this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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The title is err, not correct because the top 2 alternatives Opera and Arc are based on Chromium engine. I have seen tons of people swear by Arc, but I am seriously asking (since as a Linux user I can't use it), how much good can a browser be in this day and age if ultimately it's ad blocking breaks and it will since Manifest v2 will go soon(unless Arc folks have a solution for it)

The rest alternatives are Firefox, Zen (FF fork but honestly Atleast this was something new I learned from this article) and Tor (which is weird since it is not meant for normal web browsing and using it will not only be slow but put additional strain on the nodes, correct me if I am wrong).

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[–] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 107 points 3 days ago (12 children)

I switched from Firefox to Floorp and haven't looked back. Less bloated, same features, haven't found an extension that isn't compatible yet.

Same with Fennec on Android.

This article is pretty poor overall. Why recommend Arc, a browser that requires a user account to even open a webpage, and which the author himself said will probably be disappearing in the near future as part of their own product strategy?

Lame clickbait aimed at nobody.

[–] IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Why did you go with Floorp vs the other FF forks? Just curious.

[–] clot27@lemm.ee 13 points 3 days ago

For me, librewolf focuses too much on privacy sacrificing features, I personally dont like zen's design. There's others like waterfox but didnt tried them

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[–] trueheresy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This is interesting as I've not even heard of Floorp and alternatives have been such a hot topic the last month between manifest v3 and firefoxes updated terms fiasco.

Can I ask, what for you had you opt for floorp vs the more commonly mentioned alternatives like Librewolf, Waterfox, etc.?

[–] aqua_cat@pawb.social 10 points 3 days ago

I at least switched to Floorp for more customization options and funny name, but back then Floorp also had vertical tabs and side-dock before any other Firefox fork (afaik).

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[–] klu9@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Have you tried Firedragon? Floorp-based but with some eye candy and privacy enhancements. (Linux only at the moment)

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[–] Madbrad200@sh.itjust.works 95 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] Darken@reddthat.com 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This list to me feels like AI trying to average the commoner internet

And the comments here really show it

[–] chonkyninja@lemmy.world 53 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Opera is and always was trash.

[–] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 98 points 3 days ago (6 children)

I beg to differ, when Opera had its own engine and wasn't Chinese owned - back in the early '00s.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Opera also was a good alternative on Symbian phones right or whatever OS Nokia used before they switched to Windows Phone, I think.

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[–] kobra@lemm.ee 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

this era of the internet was such a fun time.

[–] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 10 points 3 days ago

I suspect that we may be looking back with rose tinted glasses, but the main stream internet is pretty crap atm

[–] Damage@feddit.it 17 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Opera was so good. Disable images, force custom CSS, gestures! Stuff no one else had at the time.

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[–] tomjuggler@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

Yeah I was 100% Opera on desktop and mobile until they switched to chromium and broke everything from before. Still pissed about that, lost all my bookmarks and notes at one point.

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[–] klu9@lemmy.ca 26 points 3 days ago (4 children)

As someone who used Opera 2002-2013 (Presto era), I quibble with the "always".

But I do not quibble with the "is".

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 days ago

Many sites have become worse. I think stuff like Cnet, PCMag (which still has a digital magazine I think)were much better in the previous era.

[–] Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 3 days ago

Yep. Dont use Opera. They are known for being an incredibly scummy company that has done illegal things. Im 98% sure opera gx is spyware

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[–] Brotha_Jaufrey@lemmy.world 46 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Great opportunity to mention Brave is owned by a dipshit right-wing homophobe.

[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

And funded by a right-wing billionaire who owns the largest corporate intelligence agency on the planet. Your data is not safe with Brave.

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[–] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Always has been.

Right beside the fact that their monetary model relies on user activity tracking. Yet they advertise privacy.

A browser that had a seemingly unlimited budget for advertising before it even had users is suspicious as hell.

I've never trusted brave.

[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 38 points 3 days ago (4 children)
[–] natch@lemmy.today 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Honestly I wish Kagi would build their own full Firefox fork and maintain it independently. I already pay for search, I wouldn't mind paying for my browser if it actually respected me!

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

mullvad's browser is based on firefox.

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[–] Viri4thus@feddit.org 35 points 3 days ago

ZDnet 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 24 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Eww opera, at least it's slightly better than opera gx

Edit: TOR? I stopped treating this guy seriously once I read this. Nobody uses TOR for regular browsing. They're full of shit.

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[–] Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world 24 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Zen browser is really nice imo. The developers update it very frequently.

One drawback is that it lacks widevine support, which means that things like netflix won’t work.

[–] Propheticus@lemmy.zip 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Zen looks nice and some of the UX concepts (workspaces, glance, split sidebar from vertical tabs) work well. The 'fit & finish' and the way changes are pushed (unilaterally? Unvalidated with endusers?) feels very much like a 1 man hobby project though.

[–] jimi_henrik@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I agree, it also has some serious security issues: https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/pull/927

The developer's comment reveals that it has been there since the inception of the project. And there are even more privacy / security issues mentioned in the comments.

Unfortunately Zen browser gets a big fat no from me. 🫤

[–] L_Acacia@lemmy.ml 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

It's not a backdoor, it just enabled Firefox's remote debugging tool by default, which is necessary if you want to modify the chrome of the browser on your own computer.

At the time it was in one of its first alpha, sure it was naive to ship a browser with it enabled because it was convenient for development, but it was fixed 1 week after the issue was raised, and has been for months.

They use the release candidate to test upcoming Firefox releases and see if it breaks anything, to be able to ship the update on the same day as FF (just like the majority of other forks do). None of the patches they make require extra telemetry except for their "mod" system. Most of the criticism Zen gets about "security" applies to every browser except librewolf and tor. Zen is as secure as firefox is.

All this is coming from someone who doesn't use Zen, as my workflow is constantly broken by their UI changes and bugs (which is the main problem with the browser).

[–] SMillerNL@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Most of the criticism Zen gets about "security" applies to every browser except librewolf and tor. Zen is as secure as firefox is.

Most browsers don’t claim to be more privacy conscious than all the others and leave all the telemetry enabled when they do.

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[–] lemon@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 days ago (7 children)

I’ve really been enjoying Vivaldi. It’s also Chromium-based. It’s easy to customize and it has really good tab management. You can group tabs into workspaces, open split panes, and – this one I really appreciate – you can stack tabs by domain. Added bonus is that the company behind it, Vivaldi Technologies, is Norwegian, which ticks the ‘shop European’ box for me.

As for ad blocking, the shittiness of manifest v3 made me look at options outside the browser rather than rely on extensions. These days I pass all my traffic through adguard, which filters out ads from the request responses. All in all this has been a positive step, because now I can play around with any browser without ever seeing ads.

[–] lemon@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Gotta say, it’s kind of a bummer to be downvoted for sharing my own experience. Are those ‘disagree’ or ‘doesn’t contribute to discussion’ votes?

[–] lemmeBe@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

Don't take it to heart, bro. I saw people downwoting for an honest "thanks". 😄

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[–] reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

DNS blocking (such as AdGuard) doesn't work for everything. Ad blocking extensions are the only way to block YouTube ads in your browser as far as I know.

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[–] wingsfortheirsmiles@feddit.uk 7 points 3 days ago

I like Vivaldi but all the manifest V3 stuff just pushed me to Librewolf for everything whether it works or not, so maybe I should "thank" Google

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[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ironically, I could not reach the end of the list because the fucking ads kept reloading the page and scrolling me to the top. Anyone know which of these 6 would block that?

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Anything Firefox based with uBlock origin. Don't see a single ad or anything on mine.

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[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 days ago

Firefox
Firefox
Firefox
Firefox derivatives
...

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Of that list, Zen is the only one really worth considering. And then you have the “but the best one that supports widevine” issue.

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[–] RexWrexWrecks@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This is just a list of browsers with apparently good tab management.

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[–] Engywuck@lemm.ee 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Chrome !=Chromium. The tite is correct.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 12 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Google could close the Chromium source at any time. There might be promises and provisions that they'll never do that, but if they do, who has the money to sue them? And who, of those, can't be bought?

"So what, people can run with the last good codebase!"

Sure, until there's a critical bug that Google don't publish which then cripples Chromium until the maintainers figure it out, or else Google (deliberately or otherwise) take web standards down an unexpected path requiring massive changes, also making life hard for the fork maintainers.

And don't say "that'll never happen". Need I gesture broadly at the state of the world?

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