Firefox alternatives?
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On Linux and Android. What are privacy oriented alternatives to Firefox now that it's no longer trustworthy?
The ability to sync between devices would be a huge bonus, even just on a local network.
LibreWolf has a mastodon account @[email protected]
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If you want to keep the Gecko Engine from Mozilla to support an alternative to Google's monopoly here are a couple alternative for Linux :
- Librewolf
- Mullvad Browser
- Zen Browser
For Android you have to be aware that unfortunately every firefox based browser lack of per-site isolation unlike chromium browsers.
- IronFox (active fork of Mull by DivestOS)
- Fennec
On the dark side of the spectrum you have chromium browser such as :
- Brave (Linux & Android) (disable cryptocrap, sponsor backgrounds and it's quite good)
- Cromite (Android)
Vivaldi is much better than brave, no ai or crypto shit and the CEO isn't alt right
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LibreWolf has a mastodon account @[email protected]
I made the switch, its worth noting that there is some differences, like not keeping cookies by default, and you're not able to set it dark mode etc. These can be fixed up through extensions or config changes.
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Vivaldi is much better than brave, no ai or crypto shit and the CEO isn't alt right
Yes Vivaldi doesn't come with crypto bullshit nor AI.
However by default it's so badly tuned for user privacy... and sprobably even security. Honestly I would prefer having a Vivaldi AI Agent over a proprietary web browser (I know it's mainly open but it's not)
It was not that well optimized on several of my devices when I tried it...
I'm not conviced by their chromium proprietary fork even tho it's not the worst alternative either. -
Zen looks good, but being more unique couldn't it get fingerprinted more easily?
Also their community is on Discord, which to me is a red flag quite frankly. I realize it's separate from the browser, but still. Discord no good.
Yeah I don't personally like how unlike LibreWolf it doesn't use ResistFingerprinting.
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Yes IronFox is a fork of Mull, and though it does have a couple of differences in opinion on the balance of privacy and usability, it's very similar.
Is this the GitHub repo for it?
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So I haven't been following the Firefox thing that closely. Fennec isn't an alternative because it uses Firefox's Sync and Brave is out of the question because it's crypto Chrome?
Fennec is a poor alternative because it connects to Firefox services. Sync is optional, but some internal components will talk to Mozilla, and Mozilla changed their mind about "never selling your data" recently.
Brave is Chrome with a history of suspicious moves, toxic leadership, involvement with crypto and AI
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Oh also, Ladybird Browser, is being developed. It is not based off of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chromium or Safari. They're building their own browser independently without getting any code from other browsers.
The Alpha release is planned to come out on 2026.Impossible to take them seriously if they have already started off on the wrong foot using exclusively megacorpo proprietary platforms for coms. If your developer / testers privacy doesn’t matter since they opted for Microsoft GitHub & Discord, what would lead you to believe their project would take privacy seriously?
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LibreWolf has a mastodon account @[email protected]
It's sad lemmy is not official, 🥺. I remember when @[email protected] was sharing stuff in here, and he was part of the Librewolf devs
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Zen looks good, but being more unique couldn't it get fingerprinted more easily?
Also their community is on Discord, which to me is a red flag quite frankly. I realize it's separate from the browser, but still. Discord no good.
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Fennec is a poor alternative because it connects to Firefox services. Sync is optional, but some internal components will talk to Mozilla, and Mozilla changed their mind about "never selling your data" recently.
Brave is Chrome with a history of suspicious moves, toxic leadership, involvement with crypto and AI
I remembered using Vivaldi a while back, I think I'll look into it again.
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So I haven't been following the Firefox thing that closely. Fennec isn't an alternative because it uses Firefox's Sync and Brave is out of the question because it's crypto Chrome?
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On Linux and Android. What are privacy oriented alternatives to Firefox now that it's no longer trustworthy?
The ability to sync between devices would be a huge bonus, even just on a local network.
Cromite, it's basically Vanadium for non GrapheneOS devices
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https://digdeeper.club/articles/browsers.xhtml has a somewhat comprehensive analysis of a large number of browsers you might consider, illuminating depressing (and sometimes surprising) downsides to literally all of them.
In the end it absurdly recommends something which forked from Firefox a very long time ago, which is obviously not a reasonable choice from a security standpoint. I don't have a good recommendation, but I definitely don't agree with that article's conclusion: privacy features are pointless if your browser is trivially vulnerable to exploits for a plethora of old bugs, which will inevitably be the case for a volunteer-run project that diverged from Firefox a long time ago and thus cannot benefit from Mozilla's security fixes in each new release.
However, despite its ridiculous conclusion, that page's analysis is still useful in in deciding which of the terrible options to pick.
While it was an interesting read, the article is quite outdated and the author is overly negative of literally everything, not just privacy. If a browser has a glowy button, it's horrible because it's too fancy... I feel for the guy...
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Impossible to take them seriously if they have already started off on the wrong foot using exclusively megacorpo proprietary platforms for coms. If your developer / testers privacy doesn’t matter since they opted for Microsoft GitHub & Discord, what would lead you to believe their project would take privacy seriously?
Ah that does makes sense. I didn't think about that.
I still do hope it'll go well though, simply because more options will be available. -
Depends on your specific case, but IMO in order of preference for deskop, Tor Browser as much as possible, followed by Mullvad Browser as much as you can, for scenarios where you cannot use Tor Browser, followed by LibreWolf for the few sites that require persistent logins (you'll need to enable setting cookies for those specific sites).
There's also other Firefox forks like GNU IceCat (unofficial binary for it), Floorp and Zen Browser.For a less complicated alternative, just swap out Firefox with LibreWolf. Just make sure to read the ENTIRE docs to save yourself from any nasty surprises. Especially about RFP (Resist Fingerprinting), WebGL, Canvas, etc.
On Andriod, again, there's Tor Browser, IronFox, Fennec F-Driod. Additionally if you want a browser based on a different engine, there's Cromite, which is based off of Chromium, but it's probably better to stay with a less commonly used engine like Firefox rather than keep using the mainstream monopoly of Google.
As an aside, this video helped me understand some stuff better and it seems to be less of Mozilla being untrustworthy and more about them being total losers in communication. I recommend checking it out.
I don't have 512 gb of ram needed to open more than two browsers at the same time, high roller.
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I remembered using Vivaldi a while back, I think I'll look into it again.
Still buggy
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I don't have 512 gb of ram needed to open more than two browsers at the same time, high roller.
You don't need all that much RAM to be honest. You don't need to use two of them at the same time either to compartmentalise your life. And my second paragraph covers the case that you'd prefer if you don't wanna compartmentalise.
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You don't need all that much RAM to be honest. You don't need to use two of them at the same time either to compartmentalise your life. And my second paragraph covers the case that you'd prefer if you don't wanna compartmentalise.
Correct you need about 32 gb of ram to use two web browsers at the same time.
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If you want to keep the Gecko Engine from Mozilla to support an alternative to Google's monopoly here are a couple alternative for Linux :
- Librewolf
- Mullvad Browser
- Zen Browser
For Android you have to be aware that unfortunately every firefox based browser lack of per-site isolation unlike chromium browsers.
- IronFox (active fork of Mull by DivestOS)
- Fennec
On the dark side of the spectrum you have chromium browser such as :
- Brave (Linux & Android) (disable cryptocrap, sponsor backgrounds and it's quite good)
- Cromite (Android)
I have been daily driving Zen and aside from some random issues here and there when they mess with the UI (which is to be expected with a beta). It kind of reminds me of how cool Firefox felt back in the day coming from IE. Has been fun to see real progress and effort to try weird things that are local to the browser. Not trying to acquire costly extra services/products that take resources away from the browser. I just really wish Mozilla would have (or even start) allowing people to donate towards just the browser.
Some of the extra stuff they have have the option to directly support. The browser is still worth being a real option that isn't just some Chromium-based BS. Yet they keep trying to divert money to everything but it. I hope that the major forks of FF start tying to prepare for going forward in the main code without Mozilla when/if the time comes. This new IE that is Chrome/Chromium can't be allowed to keep going and dictating what is and isn't allowed.
I also have LibreWolf and Mullvad (along with tor) and like them for the efforts in privacy and security. But are too restrictive for daily use for me. Mostly use them only with VPN when finding torrents and other stuff that I don't want to be tied to an account/syncing (not just NSFW but searching and looking into political or questionable topics). Very happy to have options no matter what.
