https://privacytests.org rate Brave as the best browser.
Brave uses Chromium code, but it is not a Google product. And I believe you are conflating security and privacy. The Chromium codebase is in fact more secure than Firefox in many areas. There is only so much hardening you can do security-wise before you are limited by its codebase. From a privacy perspective, though, you can definitely make the argument against Google. Brave, however, removes/replaces most of the Google stuff.
Brave itself is not a Google product, but does heavily rely on an engine controlled by Google, which is unfortunate. This is a distinct difference though, there are things Google cannot force brave to do like chrome’s new found ability to send ads based on browsing history, and there are things brave can do that Google doesn’t want them to, like integrated advanced ad blocking.
Still though, Google controlling the browsing view experience for so many browsers is not great and I’m sure it won’t be long before they figure out how to do something we wouldn’t want them to that brave won’t be able to stop because of their reliance on chromium.
I don’t run Brave because Brave runs a crypto scam right in the browser.
I don’t care that you can disable it, I don’t care that it might be the only way they found to make a buck out of free software: anyone who dabbles in crypto is instantly sketchy. And I don’t want to run a piece of software as critical as a browser made by someone who’s not 100% trustworthy.
What makes it a “crypto scam” and what makes “dabbling” in crypto inherently “sketchy”?
Come on mate, there’s no way you’d be aware of crypto in an online space like this without being well aware of why most people consider it a scam.
On the contrary, I’d expect people in these spaces to be more capable of separating the signal from the noise with crypto and not default to “crypto bad”.
I wouldn’t really call it a crypto scam if they aren’t demanding or asking you buy it, just giving you free crypto
just giving you free crypto
If being alive for 40-some years has taught my anything, it’s that companies “Just giving you free anything” should raise red flags.
Even if it is benevolently intended, I’d be suspicious and very cautious about using their products.
Mullvad accepts crypto as payment; there aren’t many other options for anonymous online payment methods today. What Mullvad aren’t doing us creating and running their own cryptocoin in support of their advertising wing. The two are not equivalent.
I don’t trust browsers that feel the need to advertise themselves
Librewolf/mullvad didn’t advertise afaik, all of theirpopularity came from word of mouth
People don’t like the creator of Brave because he’s supposedly anti-trans. He donated to some anti-trans political group iirc.
The browser also has some crypto stuff (web advertisment replacement, block chain based decentralized browser sync), and a lot of people hate crypto these days.
Personally I think it’s a good browser, the web needs advertising revenue to function and it’s solution to replacing web ads with optional browser ads that still pay the websites you visit seems like a decent solution. I respect the push to use a non-chromium browser, but personally I rely too much on browser tab groups to use anything Firefox based.
I respect the push to use a non-chromium browser, but personally I rely too much on browser tab groups to use anything Firefox based.
Out of interest, are your needs not covered by Simple Tab Groups or Tree Style Tab? Both are monitored by Mozilla as “Recommended Extensions”.
I’ve tried both of those, tree style tabs kinda works, but isn’t ideal. It’s also not an option on mobile at all, and I prefer to use the same browser for mobile and desktop for tab sync/etc.
I used Firefox on desktop and mobile for a few months this past year, but never got as nice of a work flow going as I had with Brave. Then a Firefox update for mobile broke the browser for a week or two (crashed on launch, resetting app data/reinstalling didn’t help) and I went back to Brave, and realized how much I missed tab grouping and some other stuff.
I’m keeping Firefox installed, and I’d be happy to switch back someday if tab grouping gets ported over.
Brave as a browser is fine for now.
But they’re crypto bros with concerning views and it’s just yet another chromium browser.
We really have an issue with the monoculture of web browsers.
