3 ms·

Choose the Browser Carefully

12 points by URfejk 6y ago

sam_goody 6y ago
I suspect that the only result of this article is to cause many users to smugly justify their use of Chrome. This is incorrect. Firstly because, as stated in the article, Chrome is far worse than all the other alternatives. Secondly, because Chrome has a near monopoly (at least of mindshare - it is hard to guess real numbers because Chrome happily reports its use to Analytics, and FF does not, which means FF always is under-represented) and contributing to them supports that, and third because there are other tricks they have like hiding URL data (and sometimes not letting users know they are on an AMP page instead of the real one). Ungoogled-chromium may solve some of these issues, but it adds new ones. Last I tried, it's update mechanism was non existent, which is the opposite of the other's auto-update. And it encourages Google's eco-system monopoly. And of course, it inherits Google's terrible (from a security perspective) app marketplace. All the other browsers are missing features to the point of not being contenders. So, I think that in real terms, the best we can encourage is fixing FF with the changes he states plus plugins, and evangelize that.
- URfejk 6y ago
  You can download Ungoogled-Chromium-Android through F-Droid client and receive updates through it: https://uc.droidware.info/fdroid.html https://uc.droidware.info/fdroid.html
- adriancr 6y ago
  I took a look over the rant and it seems blown out of proportion. Compare this to google chrome. - this is the most worrisome part which I hope never repeats: "In 2017 Mozilla made a deal with Cliqz". - I don't see any 'Remote Settings' service - perhaps because I have a about:blank home page (or I'm not on a corporate laptop)... something to look at later to see how it works. - I do see location services - good to know, will disable fast enough. - detectportal.firefox.com - captive wifi portal detector - I don't mind much. - Firefox push services - this I do use - it's nice to get telegram notifications all the time via firefox. - cloudfront - something to look into in the future. - telemetry - the only thing I've seen were the bug reports where it asks you if you want to submit it... and it's very useful on the other side when you're actually fixing the bugs. - DNS via Cloudflare - the default is not encrypted via ISP which is a lot worse (anyone upstream or on the same network will see what you are browsing)
- 533474 6y ago
  What about Brave and Icemonkey?

12 points by URfejk 6y ago

I suspect that the only result of this article is to cause many users to smugly justify their use of Chrome. This is incorrect. Firstly because, as stated in the article, Chrome is far worse than all the other alternatives. Secondly, because Chrome has a near monopoly (at least of mindshare - it is hard to guess real numbers because Chrome happily reports its use to Analytics, and FF does not, which means FF always is under-represented) and contributing to them supports that, and third because there are other tricks they have like hiding URL data (and sometimes not letting users know they are on an AMP page instead of the real one). Ungoogled-chromium may solve some of these issues, but it adds new ones. Last I tried, it's update mechanism was non existent, which is the opposite of the other's auto-update. And it encourages Google's eco-system monopoly. And of course, it inherits Google's terrible (from a security perspective) app marketplace. All the other browsers are missing features to the point of not being contenders. So, I think that in real terms, the best we can encourage is fixing FF with the changes he states plus plugins, and evangelize that.

URfejk 6y ago
You can download Ungoogled-Chromium-Android through F-Droid client and receive updates through it: https://uc.droidware.info/fdroid.html https://uc.droidware.info/fdroid.html
adriancr 6y ago
I took a look over the rant and it seems blown out of proportion. Compare this to google chrome. - this is the most worrisome part which I hope never repeats: "In 2017 Mozilla made a deal with Cliqz". - I don't see any 'Remote Settings' service - perhaps because I have a about:blank home page (or I'm not on a corporate laptop)... something to look at later to see how it works. - I do see location services - good to know, will disable fast enough. - detectportal.firefox.com - captive wifi portal detector - I don't mind much. - Firefox push services - this I do use - it's nice to get telegram notifications all the time via firefox. - cloudfront - something to look into in the future. - telemetry - the only thing I've seen were the bug reports where it asks you if you want to submit it... and it's very useful on the other side when you're actually fixing the bugs. - DNS via Cloudflare - the default is not encrypted via ISP which is a lot worse (anyone upstream or on the same network will see what you are browsing)
533474 6y ago
What about Brave and Icemonkey?