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.

  • @[email protected]English
    23•1 year ago

    What’s the problem with using uBlock on FF. Gets rids of ads, has ton of features to custom add filters and more.

    Also, I kinda like Pocket Integration on FF. Found some interesting articles that way.

    • @Sir_Simon_Spamalot
      1•1 year ago

      The problem with Pocket is: most of us don’t want it, and cannot get rid of it like you do with extension.

        • @Sir_Simon_Spamalot
          -2•1 year ago

          Disabling it (even “completely”) is not the same as removing it. The code is still there. Mozilla don’t even provide a method to exclude it when building from source code.

          • @[email protected]
            6•1 year ago

            idk what you want theb, disabling it is pretty much the same as completely removing it. It simply doesn’t do anything. Doesn’t send data no nothing

          • @[email protected]English
            1•1 year ago

            IMO that logic is really absurd. If you can disable it so that it doesn’t bother you, nor steal your data, then it’s completely fine. They are giving you the option to opt-out.

      • @[email protected]
        2•1 year ago

        I have no idea what pocket was, so I looked it up.

        Pocket is a free service from Mozilla that makes it easy to discover great content that’s personalized to your interests

        Looks like some bullshit just to shove as much crap in my face as possible. Seems like a waste of resources from mozilla to even bother supporting such a thing.