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Google Chrome https://twitter.com/jonathansampson/status/1165493206441779200 https://twitter.com/jonathansampson/status/11654932064417792... Microsoft Edge (Ch

• nallerooth 7y ago
  This was very interesting, thanks for posting your findings!
• bhhaskin 7y ago
  Thanks for the indepth information! Very interesting to see what is going on.
• jjtheblunt 7y ago
  Why no Safari?
  • jonathansampson 7y ago
    Proximity, mostly. I'm a Windows user. That said, I am planning on setting up a proxy connection to test Safari on my MacBook.
    • skykooler 7y ago
      Isn't there a Safari for Windows? I remember ending up with it after installing iTunes a few years back.
      • Someone1234 7y ago
        Discontinued after May 9, 2012.
      • ascagnel_ 7y ago
        It's no longer supported, and the last released version is so old it's likely unsafe.
    • jonathansampson 7y ago
      Here's the review of Safari: https://twitter.com/jonathansampson/status/1166462700794388481 https://twitter.com/jonathansampson/status/11664627007943884...
      • jjtheblunt 7y ago
        Thank you!
  • paulddraper 7y ago
    I'm guessing because it's damned hard to run. You have to have Apple hardware to run Safari.
    • IloveHN84 7y ago
      Or a virtual machine
      • jchw 7y ago
        That, too, is hard without Apple hardware. KVM is probably the only virtual machine software that runs macOS with minimal fuss and patching outside of Apple hardware and it still requires a fair bit of work (though scripts exist to automate all of it.) Many guides to creating Hackintosh setups hinge on having at least one existing Mac. The only saving grace for KVM is that people have developed tools to download macOS directly from the Mac App Store CDN and deal with the DMG image.
        • unnouinceput 7y ago
          I run VMWare for cross-platform development and I can tell you I have no problems running Apple OS'es since Mountain Lion 10 years. I have around 20 VM's with different MacOS'es that I use/used for testing/development. No Apple hardware at all, only my good old custom PC that houses all of them
          • jchw 7y ago
            Ah, I also have used VMware Workstation to run macOS, although my Workstation 15 license has mostly collected dust thanks to KVM. Since you’ve been doing this for a while, perhaps you’ve simply forgotten that running macOS natively on VMware outside macOS actually requires patching? Granted, there is a tool[1] for this that is pretty popular and easy to use. But it’s still required when running without hacks. Finally, where are you getting your installation media? Apple only allows downloads of macOS installation media via the Mac App Store. I suspect you may possibly be referring to using pre-configured Hackintosh VMs that use EFI emulation and FakeSMC instead of running natively. Frankly, I just don’t trust OS images from random sketchy third parties. [1]: https://github.com/DrDonk/unlocker https://github.com/DrDonk/unlocker
  • jakeogh 7y ago
    here's plain (in a good way:) webkit: https://surf.suckless.org https://surf.suckless.org First launch: 0 bytes. The note at the top of surf's page about the lack of tabs is missing some context, surf is composable, so if you want tabs, it comes with a script to use tabbed. Each window (or tab) runs in it's own process (skipping some details). It's also easy to enable/disable JS (per process) out of the box with it's keybindings. Manpage: http://dpaste.com/1R3Q242.txt http://dpaste.com/1R3Q242.txt
    • yoz-y 7y ago
      I tried to use suckless software at some point but stopped in the end. In theory the idea is good, but sadly the software is not up to par. For a lightweight WebKit browser with minimal UI and vim mode included I’d recommend QuteBrowser https://qutebrowser.org/ https://qutebrowser.org/
      • jakeogh 7y ago
        Qute's realy nice. I should try it again just for the py-ness. Using Gentoo's -9999 ebuilds for dmenu and surf, both are solid and maintained.
      • Jaruzel 7y ago
        Is there any way to easy run webkit on Windows?
        • password4321 7y ago
          I wouldn't say easy, but definitely possible to run the official nightly build. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20708905 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20708905
• lysp 7y ago
  And to read the above a bit easier: Google Chrome https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/1165493206441779200 https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/116549320... Microsoft Edge (Chromium) Beta https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/1166138692509065218 https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/116613869... Opera https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/1165353213308129281 https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/116535321... Vivaldi (Same thread as Opera) https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/1165358155922059266 https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/116535815... Dissenter https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/1165377063932637184 https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/116537706... Brave https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/1165391211999518720 https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/116539121... Mozilla Firefox https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/1165858896176660480 https://threadreaderapp.com/jonathansampson/status/116585889...
  • knocte 7y ago
    With ads between the tweets? BS
    • jonathansampson 7y ago
      View it in Brave ;)
      • Kuinox 7y ago
        I won't use this shady software.
        • pschastain 7y ago
          How is Brave shady? Or are you just trolling?
          • NikkiA 7y ago
            Probably the built-in cryptocurrency mining.
• dwd 7y ago
  Do you plan on running a series on update cycles and what each browser does when it phones home to check for patches/updates?
  • jonathansampson 7y ago
    I could. Those bits are fairly simple though. Often a small payload is sent to a server containing the version of the browser (and often the OS). The server responds with a link to download the newer bits (if necessary). A couple of the threads I shared touch on this briefly. The only difference, if I recall correctly, was that some of the browsers would check for updates to the updater too.
• nizmow 7y ago
  Chromium vs Chrome would be really interesting.
  • Legogris 7y ago
    Yeah, supposedly some but not all of the calling-home is only added in Chrome, not in chromium. I would also be curious to see just how google vanilla Chromium is. Of course there's ungoogled-chromium, but I had some issues building that recently.
• 3xblah 7y ago
  How about links? http://links.twibright.com/ http://links.twibright.com/ http://www.jikos.cz/~mikulas/links/ http://www.jikos.cz/~mikulas/links/ What happens when there is no internet connection on first launch? What if there is no DNS? Does the program keep trying on every launch? Does the program have hard-coded IP addresses or an internal DNS client?
• Iv 7y ago
  "The http://mozilla.org http://mozilla.org tab discussing the importance of Privacy loads in the background, bringing along with it the Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. Hello, Google." Loved that part.
  • zsrxx 7y ago
    addons.mozilla.org also contains Google Analytics. And since addons are not allowed to act on addons.mozilla.org, you have no choice but to ping Google every time you load a page there. Mozilla is either stupid or ill-intentioned. It's 2019 so they've lost the benefit of the doubt for me.
    • jddj 7y ago
      There is in fact a third option, which happens to be their stated position. Part of their (written) agreement with Google is that none of the analytics data generated from Mozilla properties will contribute towards Google's tracking database. "Mozilla has a legal contract with Google that prevents them from using our Google Analytics data for mining or from sharing it with third parties, among other privacy-protecting provisions." "Mozilla went through a year long legal discussion with GA before we would ever implement it on our websites. GA had to provide how and what they stored and we would only sign a contract with them if they allowed Mozilla to opt-out of Google using the data for mining and 3rd parties." https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=697436#c14 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=697436#c14
      • cameronbrown 7y ago
        Not only that, but Mozilla's Google opt-out is available to all GA customers, which is great for everyone.
        • lonelappde 7y ago
          It's not any good for users who don't have the choice to opt out.
• userbinator 7y ago
  Thanks for investigating. For comparison, I'd suggest trying something older --- perhaps IE6, Firefox 3.x, and Opera 9.x? For something newer, Dillo and NetSurf might make good contrasts too; I believe they don't make any network requests and just sit there with a blank window and the cursor focused on the address bar, which is IMHO the way a browser should behave the first --- or any --- time you run it. No further adverts or other attempts to get "promotional" material in your face, just a program that waits for and goes to whatever URL you choose. (I really hate the "first-run experience" of a lot of "modern" apps these days. I don't need to be told "thanks for using our product" or anything similar, I'm already using your product --- just shut up and let me use it!)
• DINKDINK 7y ago
  Do Ungoogled Chrome next: https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium And if it's relevant Tor Browser
  • cnst 7y ago
    He's not going to do that because https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20806265 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20806265, and it wouldn't fit his agenda. tl;dr: he works for Brave, has two personal Twitter accounts, both browser-related, yet posts these reviews from the account which magically has zero mentions of him being on Brave's payroll! The level of propaganda is simply unbelievable!
    • jonathansampson 7y ago
      tinfoilhat.gif
      • cnst 7y ago
        sleep $((5 * 24 * 60 * 60)) && chromium-review > /dev/null
• jeroenhd 7y ago
  Interesting how one of the main selling points of Brave, the slightly-shady crypto currency thing, is not initialized on first start (unless it's hidden deep inside some JSON or done using a different kind of network protocol). I suppose this is because they put it behind another layer of privacy agreements and terms of service. This is an improvement from the last time I tried it. They also added confirmation that a website is actually open to receiving tokens now, that's nice as well. If Brave wasn't Chrome-based, I would've tried it. Sadly, the world seems to be converging on Google's One True Browser Engine and I don't want to support that.
  • jonathansampson 7y ago
    You shouldn't see communication with ledger services until you opt-in to Brave Rewards. I did this last night, and monitored network activity. We run a tight ship