6 ms·

Asking as a Firefox user — is it worth giving Brave a try?

by okl 5y ago

pl0x 5y ago
easrng 5y ago
Not really. I used to use it, but it was noticeably slower than Firefox and ungoogled chromium. It's basically just ungoogled chromium with a bunch of extensions preinstalled.
- jsnk 5y ago
  Your statement isn't true for Ubuntu and ZorinOS. Firefox on Ubuntu and ZorinOS still have breaking problems with some websites such as Google Map. https://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+google+map+ubuntu&sxsrf=APq-WBvc6x8cS2EP4a6N3fijb9y7nlWmYQ%3A1646348139007&ei=akchYtuAPdHU9APNk6WQAg&ved=0ahUKEwjb3YHghKv2AhVRKn0KHc1JCSIQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=firefox+google+map+ubuntu&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQAzIICCEQFhAdEB4yCAghEBYQHRAeMggIIRAWEB0QHjIICCEQFhAdEB46BwgAEEcQsAM6BQgAEIAEOgYIABAWEB5KBAhBGABKBAhGGABQ0AJY3hNgsRVoAXABeACAAXqIAaUEkgEDNS4ymAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz-serp https://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+google+map+ubuntu&sx...
  - BeefWellington 5y ago
    Seems like that must be an Ubuntu-specific problem? Working fine for me on: - Debian, Raspbian - Arch, Manjaro - Fedora
- wolverine876 5y ago
  > It's basically just ungoogled chromium with a bunch of extensions preinstalled. That's not true. It has, in an easy-to-access UI many privacy protections, including fingerprinting and tracking, and even disabling JavaScript per site (EDIT: Among other things, including a crypto payment system, IPFS, and more.)
  - arilotter 5y ago
    So, ungoogled chromium with uBlock origin, uMatrix, and noscript preinstalled?
    - easrng 5y ago
      Also IPFS companion and rebranded MetaMask.
  - austhrow743 5y ago
    How is that a correction?
jm4 5y ago
It's ok. It certainly doesn't hurt to try it. I tried using it as a daily driver a couple times and went back to Firefox. In my opinion, Vivaldi is better than Brave and I also prefer it to Firefox.
orkaa 5y ago
It is worth giving it a try, why not. I'm a Firefox user and I gave it a try for ~3 months out of boredom (and perception of higher speed). The novelty wore off and I went back to FF, but now I know why I like it more. With Brave I never really bought into the advertising model so all those little donation buttons and crypto suggestions started to bother me.
gnicholas 5y ago
I was a diehard FF user from the early 2000s to 2019. One of my users emailed me to ask if my browser plugin worked on Brave. I tried it and was shocked at how fast it was. I dearly miss Tree Style Tabs (and make do with a Chrome extension that mostly works, but is annoyingly in a separate window), I can't go back to FF. The speed difference is too great. YMMV, I'm on a 2017 MBP, base model, and I typically have dozens of tabs open across several windows.
- rmbyrro 5y ago
  Same experience here, never went back after seeing Brave speed.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- alpaca128 5y ago
  Does Brave make tabs narrower like Chrome when you open a lot of them? That's always been a dealbreaker for me in Chromium-based stuff, open enough of them and switching tabs becomes a mouse precision challenge and titles aren't visible anymore. So far FF is the only browser I know that can handle a lot of tabs without degrading the user experience.
  - gnicholas 5y ago
    Yes, but I use a TST-like extension so I can see them all on the left side. I ignore the stubs at the top, and I believe there's a way to make them disappear entirely.
  - nojonestownpls 5y ago
    I also had the same problem (can't believe Chrome apparently doesn't have any UI solution for this natively), but reading your comment made me wonder if Vimium could be a solution to this. And yeah, pressing T and typing part of the title makes it much easier to select a tab when you have many. Only useful if you're already using Vimium or are ready to switch of course, but improves the usability of Brave a lot for me.
wolverine876 5y ago
I find Brave useful when a website requires Chrome. Also, Brave has a built-in Tor client.
blm1 5y ago
[dead]
frankjr 5y ago
I'm happy with it. It's pretty much like Chrome/Chromium (more responsive and performant than Firefox on macOS) but with some privacy settings/tweaks [0]. All of the cryptocurrency features can be turned off. The only thing I dearly miss from Firefox is Awesomebar. Brave's/Chromium's Omnibar is terrible in comparison. A lot of times you'll need to go to History to search for the same keywords and click the first result... [0] https://privacytests.org/ https://privacytests.org/
- frankjr 5y ago
  Oh and they have got a lot better with keeping up Chromium releases. It now usually takes one or two days for a new Brave version to be released after a new Chromium is released (as opposed to a few weeks in the past!?).
poppytaker 5y ago
uo21tp5hoyg 5y ago
If you like the way Chromium looks and feels then yes it's very worth it. Personally I switched from Firefox to Brave due to their different approaches to fingerprinting protection which I consider a huge privacy issue. Firefox seems to take the approach of making everyone look the same all the time, but not enough people use the locked down version for it to be effective and they still leak enough Javascript-level information that that even within the "all look the same" crowd you will stand out, for example they spoof the request user agent but not the javascript-level user agent string (maybe that was a bug and has been fixed?). Brave on the other hand takes my preferred approach which is to muddy the water as much as possible, they spoof as many data points to make you look as unique as possible, between every user and between ever session (which is especially important imho). With Brave if you want a fingerprinting website to think you're someone new you just need to open a new session. There isn't much to say about it beyond the buffs to privacy, as that's really it's purpose, to be Chrome but more privacy focused.
InCityDreams 5y ago
I run a portable version of brave in a 1Gb ramdisk. Works great, and no mess left on the pc, apart from somehow Microsoft messes with things and writes stuff to a C:\...\Appdata\local\Brave Software folder...which I auto-delete every boot, just in case it's there. Something to do with the 'default' browser always trying to be edge. FU MS. Apart from severely going thru the settings, take a look at the "brave://flags/" (no quotes), for more advanced ways to break things. https://portapps.io/app/brave-portable/ https://portapps.io/app/brave-portable/
umtksa 5y ago
yes but ı’m missing send to device service

Asking as a Firefox user — is it worth giving Brave a try?

by okl 5y ago

Asking as a Firefox user — is it worth giving Brave a try?

pl0x 5y ago

easrng 5y ago

Not really. I used to use it, but it was noticeably slower than Firefox and ungoogled chromium. It's basically just ungoogled chromium with a bunch of extensions preinstalled.

jsnk 5y ago
Your statement isn't true for Ubuntu and ZorinOS. Firefox on Ubuntu and ZorinOS still have breaking problems with some websites such as Google Map. https://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+google+map+ubuntu&sxsrf=APq-WBvc6x8cS2EP4a6N3fijb9y7nlWmYQ%3A1646348139007&ei=akchYtuAPdHU9APNk6WQAg&ved=0ahUKEwjb3YHghKv2AhVRKn0KHc1JCSIQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=firefox+google+map+ubuntu&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQAzIICCEQFhAdEB4yCAghEBYQHRAeMggIIRAWEB0QHjIICCEQFhAdEB46BwgAEEcQsAM6BQgAEIAEOgYIABAWEB5KBAhBGABKBAhGGABQ0AJY3hNgsRVoAXABeACAAXqIAaUEkgEDNS4ymAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz-serp https://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+google+map+ubuntu&sx...
- BeefWellington 5y ago
  Seems like that must be an Ubuntu-specific problem? Working fine for me on: - Debian, Raspbian - Arch, Manjaro - Fedora
wolverine876 5y ago
> It's basically just ungoogled chromium with a bunch of extensions preinstalled. That's not true. It has, in an easy-to-access UI many privacy protections, including fingerprinting and tracking, and even disabling JavaScript per site (EDIT: Among other things, including a crypto payment system, IPFS, and more.)
- arilotter 5y ago
  So, ungoogled chromium with uBlock origin, uMatrix, and noscript preinstalled?
  - easrng 5y ago
    Also IPFS companion and rebranded MetaMask.
- austhrow743 5y ago
  How is that a correction?

jm4 5y ago

It's ok. It certainly doesn't hurt to try it. I tried using it as a daily driver a couple times and went back to Firefox. In my opinion, Vivaldi is better than Brave and I also prefer it to Firefox.

orkaa 5y ago

It is worth giving it a try, why not. I'm a Firefox user and I gave it a try for ~3 months out of boredom (and perception of higher speed). The novelty wore off and I went back to FF, but now I know why I like it more. With Brave I never really bought into the advertising model so all those little donation buttons and crypto suggestions started to bother me.

gnicholas 5y ago

I was a diehard FF user from the early 2000s to 2019. One of my users emailed me to ask if my browser plugin worked on Brave. I tried it and was shocked at how fast it was. I dearly miss Tree Style Tabs (and make do with a Chrome extension that mostly works, but is annoyingly in a separate window), I can't go back to FF. The speed difference is too great. YMMV, I'm on a 2017 MBP, base model, and I typically have dozens of tabs open across several windows.

rmbyrro 5y ago
Same experience here, never went back after seeing Brave speed.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
alpaca128 5y ago
Does Brave make tabs narrower like Chrome when you open a lot of them? That's always been a dealbreaker for me in Chromium-based stuff, open enough of them and switching tabs becomes a mouse precision challenge and titles aren't visible anymore. So far FF is the only browser I know that can handle a lot of tabs without degrading the user experience.
- gnicholas 5y ago
  Yes, but I use a TST-like extension so I can see them all on the left side. I ignore the stubs at the top, and I believe there's a way to make them disappear entirely.
- nojonestownpls 5y ago
  I also had the same problem (can't believe Chrome apparently doesn't have any UI solution for this natively), but reading your comment made me wonder if Vimium could be a solution to this. And yeah, pressing T and typing part of the title makes it much easier to select a tab when you have many. Only useful if you're already using Vimium or are ready to switch of course, but improves the usability of Brave a lot for me.

wolverine876 5y ago

I find Brave useful when a website requires Chrome. Also, Brave has a built-in Tor client.

blm1 5y ago

[dead]

frankjr 5y ago

I'm happy with it. It's pretty much like Chrome/Chromium (more responsive and performant than Firefox on macOS) but with some privacy settings/tweaks [0]. All of the cryptocurrency features can be turned off. The only thing I dearly miss from Firefox is Awesomebar. Brave's/Chromium's Omnibar is terrible in comparison. A lot of times you'll need to go to History to search for the same keywords and click the first result... [0] https://privacytests.org/ https://privacytests.org/

frankjr 5y ago
Oh and they have got a lot better with keeping up Chromium releases. It now usually takes one or two days for a new Brave version to be released after a new Chromium is released (as opposed to a few weeks in the past!?).

poppytaker 5y ago

uo21tp5hoyg 5y ago

If you like the way Chromium looks and feels then yes it's very worth it. Personally I switched from Firefox to Brave due to their different approaches to fingerprinting protection which I consider a huge privacy issue. Firefox seems to take the approach of making everyone look the same all the time, but not enough people use the locked down version for it to be effective and they still leak enough Javascript-level information that that even within the "all look the same" crowd you will stand out, for example they spoof the request user agent but not the javascript-level user agent string (maybe that was a bug and has been fixed?). Brave on the other hand takes my preferred approach which is to muddy the water as much as possible, they spoof as many data points to make you look as unique as possible, between every user and between ever session (which is especially important imho). With Brave if you want a fingerprinting website to think you're someone new you just need to open a new session. There isn't much to say about it beyond the buffs to privacy, as that's really it's purpose, to be Chrome but more privacy focused.

InCityDreams 5y ago

I run a portable version of brave in a 1Gb ramdisk. Works great, and no mess left on the pc, apart from somehow Microsoft messes with things and writes stuff to a C:\...\Appdata\local\Brave Software folder...which I auto-delete every boot, just in case it's there. Something to do with the 'default' browser always trying to be edge. FU MS. Apart from severely going thru the settings, take a look at the "brave://flags/" (no quotes), for more advanced ways to break things. https://portapps.io/app/brave-portable/ https://portapps.io/app/brave-portable/

umtksa 5y ago

yes but ı’m missing send to device service