Reject Convenience Forum

Here's one way to spark a conversation! Figured to ask this question as lots of folks like to share what they use and why.

In the last month I've been using Vivaldi a ton. It's definitely the power user browser, but when you have a web first workflow for your job or personal life, it's so handy to have all of these features. And the company that makes it super cool too! Besides that I'll either be on Brave, Firefox, or something more privacy respecting.

I will use Edge, but only for work since it plugs into the Microsoft ecosystem better. Even then I will also use a hardened Firefox install for anything that is not work related as a way of compartmentalizing my browsing. And of course I tweak a bunch of settings in both.

What do you use and why?

I use a Firefox with some hardened settings. Default search engine is DuckDuckGo, I clear cookies/cache/history every time the browser is closed, that kinda thing. Certainly nothing wild, but enough that makes me feel a bit better about it.

I also use a small handful of extensions, like uBlock Origin.

I use Zen browser with uBlock Origin and a ton of other extensions (Bitwarden, Web Scrobbler, Web Archives, Save Page Now, Search by Image, Stylus, Sponsorblock, Netbeep,...), but that decreases my privacy and security, as it's very easy to fingerprint someone using over 37 extensions. The browser is a fork of Firefox (FF) that removes or disables the telemetry and some bloat of upstream (but the main developer is definitely not a privacy or security expert).

It has a different look to FF and also adds vertical tabs, "Workspaces", a website sidebar, a split-view (horizontal, diagonal, or grid), and a store of "Zen Mods" that change elements of the browser, like in the about:config, through userchrome.css, and userstyle.js things.

I use my own instance of SearXNG, a private self-hostable open source anonymous metasearch engine, that doesn't include "AI" or ads. Mine is based on the fork used on PrivAU, a great public instance. (And an extension for enabling autocomplete, like PrivAU's.)

My mainly use firefox, but I don't delete cookies or my history. Probably should, but relogging into things seems like a pain. What I did do though is use the multi-account containers so google doesn't know what I am looking up on amazon and vice versa. Hopefully it works like that lol.

I only have brave installed for chrome dependent webpages. Otherwise, it is never used. I do use brave search though in firefox. It's not half bad.

Stefen_Maxwell wrote: ↑Sun Oct 20, 2024 8:37 am My mainly use firefox, but I don't delete cookies or my history. Probably should, but relogging into things seems like a pain.

Mullvad Browser and LibreWolf are good options for ephemeral browsers for when you want to go online and want the browser to automatically dump data after you close it. Can be good for most things. So then you have your main browser and then an ephemeral browser for each use case. Just FYI in case that was something you might want to try!

Didn't get a chance to vote but I'm still a filthy Chrome user. Unfortunately and to @rejectconvenience 's disdain, I accept the Chrome and Google ecosystem because less friction with high convenience is highly important to me. There simply isn't enough impetus for me to make a switch. My most recent attempt was Vivaldi.

Manifest V3 is probably the most likely thing to get me to move, because the modern web is such a shitfest of ads layered on top of ads with more autoplay ads to go with the other ads. I was never a uBlock origin enjoyer, having stuck with good ol' Adblock (the getadblock.com one). I'm also totally uninterested in doing a pihole because I can't be bothered (which is a recurring theme).

I also never have the performance issues people complain about with Chrome, but that's probably because I'm an outlier in system specs so overhead doesn't impact me really (my personal daily is Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 64gig ram, RTX 4090).

To what I would switch to though, I have no idea. Firefox is the most likely candidate unless Vivaldi gets me interested again, or if Arc shows they can wear the big boy pants. Though I'll go kicking and screaming to whatever I have to move to.