cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/5572424

This might have been discussed to death by now, unfortunately I couldn’t find any discussion on it on Lemmy. Though I would love to be corrected on that!

How does an always on incognito Chromium with uBlock Origin on medium mode (and other hardening/privacy settings enabled) compare to Brave (with e.g. Privacy Guides’ recommended settings) with respect to security and privacy on Linux[1]?

Commonly heard whataboutisms:

  • “With the looming advent of Manifest v3, this discussion might not be very relevant for long.” I’m aware.
  • “Just use Firefox/Librewolf or any other privacy-conscious browser that isn’t Chromium-based.” I already do, but some websites/platforms don’t play nice on non-Chromium-based browsers due to Google’s monopoly on the web. Sometimes I can afford to not use that website/platform, but unfortunately not always.
  • “Brave’s [insert controversy] makes them unreliable to take services from.” Honestly, I think that if both solutions are as effective that a reason like this might be sufficient to tip the balance in favor of one. Because ultimately this all comes down to trust.
  • "Just use Ungoogled Chromium." Some more knowledgeable people than me advice against it. Though, I’d say I’m open to hear different opinions on this as long as they’re somewhat sophisticated.
  • “Just use [insert another Chromium-based browser].” If it has merits beyond Brave and Chromium with respect to security and privacy, I’ll consider it.

Thanks in advance!

  1. I can be more specific about which distro I prefer using, but I don’t think it matters. I might be wrong though*.
  • @[email protected]English
    6•1 year ago

    Cromite is a fork of the seemingly-abandoned Bromite, which used to be the only browser recommended by GrapheneOS (other than their own Vanadium). It’s relatively new though so I don’t think that much has been written about it for comparison.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      3•1 year ago

      Thanks a lot for mentioning this! I didn’t know someone took over the good work from Bromite. I’ll definitely check into it! Am I correct to assume that (like Bromite), this is a browser exclusively meant to be used on Android devices? I guess I might get it to work on Waydroid as well, not sure if I would like to commit to that yet though. Nonetheless, this input of yours has been much appreciated!

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

          No Linux, I feel left out 😭. Though it would be awesome if I could get it working in Wine (read: Bottles).

          Update: I wasn’t able to make it work in Wine. I assumed the chrome.exe file was the browser. Though, I might be wrong. I would love others to chime in on this!

    • t0m5k1English
      2•1 year ago

      Chromite/Bromite is primarily an android browser, even on windows it looks and behaves just like a mobile app.

      Whilst I like the feature set as an alternative to Brave the fact they refuse to fix the PWA situation as it’s “Of no interest” to the dev is a no go for me.