18 replies to this topic

[Bikerdude]

So I started using Firefox around version 4 and used that as my main browser with an addon to open up some pages in Internet explorer as required. This remained unchanged untill a few years ago when I removed IE completely and switched to Chrome for those "troublesome/picky" web sites.

 

Over the years Mozilla kept breaking, hiding, removing stuff so I got used to installing addons to add or remove functionality from FF -  such as Classic Theme Restorer, Cookie manager, Downloads window, Disconnect and finally Adblock which then got removed for Ublock origin.

 

Fast forward to today and since Firefox version 57 half of my addons no longer work namely (Classic Theme Restorer, Cookie manager, Downloads window), and as of today there isn't a direct replacement for them.

 

So then I discovered Waterfox, which is essentially Firefox 56 code with the latest'ish security updates. I have considered switching to chrome but the lack of similar addons to above and the ease of getting to some options (hidden other otherwise) compared to FF has prevented that move.

Edited by Bikerdude, 09 September 2018 - 03:23 AM.

[Anderson]

Weird, I always thought of Mozilla as better than Chrome, even though some time ago Chrome was considered faster than Mozilla. I don't know what they did to Mozilla but it was supposed to be safer. That was the catch I thought. Speed in exchange for security for Mozilla.

Edited by Anderson, 08 September 2018 - 05:10 AM.

[s.urfer]

Since this is a throwaway testbed, I gave it a go.

 

"newest" comments from the blog are from 2 months ago... Hmm

 

Search results are localised, and don't  put me where I'd expect them to be. You know, e, g, Iranian content provider for movie downloads.

 

I'm terrible sorry, but I'll pass.

[Bikerdude]

Er did you post in the right thread Surfer...?

[chedap]

Same, basically. Used Opera until it became Chrome. Then used Firefox until it switched to WebExtensions. Been using Palemoon since (a FF56 clone, just like Waterfox). Eventually some sort of extra-bloated website will probably make me migrate, just like in the Opera12 days.

[s.urfer]

Er did you post in the right thread Surfer...?

I believe I did

[STiFU]

I used to be strongly opinioned about what browser to use, when I was younger. Nowadays, I just use whatever, as long as there are privacy protection addons. I am mainly on chrome though, since I am a heavy google user.

[chakkman]

Chrome. Tried MS Edge the one or the other time, but, it's just too buggy... last big issue is encountered is that it won't sync its content (favorites, most browsed sites etc.) between devices. Chrome is absolutely stable, and issue free, for years now. It also has a very small system foot print, and it's fast. And nicely includes the Google services. Can't see me using anything else for the future.

 

Chrome is version 69 now, BTW, not 60. Maybe you meant 60+.

Edited by chakkman, 08 September 2018 - 06:52 AM.

[Abusimplea]

I voted Chrome but it actually is the Chromium fork on my Windows and my Gentoo GNU Linux boxes.

[freyk]

And chromium is without google's stuff.

I use that browser, in combination with firefox. And i love developer tools, inside these browsers.
So i voted for firefox 60+ and chrome.

Edited by freyk, 08 September 2018 - 03:32 PM.

[Bikerdude]

Seeings as a few people use it, I have changed other to Chromium.

 

And I downloaded and install version 71.x of Chromium, my question is I thought all the google stuff was removed its still asked me to signed into my google account on first setup. Is there a fork of this browser that has removed all of the google sign in/on crap?

[Abusimplea]

Seeings as a few people use it, I have changed other to Chromium.

Please move my vote frome Chrome to Chromium.

 

And I downloaded and install version 71.x of Chromium, my question is I thought all the google stuff was removed its still asked me to signed into my google account on first setup. Is there a fork of this browser that has removed all of the google sign in/on crap?

The common Chromium builds you can download do have the Google stuff but you can fully disable it in the settings. The main difference is, that Chromium is the free open source version. It if for the users who don't like closed source software for any reason. It also misses the stuff that is not open source (integrated Flash player).

 

On my Gentoo, where everything is compiles from source at installation/update, using Chromium instead of chrome really makes sense. Compiling it is a fragile process taking hours to complete on an ivybridge i7 - but Gentoo handles most of it for me (sometimes it fails but then skipping a version or recompiling some dependency fixes it).

 

I use it on my Windows 7 too because i use it on my Gentoo and i like using the same browser (and addons) everywhere. On Windows i too download a precompiled build from chromium.woolyss.com from time to time (it is the gaming box, so always having the latest updates is not that important).

That builds are meant to be used by developers and although i technically am a developer i am definitely not a browser developer and i hate C++. So on Windows i am probably meant to try Vivaldi.

But Windows 7 dies 2020 and will likely be replaced by some GNU-Linux-based OS with Chromium...

[Bikerdude]

I will prolly migrate from Chrome to Chromium when flash finally dies - a few sites including this forum still use it..

[chakkman]

Chrome for me is about 50% working with the Google services, so, it always strikes me as funny when people want to remove the Google part. That's sort of like buying a Porsche, and then removing the engine, to build in a VW Golf engine. Why not just use Firefox, when you're not content, or you don't like what Google is doing? It's really not as if the browser were so different, or FF so much slower/worse/whatever than Chrome. If you happen to have a fast internet connection, you won't notice a difference between Chrome and FF. At least that's my experience. Where Chrome shines, IMO, is in the implementation of the Google stuff. E.g., i wouldn't want to live without favorites, browsing history, addons, or settings shared with Chrome on other devices.

 

Also, Chromium is also developed by Google, if that is of relevance to you.

Edited by chakkman, 10 September 2018 - 11:56 AM.

[Abusimplea]

I will prolly migrate from Chrome to Chromium when flash finally dies - a few sites including this forum still use it..

You don't need Flash for this forum - but it will probably keep continuing to offer you a Flash-based uploader forever. Its code seems to be closed source abandonware because otherwise, the awful search would have long been fixed and it would accept pk4 and screenshots of a reasonable size.

Flash is already dead although it will officially be supported until 2020.

All big media sites and even the porn industry have already migrated away from Flash to HTML5 and JavaScript.

 

 

Chrome for me is about 50% working with the Google services, so, it always strikes me as funny when people want to remove the Google part. That's sort of like buying a Porsche, and then removing the engine, to build in a VW Golf engine. Why not just use Firefox, when you're not content, or you don't like what Google is doing?

I wanted the free open source browser with the best security. That was (and seems to still be) Chromium - therefore i switched from Firefox to it. I don't care about whether it has been made by Google, Microsoft, Apple, or someone else.

But i don't want to use any cloud-based stuff, so i opted out of that.

I use the browser only for browsing and do not need syncing between devices, so i don't miss anything. I even had to get some addons for removing more unwanted features from my browsing experience (uMatrix, DisableWebGL, CanvasDefender, Stylus, Adblock for Youtube).

If i would want to have syncing between devices i would probably use a browser wich can do that without making me a product, do syncing manually, or code something that does the syncing for me.

[chakkman]

If i would want to have syncing between devices i would probably use a browser wich can do that without making me a product, do syncing manually, or code something that does the syncing for me.

 

About the "making me a product" part: Would you buy a browser, if companies wouldn't do what they are doing? Would you pay for every website visit, and for the services you use for free now on the net? Not trying to take up a position, just pointing out the alternative to a system which provides that you can do all that for free.

Edited by chakkman, 10 September 2018 - 12:41 PM.

[Abusimplea]

About the "making me a product" part: Would you buy a browser, if companies wouldn't do what they are doing?

You wouldn't need to buy everyday software like browsers OSes, office suites or feature-complete 3D-modelling software. There are open source alternatives for everything now (even games - did you hear of The Dark Mod?).
Chromium already is free open source wich may be forked and updated by anyone. I would probably still use it or a fork.

Would you pay for every website visit, and for the services you use for free now on the net? Not trying to take up a position, just pointing out the alternative to a system which provides that you can do all that for free.

If it would end like existing paywalls (wich tend to always go for absurd pricings) i would probably not be able to keep using some everyday sites. I would just stop using the corporate part of the web. But i would also not be routed to that part by search results anymore - as you can't externally index paywalled sites.
 
- The hardest site to replace would be Youtube, because the service it provides needs tons of storage and bandwidth. But there are still some small communities wich host videos on their own servers - so it might just become a more decentralized experience instead. There also might be a donation-funded community filling the vacuum. Or i will have to live without user-generated video content as i did before Youtube.
 
- I currently use the ad-free mode of DuckDuckGo as search engine. Search is an essential service for using the web. So if all non-tracking search engines become unavailable, i would probably find a way to regularly donate small sums or code to some free and open community-provided search engine.
 
- I could live without the news sites - not using them might even improve my everyday experience because of less stress and not participating in flamewars in the discussion boards (as there always is somebody, who is wrong on the internet *g*).

 
- I already pay for web hosting and E-Mail.
 
- I would replace Github with some static pages on my website - never get pull requests anyway.
 
- I never started to use the other cloud stuff and the big antisocial platforms. So i will not miss that part of the web.
 
- All the sites of the free and open source community will still be ad-free and accessible.
 
- The Wikipedia will still live of donations - or i would use a snapshot of it to host my own local version (most of my searches are about long-known stuff anyway).
 
- Google Maps would finally be replaced by Openstreetmaps (would probably have to live without satelite images then).
 
All in all i would expect the web to become a better place for me than it is now. The corporate part would be more cleanly seperated from the free part. Community-based services would have a chance to get big because half of the world's population would not be able to continue using Fakebook.
It would be wonderfull - but will sadly not happen.

 

We got the ad-based economy because ads work pretty well as a business model for most sites and services that currently rely on them. They will not stop using ads until the majority of their target group is using ad blockers. And that will not happen because the people who are most susceptible to ads are also the ones who don't care about tracking and think, that ads don't work on them. So their real target group are people who don't care about tracking and ads. The group of people meeting that criteria is surprisingly big - even in the more developed countries.

 

So as long as we did not get a fully automated society in wich "making profit" has no meaning, we will keep having the web as it is. The Geocities, Myspaces and Facebooks will come and go - and there will always be small alternatives that never get big because their target group simply is too small (wich is okay, as long as it contains some people that have more money than me and are willing to donate).

 

[STiFU]

Can't believe how few people use Opera these days. It used to be really good.

[Shadow]

Chrome is #1 because of my heavy reliance on Google apps and its' good extensions library. But Chrome is a memory hog and I don't like that about it. For Microsoft admin usage I'll use EDGE, and I'll also use Safari on IOS. For more privacy and secure needs I turn to a few other browsers such as Brave, TOR, and Keepsafe Browser.