Ask HN: Which web browser do you use and why? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which web browser do you use and why?

23 pointsv7engine90 comments

I can't decide between using Librefox and Brave? Librefox because I want to support Firefox and it has first party isolation and Total Cookie Protection. Brave, because, I find it just faster than Firefox. I use ublock origin in both browsers.

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Firefox + uBlock Origin + privacy badger.

Chromium when some dumb thing forced on me doesn't work for Firefox.

Pale Moon for when some good thing I really want doesn't work for firefox.

Privacy Badger is no longer necessary. https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/4.1-Extensions

ooh, so this arkenfox user.js instead? Never heard of it.

The heuristics feature was the draw of Privacy Badger for me. I've long suspected since that was dropped that it offered nothing additional to Ublock Origin.

I've not heard of this arkenfox before. Going to have to dig in to it.

I'm surprised that Cookie Auto Delete is in the Don't Bother category. Sometimes a look at all these cookies and local storage on all these sites I barely remember ever visiting. CAD keeps things neat.

I suggest adding ClearURLs add-on as well to strip extra URL crap :-)

SponsorBlock - Blocks sponsor sections in YT videos

Bypass Paywalls Clean - Bypasses over 100 media paywalls

Cookie AutoDelete - Deletes cookies when you close a tab, unless you whitelist them before closing it, allowing you to remain logged in

Dark Reader - Dark mode

Easy to RSS - Finds RSS feeds on websites you visit

FB Purity - Cleans up Facebook. Disable almost anything on FB

I don't care about cookies - Gets rid of cookie warnings

Search Engine Spam Blocker - Block domains you don't want to see in search results

To DeepL - Replacement for Google Translate

Youtube-shorts block - Plays shorts like a normal video

Firefox + arkenfox user.js + Custom user.js overrides + Firejail + AppArmor + Iptables

Firefox at least for now still gives some semblance of control over the browsing experience addons, configurable options, etc... and can be partially hardened using user.js + firejail + apparmor. It is not perfect but I can't force websites to all be 100% compatible with eLinks/Lynx text browsers and the future PipBoy wrist browser. DNS overrides in local Unbound DNS daemon on my firewall/router.

At times I chain this to a Squid MITM SSL-Bump proxy to get more control over client/server headers but more and more sites give me captchas when I originate from a server/vps provider.

The one missing piece for me is having full control over the NetworkID in about:networking -> Network ID.

Mostly Firefox, at least on desktop. On mobile, mostly Chrome, although I just made it a point to re-install Firefox on my phone so I could give the latest version a try.

Why? Well in the desktop case, FF and Chrome work about equally as well in general, but I have a bias towards using OSS software, plus Firefox seems at least a little bit more interested in privacy. And also just to do my tiny part to help avoid the web becoming a complete Chrome controlled mono-culture.

Brave. Simply because it is fast, efficient and offers good privacy by default. It is available on every platform I use and has shareable bookmarks.

Since you mentioned privacy, Brave doesn't have first party isolation and Total Cookie Protection. Doesn't that bother you?

Mozilla derives almost all their income from privacy invaders.

Every Firefox install is tagged with a unique ID.

Firefox runs AMP pages through Google's servers.

Doesn't that bother you?

If on one hand we have a minuscule improvement of user privacy from atrocious to the atrocious+1%, and on the other hand we are talking about supporting two competing browsers vs. single browser monopoly... Well I'll take Firefox support every day. Even with all the dumb stuff Mozilla foundation does.

https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ gives me unique fingerprint in Firefox but not in Brave

according to https://privacytests.org/ Brave privacy is as good or even better than Firefox

It should be noted that privacytests.org is ran by a Brave employee (IMO there should be better transparency and disclosure on the home page).

As someone in the field (developing Orion browser) I can say that the tests do appear to be biased towards Brave features and do not include testing the most important browser privacy feature of them all, which is telemetry (Brave and most other browsers include a ton of telemetry by default).

That is a shame because the idea of the site and its open source nature is good. We definetely need something like this, just operated by an independant entity to prevent any conflict of interest for something as important as the topic of privacy.

We definetely need something like this, just operated by an independant entity

I know, how about eff.org?

You ignored the first part of his post which shows that Firefox by default doesn't fair particularly well on privacy in their tests either.

Mozilla devotes more lip service to privacy than they do actual effort toward making it happen. A default install of Firefox allows most ads and trackers and can be easily fingerprinted. Is it reasonable to expect otherwise from a company that lives off privacy invaders?

I have been using Orion [1] almost exclusively for the past 2-3 months with almost zero issues. Also switched to kagi as my search engine with similar success.

I just love the idea behind them and want to support a Google alternative.

—

[1] https://browser.kagi.com/

+1 for Kagi, never going back.

Another +1 for Kagi. I’m a long time Duck Duck Go user. Kagi improves on DDG in a few key ways:

1) it’s FAST. Like, REALLY FAST.

2) I’m the customer

3) lenses to scope searches

4) site specific promote/hide rules

5) bangs still work

Firefox, with ublock origin, and set to never remember history - cleaning all cookies when I close the browser. I remember all the relevant passwords. Very fast and very stable for me. That said I don't open many tabs. When tabs go over a certain threshold I just close those I haven't read yet.

A while ago I went over the list of Librefox modifications, and decided I didn't really care if Mozilla had that information about me <shrug>.

I tried Brave but didn't like it. Something just didn't click. Looked too much like Chrome, and I don't like Chrome.

About the same for me tho I'm far less diligent about tab cleanup. Maybe some one here has a recommendation for tab management? As in, many open or easy to reopen when I go back looking for them.

Currently Orion since that gets me Safari + Ublock Origin. It's a little janky at the moment, but it's nice having Ublock back.

I check in with Orion from time to time, definitely getting better. The only thing that stops me from making it my daily driver is that 1Password support is still absolutely terrible. I hope that gets fixed soon, it's a good browser.

1Password universal autocomplete is kinda okay. So that’s what I’m doing right now.

I like it a lot. My main annoyance is when you have tons of bookmarks like I do the list freaks out and takes a good 5 seconds to fix itself. They're doing great work though, can't be easy trying to maintain parity with Safari while adding web extension support.

This largely depends on 1Password whitelisting Orion. Unfortunately they so far refused to, despite huge pressure from their users:

https://1password.community/discussion/124112/support-for-or...

Firefox with arkenfox user.js. Librefox doesn't seem to be maintained, and it has no purpose other than pre-packaging what you can do yourself better in a second by enabling privacy.resistFingerprinting.

Brave doesn't give a hoot about privacy, they just pretend to hear your voice, because privacy and cryptocurrencies are what makes them different from their competitors, otherwise they are an ad company like any other. They are totally not paying for their positive media coverage.

Neither browser, or any browser is trully private, they leak like the sieve, but the best approach to privacy is not to stop the leaks, but to leak fake data, which is something only the Tor browser and Firefox with privacy.resistFingerprinting tries to do.

First party isolation is bullshit, it breaks many sites and it makes your browser stand out. I recommend containers.

Firefox, with Ublock Origin and NextDNS activated.

Firefox, for the illusion of privacy it provides over Chrome, without requiring much effort on my part.

Safari because it syncs my passwords and tabs with my iPhone. And because I do native iOS development with embedded web views - which you can only debug with Safari.

Firefox. Because on Windows PC there are essentially 2 browsers left, Chrome and Firefox.

I also don't really get the hate for Firefox (except for the most recent trends of googlificating it). I was using it since beta< and tries Chrome on three separate occasions (for month). It wasn't more functional or faster. It just lagged in a different way at different times.

Chrome, because it's better integrated with the rest of the Google products that I use like Drive, on multiple devices.

But I'll make the switch to Firefox if adblockers stop working well on Chrome.

I'll never use Brave because of its affiliation with cryptocurrency and their history of injecting their own referral links to people going on Binance.

All the other ones are just honestly subpar.

Firefox.

Tree-Style Tabs, uBlock Origin, Multi-Account Containers, Temporary Containers, and Containerise are the 5 "essential" addons I care about. If another browser could replicate the same functionality as those, I'd consider switching, but none of them yet can.

Chrome for the cases where something doesn't work in Firefox.

Temporary Containers is outrageously good.

With dynamic first party isolation, Temporary Containers is no longer required. Any reason why you are still using it?

This is news to me… when was this introduced?

> dynamic first party isolation

Firefox 77. It doesn't do the same thing as Temporary Containers + Containerise. DFPI isolates things based on the URL bar, prohibiting third-party storage. You can't have a whole group of sites use the same "container". So you can't get something like facebook.com + instagram.com +both using the same container (sharing cookies). AFAICT it's sort of like if you only had Temporary Containers, not permanent ones + temporary ones.

I use Firefox because it's the LESS proprietary of modern WebVM "featured" enough to use modern web(cr)applications.

It feel less fluid and less comfortable for some aspects than WebKit-based WebVM monsters, but it's still enough, it allow vertical tabs (tab center reborn + custom CSS to hide the tab-bar), it feature a decrappyfier (Firefox Reader) to being able to read most once-called websites in text without too much crap, still allow a decent ad blocking/tracking blockers.

I would prefer Chromium on Brave simply because it's better being in well-known devils hands instead of in devils dressed as angels hands. For similar reasons I do not have used (beside few tests) Opera nor old nor new in the past.

Unpopular opinion: Microsoft Edge. Chromium engine renders everything, compatible with all Chrome extensions. Login with work account gives quick access to all my docs. Not fancy but reliable.

Looks like we got the entire Firefox userbase in this thread.

I use Safari on my mac, because it doesn't make my system slow

I use Windows laptop at work, and a macbook at home. And moreover, how do you manage Adblock on Safari?

For some time already Safari supports extensions and there are several ad blockers that you can use with it.

Not just browsers but I also try to stay with the native App as much as possible, so I also use Safari. I use AdGuard[1] (Family Lifetime License) and works pretty well. I believe it also has the Personal AdGuard DNS[2] and I moved to it from PiHole, then NextDNS.

1. https://adguard.com

2. https://adguard-dns.io

+1 for Safari, partly because on Intel laptops it caused significant less battery drain than Chrome (less of an issue with the M1’s ridiculously long battery life), and partly because it means I can bounce tabs/history/etc between different devices

ungoogled-chromium https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium

Vivaldi with ublockorigin and other privacy-related extensions.

add: I run pi-hole as dns-blocker in my network.

Safari - very fast, minimal UI + great battery life on laptops

Firefox here because it works well and I think it's important to have at least two independent browser engine implementations. If Chromium ends up being the only engine around then the web protocols will basically be whatever Chromium does. We've already lived through this nightmare with IE controlling the whole market.

Safari and Firefox for personal, Chrome for work.

Safari because it’s fast and efficient. Firefox for add-ons and development.

Chrome for work and development.

Chrome + uBlock Origin (plugin) + User JavaScript and CSS (plugin)

I want to like Firefox but every time I try it I run into some nitpick bug and go back to Chrome. I just tried it 2 minutes ago and the scrolling was hyper fast compared to Chrome, at least 5x the speed, it was not easy to control where I was on a page. Oh well, back to Chrome ...

Firefox with uBlock Origin most of the time, but I’ll sometimes use Chrome as well. I live in Sweden but I’m not a native Swedish speaker and Chrome’s webpage translation feature works quite well if I need to quickly translate some legalese or anything with language that is more advanced than the colloquial written language.

For few weeks I’m using Arc browser on Mac, which is currently in closed beta. It’s a really good chromium based browser that brings several nice and fresh idea to the browser world. I especially like the idea of spaces (that can also be totally isolated from each other) and having a sidebar instead of the usual top bar.

Microsoft Edge. The built in TTS is amazing.

Edge's Web Capture feature is also nice.

yes! I love to use the web capture feature with my drawing tablet to annotate web pages

Chrome, because it just works. Firefox is too slow with the apps we're developing due to having terrible Canvas performance. Bug reports on that stretch back years with no fixes. Also, it keeps bombarding me with useless ads.

Safari is fine but it doesn't offer any tangible benefit over Chrome.

Brave. Does what I need and has nice features like background YouTube playback and Chromium niceties like PWAs. Looking forward to vertical tabs, which they seem to be working on.

I use w3m (it doesn't have a graphical interface) as much as possible because I got tired of the complexity of the web. It's also much faster than Firefox; it loads pages instantly while in Firefox there is always a small delay.

When I have to, I use Firefox.

Interesting. How can you manage browsing without a mouse. Looks like quite a hassle.

Tab and enter to click links. When there are too many links in the way I sometimes use j and k to go down or up lines to skip them or '/' to search for the text of the link. It's also possible to use numbers before j and k (or any other commands) to go down or up multiple lines. So if I see that a link is 1 decimeter below the cursor, I press "21j" to go down 21 lines which puts me close to the link and then I can usually just press tab once or twice and enter. The reason for 21 (or 12 or 31 and so on) instead of 20 is that 2 and 1 are close to each other on the keyboard so I can easily hit them with my left hand while putting my right index finger on the j key.

Reading text is easy, just page down/up which can be combined with arrow keys to go down/up half a page. Example: page down + arrow up goes down a page and then up half a page because it puts the cursor at the top of the page when I hit page down. It's also possible to scroll down one line with J and up one line with K.

Managing multiple pages is easy too. I can open a tab with T or a link in a new tab with ctrl+t and close the tab with ctrl+q and switch tab with { and }. I can go backward and forward in history by pressing s and selecting a page or just back once with B.

There are just a few things that are a bit annoying. When you open a link in a new tab, the browser is not responsive until the page has loaded or you abort it with ctrl+c. And some pages are just really bad and hard to read or navigate with a browser like this because they rely too much on javascript or css.

Just reading your comment exhausted me, this feels like such a waste of time and a massive inconvenience.

Any time you save by loading pages faster is lost a hundred folds by the inefficiency of the whole process.

All that comes to my mind is the "This Little Maneuver's Gonna Cost Us 51 Years" meme.

Aside from HN on my mobile (Chrome), it's lynx or w3m or emacs-w3m for me. I especially agree with your further comment below about "21" - I'm quite guilty (extending onto my command lines line as well).

Firefox. Mostly for privacy. It's fast enough for most things. Never had much issue with it. Only time I look at Chrome is some demo on WebGL, or if I have to verify that "it's not the browser".

Firefox since inception on multiple operating systems. Netscape before.

It's good enough and it just works. I never really had any issues to make me look for more.

I regularly use other browsers but live in Firefox.

Most of the time Safari and Firefox for testing on other browser.

Qutebrowser for the keyboard driven navigation. Its backed by chrome, instead of Firefox unfortunately (I'd prefer there to be multiple browser engines out there).

Edge. Best Vertical Tabs implementation. Basically Chrome. Don't act like FF/Chrome don't already eat your data.

Edge is still a unique level of clusterfuck, eg. not having an end to end encrypted sync service, has a bunch more dark patterns than most browsers, and at least on mobile the session ID is hardware based, not ephemeral.

It definitely has an excellent vertical tabs implementation (though Brave will soon have a similar one) and other good UI design choices.

Firefox, my daily driver. It's nice.

Vivaldi and Chrome. For the dev tools, although vivaldi sometimes injects styles and drives me crazy.

Brave when I want to go onto onion stuff.

Firefox + uBO + Sidebery + custom userChrome.css, for vertical tab trees and great integration with Firefox's account containers.

firefox - because of tampermonkey custom scripts. I run js disabled by default(using old version of tampermonkey with umatrix to turn off js by default) + i can be sure ublock origin keeps working + custom theme w/ tree style tab which chrome can't handle + dark reader synced with my current system theme which changes based on f.lux state (day/night)

Chrome, because it works with our corporate apps, and Firefox and Safari both don't, and I'm on Google Workspace anyway.

Right now use Brave and Vivaldi, because they do not crash my Linux System Currently FireFox Causes a Crash of Linux Mint

Firefox container is easily the best feature out of any browser. I love being able to isolate everything in categories.

firefox+ublock+ pihole (using localcdn for fun but i don't know)

for the most part, i used "browser.privatebrowsing.autostart=true" for like the last decade i think but i keep one window open for stuff that i has 2fa and stuff... for regular browsing, i just do CTRL+SHIFT+P and work on this, all day everyday

Ungoogled chromium on desktop,

Opera on Android - because text reflow is super useful (make text fit screen on any zoom)

Safari.

I do have Firefox installed as well. Typically if some website doesn't work in Safari, it works in Firefox...

Team Firefox here. It's great for devs, privacy and it's quite fast.

At work I'm force to use Chrome

Have been happily using librewolf for over a year now. 100% suggested to friends

Firefox or Fenix (FF build on fdroid) on Android with ublock origin is just amazing.

Firefox on personal non mobile devices, safari on mobile devices.

Chrome for work.

FF because it keeps all the bookmarks tidy across platforms.

In Android Firefox Nightly, it supports adding extensions.

Chromium-based Iridium on my Mac and Safari on my phone.

Waterfox, because too much google is not good for you

Firefox. Awesomebar and Containers.

Edge + ublock

Chrome, because I am a pawn of American hypercapitalism. :(

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