Have you tried the "Opera" browser, it also has a dark design and free VPN. www.opera.com

 

The perfect setup for web browsing is:

I actually use 4 browsers at he same time: Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Opera

I have to say after like 6 years of having these Brave is the best in terms of it doesn't need any extension to block youtube ads & somehow when you are browsing it ignores the crap when you click on a link saving you internet speed-traffic so sites or youtube videos load up much more quickly
At second place it's Chrome it's my go to & the most reliable it's not as fast as Brave and needs adblockers & extensions so it's slower but there are some websites with hardware acceleration which works perfect with Chrome & lags inside Brave

Firefox and Opera: they are just for addition "experiment browsers" so if I have to visit "certain sites"....ofcourse I'm not gonna use Chrome which is my main browser my personal email, etc...important stuff behind it
Opera is just for the free VPN a few sites I can't view because of country regulation/access block so the VPN bypasses

The most important thing before using-trying out different browsers is to optimize your PC or Mac
This might sound advanced but nah you have to do just a few simple things & everything is available for free

1. start with your hosts file, search hosts file (I'm using for almost a decade now "somewonewhocares"'s hosts file he is updating it like weekly so like every 3 months I replace my hosts file with his yeah there's a website called someonewhocares) & ofcourse add your hosts lines to it whatever you need & save it

2. Set your Network adapter up correctly (you can google this as well things like: "best performance IPV4 settings" or "best network adapter settings")

3. Download ISLC (free Intelligent Standby List Cleaner) to use the correct values on your machine again google or youtube it "Setup ISLC"
Basically this software reduces system latency & speeds up your USB peripherials so your keyboard and mouse becomes more responsive (or if you have a MIDI controller it'll reduce audio latency as well when you play on your MIDI keyboard it'll feel better) when you for example click on a link or do any system operation

4. Download DNS Jumper (it's a free tool) just run it and there's an option to "Flush DNS" so sometimes after using your internet/browsing is good to do a DNS flush it cleans things up and you'll notice how much responsive websites become
Other very important thing with DNS Jumper is: it has a server testing function based on your location "which DNS server is the fastest & close to you" & with the test you can get your personal best adapter settings & apply from the software
For example for me DNS Jumper gives the best result with 8.8.8.8______8.8.4.4 (you just press "Fastest DNS" and you can do the speed test)
I get like 3ms latency (it's very good for FPS shooters-gaming but for browsing as well)

That's all you don't need more stuff it's very simple ofcourse every PC or Mac is different so Firefox might be faster for some people you have to do your own test

 

LibreWolf for me. It's basically what ungoogled-chromium is to chrome. Mozilla isn't as user-friendly as they used to be and they added a lot of bloat and tracking to Firefox. Which is not surprising, considering Mozilla is financed by Google at this point, who is pressuring them into not supporting certain features, such as JPEGXL support, and supporting others that Google wants them support.

Firefox used to be the king of browsers before Chrome came around, but nowadays, Google is deliberately keeping it small and irrelevant.

 

Firefox. No, really. Firefox. Just get it and try it, you don't have to make it your main browser at first. Look through all the extensions available, uBlock origin is essential. There's an extension for anything you could want if you're coming from Chrome. Tweak about:config (turning off disk cache if you have 16 GB RAM really speeds things up!) and get rid of all the connections to Google (safe browsing, etc). If you want something more secure then use Tor, which is based on Firefox. Brave, Opera, Edge, and Chrome are all not secure browsers, they all track you. Nothing worse than Edge, it reports everything to MS during updates.

 

A small rant about Firefox, feel free to ignore...

Before we start with "Firefox doesn't track", let me just say that's bullshit, if you parse through these official statements you see that they indeed do, and don't get me started about the various kinds of (ok, mostly benign kinds) telemetry that's baked in and set on by default.

But first:

Improving online advertising through product and infrastructure
Introducing Anonym: Raising the bar for privacy-preserving digital advertising

"Anonym was founded in 2022 by former Facebook executives Brad Smallwood and Graham Mudd."

But hey, appearances matter and seriously, I bet they're trying real hard to not to harvest any data or anything...

Don't believe me? just go to about:config and search for "telemetry"

The latest (131.0.3) already has a "AI chatbot" option, though not switched on by default... yet.

Ok, rant over. Back to gam... Ableton.

 

AI-based chatbot integration for Firefox.

Mozilla is experimenting with an AI-based chatbot integration for Firefox. A special feature is that Mozilla is not committing to one provider, but rather giving the user the choice between various providers, including Google Gemini and ChatGPT. But local AI can also be used, for example via Mozilla's llamafile.

Users of a nightly version of Firefox will soon be able to activate an optional chatbot integration in Firefox. This will not be activated by default and will initially remain limited to nightly versions, i.e. will not be delivered in Firefox Beta or final Firefox versions, while Mozilla improves the functionality and collects feedback via its community platform Mozilla Connect.

More experienced users can also use about:config to configure their own prompts for the context menu or another compatible chatbot, such as Mozilla's llamafile, which can also be used to run open source models locally on the device. Since the latter is a bit more complicated, Mozilla is currently still looking into how they can offer an easy-to-set-up option for a completely local chatbot in the future.
www.soeren-hentzschel.at/firefox/gemini-chatgpt-lokale-ki-chatbot-integration-in-firefox/
https://www-soeren--hentzschel-at.t...l=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Firefox - Telemetry collection and deletion
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/telemetry-clientid

 

Last edited: Oct 19, 2024

Google Chrome transmits telemetry data via secret extension - July 10, 2024

The developer Luca Casonato discovered a new method from Google Chrome to transfer its users' data regarding the CPU, GPU and memory consumption of the browser tabs to Google. The transfer runs via a browser extension that is hidden in the list of extensions. What's interesting is that the transfer only takes place when visiting google.com. For all other websites, the programming interface does not even respond.

Casonato notes that this also runs counter to the idea of net neutrality, which every browser should actually have its own. If Google Chrome is already transmitting data secretly and without asking, then the same law should apply to everyone, writes the open source enthusiast at X (formerly Twitter).

The same behavior also discovered in Brave and Edge

The source code of the extension can be viewed here. The extension cannot be switched off. Casonato discovered exactly the same behavior in Brave and Microsoft Edge. It is not yet known whether the web browser Vivaldi or other clones of Chrome are also affected.

https://tarnkappe.info/artikel/inte...iedaten-ueber-geheime-erweiterung-298491.html

 

Both Firefox and Chrome have Telemetry, and it can be disabled to a degree..

Similarly as with Windows 10/11,
there's not much point in disabling all telemetry in telemetry based software,
(in Windows you can do it to a degree, but if done fully the system breaks..)

That's why I relegate Chrome/Throrium for YT/Videos and leave telemetry on.

But use Firefox for browsing with performance/gpu optimizations and most (known) telemetry disabled.

The next logical step could be using LibreWolf I guess..

 

Last edited: Oct 19, 2024

Thanks for this valuable information, I will try it out. Here is the link: https://librewolf.net

 

Last edited: Oct 19, 2024

Firefox synced on all devices. Why? Because I do that since 20 years. And I do not put any energy in changing the browser.

 

KATE MIDDLETONS CUSTOM web browser
- no spam no ads
- safe witout virus
- free vpn
-

 

Why don't you translate this page too? https://www.soeren-hentzschel.at/firefox/kommentar-finger-weg-von-librewolf/

 

I tried but google translator couldn't translate it, I tried again - now it worked!

https://www-soeren--hentzschel-at.t...l=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

 

Since google started that ad-wars bullsh##t I'm using Firefox. If Firefox could at least solve the Titanic RAM hunger would be nice. For me, Firefox is the best. Everything is the same as it was in chrome, all my data from google is saved, my Ublock filters are all saved too, I don't even remember any ads. For me is crazy when I see my friends watching youtube with a bunch of ads in safari or chrome in 2024.

 

Vivaldi with Firefox bacup

 

Other interesting browsers:
Iron - Chromium based with enhanced privacy

Lunascape - Good for web devs, with 3 rendering engines:
Gecko (Firefox), WebKit (Safari), and Trident (MS IExplorer).

Ladybird - Upcoming "truly independent" browser set to revolutionize internet?

 

Last edited: Oct 20, 2024

Still using Opera, just for regular old browsing with no crazy extensions. Recently a few news sites I like to read have gone the subscription route. When you click a article link, it opens the page and when you move your mouse pointer at all; they grey out and prevent you from reading. Opera's save to pdf function downloads the unblocked article anyway, so you can just read it then delete. Maybe other browsers do the same thing.

 

1. long time Firefox user and Netscape before that.
2. Opera for its free VPN. I used to have VPN subs but figured the one in Opera is enough for my needs these days
3. Vivaldi - just got into it but still lack of a lot of features I love in Firefox. One being weak picture in picture mode. Wrote to the dev team few times but no response.
4. Edge - I think this is the best browser around with its AI integration, OS integration, tabs management and so much more. I think it's pretty too but can't get around it just yet, maybe in the future. RAM hog tho because of it, plus it's Chromium based, which also make it having the highest compatibility rating for websites.

 

I don't think there's a built-in feature in any browser to bypass paywalls, there are some extensions though. To me they're pretty hit-n-miss but it's nice to have a one click solution.

It's a hassle but I copy the URL to https://archive.ph which works 95% of the time and I get a nice shareable link out of it.