My main corcern with Chromium derived browsers is that goolag will have put hooks in the browser that assist their spying. Take the /e/ browser. It will run javascript forever, even if the browser is closed. It does not take much browsing to open a website with goolag javascript trackers on it. These will keep on sending messages home (hourly in my checks on my /e/ phone). You can stop the browser, they still keep going. To stop them I had to power cycle the phone. I could not find a setting in the /e/ browser to āstop execution of javascript on closeā or similar. These days I have javascript disabled, but that does break websites. I have not tested a Mozilla offering for this behavior.
It was born on the very principle of free/libre code. Firefox has everything to do with free license and code. It is not just about open code, which could still be restricted with a rather non-free license.
Firefox was always free as in freedom and still is. It rose from the corporate death of Netscape during Web browser wars.
2 Likes
nothing is free in the world. There is always a way, you are paying for.
We are not talking price here. Price is secondary. It is not free and in free beer. It is free as in freedom. It is libre and not gratis. Yes, it is not developed in segregation. A lot of contributors have helped with their unpaid time and/or monetary donations throughout its journey.
1 Like
Yes, it applies to Chromium. Google wonāt contribute for fun. This is not how corporations work.
1 Like
Paying doesnāt mean sacrificing whatever you treasure. Privacy isnāt important to some guys, so they pay privacy for Micr0s0ft and goolagās gratis services, we people here treasure privacy and fear their control over us, so we pay our convenience, our trust,our money, our support, our faith in SOFTWARE FREEDOM, our time and energy( if you have sufficient skills ), to FSF, to GNU/Linux, to KDE, to Disroot, to Purism, /e/, and many others.
I admit their software are not that hi-quality, not that full-featured, not that stable/beautiful/user-friendly against most proprietary software, and their services may not that reliable, not that affordable/worth the money, not competitive against those from those tech-giants, BUT! If you take that too much youāre miss your point being here: We are here for Freedom, for Privacy, for escaping from tech-giantsā control. What we PAID is our FAITH.
I saw your post saying Mozilla is mining your data with their mobile browser, I wonder if you ever tried to find a different build? Apk downloading sites could modify the packages, you know? And if you find a free software project suspicious, donāt just suspect (and slander) it! Go and investigate it yourself, if you find problems then report it, usually to the team first, then the community, then the public. As the saying goes, āLeaving negative comments helps nothing, open a ISSUE!ā
*Thatās also for those ewwlo guys, āthanksā for being an armchair criticizer!
In case someone is interested in those projects, I leave some links here.
Purism Disroot
6 Likes
Iām using PureOS on my laptop and since an hour on my pinePhone 
Same pinch. I cannot afford a pinephone as of now.
1 Like
Any Intel only 4th gen or 5th gen laptop with Atheros Wifi chip [with support for free drivers] should work just fine.
I never had any issues with Dell Inspiron 3542.
āIt [Firefox] was born on the very principle of free/libre codeā
I wishfully read āI was born on the very principle of free/libre codeā
1 Like
Have tried firefox preview from /e/ Apps, really many trackers (leanplum and goolag FB)and found no way to access add-ons, but the experience is really great (dark theme! superb!). If /e/ can get Firefox preview down, removed all trackers and install a custom theme, it will be a super edge to other ROMs (the first ROM that comes with FF preview!)
2 Likes
I really think that \ e \ needs its own browser.
I honestly donāt know its security/privacy grade, but Iām actually using Lightening:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/acr.browser.lightning/
Hope that inspires.
2 Likes
In some ways, a webview-based browser would make sense as a default. Privacy Browser, Lightning, Duck Duck Go, Via, heck even Yuzu [
] (directly or forks thereof) would do. No Gello, Jelly, or jQuarks ofc (tried to like the latter but couldnāt). Couple are privacy oriented and would be sitting atop the Bromite-based WebView. Solid.
Would fill the bill for a default browser without belonging to either base that causes so much endless debate.
Wonāt happen but still.
We can apply a social approach, on top of the technical, I figure. We need;
Psychological Ergonomics.
I.e. Sufficient level of.seamlessness regarding look 'n feel. Speed. Ease of reading. Few unneeded distractions from UI.
General scope.
I.e. What real utility the browser is capable to do. Wich abilities, on desktop computers typically handled by browser, can be fully aligned in the mobile browser, not by mobile-apps? A foss webview like Bromite System Webview, might be lighter on resource load compared to a wast array of apps. Examples; Mail. Online payment. Logins. Authorisation. Uploading.
Trustworthiness.
I.e. Is my device really on my side? This is a major hotspot, a user who have taken the steps and efforts to install and tryout /e/, is, probably a user reluctant to the all to constant spray of interests, normally present in our dire devices.
Summary
This text will be hidden
At first I thought that Bromite/Chromium was used because it negated the need for AOSP WebView. But no, AOSP WebView is in fact used by this distribution. What is the excuse for using Chromium instead of Firefox or WebKit then? So much for this super-duper-serious Google boycott.
This is a really complex topic and I think the /e/ developpers are just trying to find the best browser that is not leaking data. Bromite has a really serious advantage over Firefox in that case. Bromite does not call home. Yes, Bromite is based on chromium of Google but it is still a fork and not the same software.
Mozilla is working on the mobile version of Firefox these days, so maybe there will be a change.
Also, I would like to point that Firefox on android was really inefficient before and was not really an interesting choice in my opinion.
3 Likes
Yes, Firefox does feel heavy BUT all the addons and config settings that you can do on your desktop such as ublock origin, https, decentraleyes, darkreader & disabling webrtc is available on the mobile version.
I still think bromite is good too.
1 Like
Also take not that the webview in the system is based on Bromite WebView. So not as much of an issue as you make it out to be.
Hi all.
As a GNU-Linux user, I prefer Firefox and use Icecat + ublock origin with my /e/phone. But the most of the web (forum, blog, siteā¦ even Public Administrations , in France) has been developed with gg tools (and JS 
) and surf is more difficult with FF : links need to try two or three times to launch, sometimes login is impossible (Enedis, for example), https-timeout are very commonā¦
With all techs, itās pretty difficult to live out of the mainstream (and try to escape to monopolies). /e/browser has to be easily useful for common users ; Bromite is certainly an easier (faster) way for /e/devsā¦
4 Likes
Yes, google is trying to set internet standards so everyone is forced to use google products otherwise things just wonāt work. Thatās their idea of the internet. I think google is evil. Bromite is probably the easiest to use for regular users.
1 Like