Thor A. Hopland

Question(s). Comparatively speaking, how much more #free and #libre is #Firefox when compared to #Brave?

To me, #Mozilla has done the web a ton of good, but I'm a little more hesitant lately in recommending it because of goings on - but then again, Brave has it's own history.

Also #Opera is technically made by a #fintec company, and #Vivaldi is an off-shoot from them, so I'm a bit more hesitant in recommending these browsers.

When it comes to #browser choice, where do you tow the line?

Jun 16, 2024 at 2:39amWeb
Show threadjohnoestmannmusicJun 16, 2024
@hopland You can always try Firefox forks, such as LibreWolf and WaterFox, which were made to have stricter privacy settings and telemetry off by default.
Show threadQuinn ComendantJun 16, 2024
@johnoestmannmusic @hopland LibreWolf and WaterFox have good principles, but I worry they don't have the resources needed to maintain a regular release cadence. If a security vulnerability is discovered upstream, will these browsers receive the patch if the maintainers are on holiday?
Show threadThor A. HoplandJun 16, 2024

@com this is my thought exactly.

#Firefox isn't just Firefox. It's got the whole #Mozilla community behind it, and a lot of interests around the world. As such, it's cohesive and responsive to the world around it, which makes it more transparent.

For me, it's not just a question of where a browser is going, but where has it been and who's running the show. I think that's the crux of my concern, really.

Maybe I will give either WaterFox or LibreWolf a try though, @johnoestmannmusic

Show threadhallvorsJun 16, 2024

@hopland Vivaldi is not accurately described as an “off-shoot” from Opera. It was indeed founded and is still led by Opera’s gründer and first boss, but started several years after he was replaced at Opera and the formerly independent company was sold to the Chinese investors.

(Source: I worked at Opera software)

Show threadhallvorsJun 16, 2024
@hopland Vivaldi and Jon has a very clear anti-cryptocurrency position, often stated publicly. You are of course free to make your own choices and evaluations, but it is unlikely to start dabbling in fintech. Personally I try to use a good mix of Firefox (for rendering engine diversity) and Vivaldi (to support local/less US-centric browser industry).
Show threadhallvorsJun 16, 2024
@hopland Brave is of course adding cryptocurrency features to the browser itself, so if you are sceptical about fintech and/or cryptocurrency it is one to avoid..
Show threadThor A. HoplandJun 16, 2024

@hallvors I think it may be a fever dream, but didn't Brave at one point try to do certificate poisoning to man-in-the-middle ads, or was that just #Lenovo? ^^;

This is a PSA to remind you CHECK YOUR DAMN ROOT CERTIFICATES AAAAAAAAAAAAAH tinfoil hat. But yeah, seriously.

Show threadhallvorsJun 16, 2024
@hopland you are probably thinking of the Lenovo scandal. A web browser does not need any “man in the middle”-certificates, it is already in control of everything.
Show threadThor A. HoplandJun 16, 2024
@hallvors that's what I'm saying, that I got the faint notion of Brave having done it internally ^^; so maybe not the root certificate, but that was a joke 😔 I failed successfully
Show threadThor A. HoplandJun 16, 2024

@hallvors probably not 😅 perhaps I should have phrased that differently and not boiled a whole new project down to a relation. Still.

I can say this though, Vivaldi is at least sort of open source... though (when I last checked) in the form of ancient electron build environment exclusively available as a tarball.

I know, cus at one point I tried to port it to Flatpak, but had to leave it to someone much more capable ^^; Dang Ozone... all es guht nowadays though, thanks to @TheEvilSkeleton