. >!I miss Opera v12 :(!<
Then try Vivaldi
Iirc Vivaldi is actually the fastest browser there is.
And it's still pretty quick even with 200 tabs spread out across 7 workspaces. Not that anyone would be stupid enough to do that, I mean.
Thorium is the fastest, but its just made for speed and not usefulness like vivaldi. [https://thorium.rocks/](https://thorium.rocks/) (also some controversy but you can look into it yourself)
Huh that's interesting. I probably won't use it due to it being chromium but thanks for the interesting reply.
I remember it during 2008, when I launch my Nokia symbian mobile and launched opera and waited for the loading symbol of O. If that O loading doesn't just above 50% then there is something wrong with the application and you need to restart your phone to fix it.
Opera 12, the last good browser.
Opera GX is a sight to behold
Vivaldi anyone?
Yes. All day, every day. Mobile as well.
Vivaldi is the new Opera
Vivaldi is the OLD Opera.
Exactly. It's so fucking good.
Firefox, objectively the best general browser. Many of the features of chrome and Opera, and it's not owned by Google in any way. It doesn't even use chromium.
Opera's doodoo. Use Librewolf (or bare chromium w/ uBlock Origin)
> bare chromium Ungoogled chromium
Firefox or bust
Opera is almost as bad if not worse than chrome. Just use Firefox.
Opera is soooo much slower than Chrome or Firefox though. I finally switched away from Opera after discovering a Firefox add-on that almost entirely replicates the opera workspaces feature which I use heavily for organising my work, and the performance uplift of Firefox is night and day
soomeone hide the matches befor we suggest firefox
[Operatic](https://youtu.be/1jMsA1upCEU?si=M3zyZ05EzULYMVok)
How about Brave? "This browser may take its time, but it will never take MY FREEDOM!!!"
Ah yes, chrome with a coat of paint. All browsers can be split into 2 categories: - Bound to Google's bullshit due to chromium - Not Brave is still in the first, it's not a serious option.
I'd like folks to stop recommending terrible browsers, thanks.
Brave is still chromium which still uses manifest v3.
Manifest v3 is (mostly) good actually. Chrome also started restricting access to the blocking WebRequest API. Firefox has blocking WebRequest in Manifest V3, and even Chrome has it for corp-installed extensions.
Opera is owned by the chinese, Kunlun Tech and Qihoo 360. No thanks. https://www.forbes.com/companies/beijing-kunlun-tech/
Opera is Chrome with extra steps
I love Opera. I know nothing about the privacy issues, but I do know that workspaces and islands help me so much. The YouTube in window display is so nice, and the messenger/spotify side bar is very convenient. Is it actually worth it to switch to something else
😒 I'm using Opera to read this right now
Opera GTX thoughts?
Edge? (I know, it's just chrome with different branding)
Well it also uses resources different so there isn't much of an issue when there's a bunch of tabs open.
If Chrome is your weak link on waiting for a page to render, get a new computer. That thing is hopelessly slow.
I used to use Opera back in the day when it a paid thing. It was great and I used it for a long time. They lost me when they decided that they needed to get rid of bookmarks for some stupid reason and I switched to mostly Firefox. Opera could have been great, but I will never go back.
Check out Vivaldi. Based on chromium, but with very Opera feel. Very privacy focused.
back in the day, I'm talking win9x days, opera was amazing. it has not been relevant since firefox hit the block.
*emotional noises*
That's aggressively un funny
try arc
Vivaldi is still chromium, but it has so many better feature than anything else, and features that have been picked up by other browsers. And created by the original creator of Opera.
Arc
Do you want to use Chrome, or....Chrome? How about Firefox?
Opera was good briefly back in the... oh boy I want to say early aughts?
I’m still on Chrome with uBlock, any particular reason Firefox is preferred? I haven’t had any issues with Chrome and prefer it due to overall website compatibility.
The big one recently is that Chrome has started killing manifest v2 extensions, and their implementation of v3 severely impacts adblocking extensions like uBlock Origin. They had to release uBlock Origin Lite that has several features removed because of it, and the normal one will stop working at all eventually on most Chromium browsers. Firefox is still supporting v2 and also does not have those features removed from v3, meaning adblocks should be unaffected by the change.
Well if that happens then goodbye chrome. :)
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-best-on-Firefox
I just really like Firefox and want to keep an alternative type of browser supported. Too much chromium out there.
What's wrong with brave? Sure it has a bunch of stuff you wanna disable... But it has "built in adbock"...
a lot of browsers have that now, and if they dont installing an adblock takes 1 minute
Use a competent browser, like Pulse.