[Shiunbird]

When it comes to Firefox, I actually use it and try to support them.
They are far from being perfect, but I'd be very sad to see them go and be stuck in a Chromium/Webkit world. Although I use Brave on my work computer.

I've also been experimenting with Qubes OS. Any thoughts?
Runs well on a T480s, but eats RAM like there's no tomorrow (I have 24GB).

[Raion]

Use Waterfox, Pale Moon or another similar Firefox based browser. Don't bother with the upstream, Mozilla is just as bad as Apple and Google.

Monocultures suck, but as even MS has drawn into it we don't have a lot of options.

[jan-jaap]

Use Waterfox

Privacy browser Waterfox appears to be sold to System1, a U.S. pay-per-click ad company that recently bought a majority of the Startpage search engine

[Raion]

I wasn't aware of that, but regardless it hasn't tainted the Waterfox product, which happens to also package it for POWERel systems. That alone makes it worthy compared to the dumpsterfire that is mozilla branded trash.

[Raion]

I very much will be doing a sequel to this guide and I also wanted to say that as of me writing this Elon musk now owns Twitter and it is freaking hilarious to me that a company that has basically become corrupted by big Tech is being bought by one of the few pragmatic individuals that are in the socialite and celebrity sphere.

I am not some rabbit free speech advocate as I have been characterized I've certainly said some things in the past not only on this site but on live discussion boards and such that I no longer stand by.

However I feel like Twitter became a corrupt and toxic place so I'm hoping that Elon does the right thing and unravels that and builds a better platform. However I only have but so much confidence because he is one man and I don't believe in the Elon musk cult. He's a man like everybody else and I agree and disagree with him on a regular basis.

I think it's really important to remember that I've always been searching for the truth of matters and along that journey you sometimes end up shifting your viewpoints. The world is not simply divided into left or right or authoritarian and libertarian but rather it is not quantifiable by such simplistic characteristics. People are wrong. I have been wrong.

With that in mind I'm going to be updating this list eventually because there's a couple of things I'm going to remove in light of recent changes to the world. But all I can say is that there might actually be some content on here that isn't expected wink wink.

[stormy]

I used to use Waterfox until someone mentioned to me that it puts you behind the curve when it comes to security updates. Since you can configure Firefox to be more privacy centered by going through the settings yourself it now makes more sense to be doing that.

[Raion]

That's kind of bullshit. Most of the security issues that browsers have are related to JavaScript interpretation which if you are running your browser correctly or have a good adblock installed (or even moreso, something like noscript with a set of JavaScript whitelists)

Then you are in most cases no more vulnerable than anybody else. I wouldn't say that your argument is a justification, especially when using Mozilla branded builds supports them directly and endorses their behavior. I personally find a lot of their behavior objectionable and so should most people. They're not for internet freedom, or privacy. They're just playing the rhythm guitar while Google has the lead.

Exploits are relative. It entirely depends upon your configuration and usage and just because something is vulnerable in one particular configuration doesn't mean that you should stop using it. Otherwise someone would argue we should be running GNU/Linux or BSD on our IRIX boxes.

[stormy]

Mmmm. I don't know what is bullshit about it, makes sense to me. You get quicker security updates 'as they happen' by running standard Firefox. That's quite factual, even if you don't agree with the importance of the updates.

Also by running a derivitive of Firefox is still supporting Mozilla by the way. It's still Firefox.

[Raion]

Mmmm. I don't know what is bullshit about it, makes sense to me. You get quicker security updates 'as they happen' by running standard Firefox. That's quite factual, even if you don't agree with the importance of the updates.

You can and should read between the lines when security issues from browsers come about. E.g.

https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2022-0808/

This clearly only applies to ChromeOS, which uses Chrome extensively as part of itrs OS components. Similarly, JavaScript or other vulnerabilities only matter when your configuration exposes an attack vector. I use Noscript on most of my browsers.

Also by running a derivitive of Firefox is still supporting Mozilla by the way. It's still Firefox.

Waterfox uses a substantially different codebase. It retains NPAPI, removes all telemetry, etc. The classic fork uses XUL and XPCOM. You're not supporting Mozilla.

And sure, none of Mozilla's shitty behavior is necessarily affecting you (being a British person) but you should be conscious of how your decisions and actions affect others regardless, even if it's a tradeoff at best.

Moreover,what are you doing on a web browser that's so imperative that you're worried about 0-day vulnerabilities? Are you browsing foreign sites or sites without proven security records? I'm not worried about it because I keepy browsing mostly narrow and focused on things I can trust. My banking? I do most of it offline.

[vishnu]

I don't use noscript, I use the hosts file from https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/ - but I can't say one way or the other if it's better. It works pretty well for me but, like raion, I don't visit very many websites. Probably not even a dozen.