I use Firefox. I don't like the changes but I don't want to use any downstream browsers and I don't think any of the not-downstream alternatives do better.
this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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They are better in most of the case, Firefox only is not that good...
Maybe it's just me, but I can't really see how they can be better beyond philosophical reasons.
I guess bringing back stuff like the proper dropdown menu we had in the 2000s would be an example, but I don't expect most of them to do something like that.
I expect most of them to have some kind of gimmick that isn't relevant to how I use a web browser.
Privacy, simply better, better anti-fingerprinting. Sure you can do it with stock Firefox but it's just simpler to have a pre-hardened browser
What privacy and fingerprinting concerns are there with Firefox?
simply better
Lol. That's not a reason, ya goof.
Explore the Arkenfox user.js and you'll see all things that can be improved in Firefox
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I just don't care for downstream projects on browsers, with software so critical I want to get the updates in as fast as possible. I know some of those mentioned in OP had issues with that in the past. And not much reason to anyway for me to switch, Firefox works perfectly fine for me, so there's not much added benefit.
Understand your point of view but in fact the 2 problems you mentioned are mainly not problems :
1 - Updates? The main downstream browsers received updates the same time as Firefox the same day and sometime the same hour
2 - Benefits? The benefits are mainly under the hood, removing Mozilla telemetry and annoying features (account, pocket...) AND the biggest advantages are the gain in term of privacy due the increase of anti fingerprinting methods
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Librewolf & waterfox are fantastic. Zen is interesting but it takes some work if you are used to firefox/Librewolf. Ladybird isn't out yet 🫠
Firefox. Google removed a valuable addon from their store without justifiable reason and kept it removed because there's not sufficient backlash.
The addon is AdNauseam. It's an improvement on uBlock Origin that clicks ads in addition to hiding them.
Zen Browser I love it :)
I use Librewolf as my daily driver, however it breaks a lot of websites. We had to purchase plane tickets yesterday and to use regular Firefox.
I was super hyped for Ladybird but there was this weird thing regarding pronouns on their docs (last year?) and no matter the outcome, I just decided to not follow it anymore.
I have Chromium installed for things that break even on regular Firefox and for comparing websites when I need.
On mobile (grapheneOS), I am currently using Firefox Nightly, I think because it was the only one I was able to install extensions from custom repositories, I am not sure if that's still the case. I know I can (and should use) Vanadium, but I always miss my FF extensions when I do it. I play a lot of things so I love when I am automatically redirected from Fandom to a Breeze wiki instance, for example.
I never tried any other browsers of the list, and honestly I am very curious on the differences between Librewolf and Waterfox. Wasn't able to do the research by myself yet.
LibreWolf
Starting yesterday unfortunately Chrome and not Firefox. I just need a working web browser and haven't had the time to figure out what is wrong with my Firefox installation. I have no clue why but after updating to firefox 135 it eats up all my RAM (20GB+) and uses a significant amount of CPU while idle with only the process monitor tab open. Attempting to browse is unreasonably slow. Refreshing Firefox did nothing, despite now having a Firefox installation which isn't logged into anything and has no extensions. So I figured that if I'm going to deal with a browser not logged into anything it might as well be Chrome for a bit until I can figure out what the problem is since that's what all of the internet is designed to work with lately.
I use Mullvad Browser. It's maintained in coordination with the Tor Project, and is essentially the Tor Browser with Tor itself stripped out. Same browser fingerprinting protections, however, among other things.
EDIT: I'd like to clarify that this has nothing to do with my trust in Mozilla or Firefox itself, especially not concerning recent panics about benign changes. I still use Firefox on the side, it just does not have fingerprinting protections by default, and hardening it manually leads to minor differences between user configurations (even with Arkenfox if that's still around) that is solved by Mullvad Browser for me. I use Mullvad Browser for my main browsing, and Firefox for specific exceptions. Firefox itself is fine, and no, Mozilla is not burning it to the ground.
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Zen for regular activities (I pin all important services), Firefox for browsing for something else.
GNU IceCat is also amazing as concept, but generally unusable since it ends up blocking too much and manually allowing everything is a hassle. But still, the pages that work are clean, and I love that by default the browser doesn't do anything without your permission - it doesn't even connect to update and telemetry services, it has 0 connections on startup, unlike almost anything (qutebrowser does the same, but, unless you are a strong Vim fanboy, you won't like the experience).
Apparently, Floorp is another Firefox fork. Has anyone tried this?
I use Floorp as my main browser! I like it, it's very customisable and kind of weirdly Japanese lol
How so?
Assuming you mean the "weirdly Japanese" part - it's hard to say exactly, but it's made by a small team in Japan and just a kind of vaguely Japanese vibe to it somehow. Sorry I know that's not very helpful lol
Haha, I’ve tried it out but haven’t noticed any Japanese feelings to it. Would like to know if you later put words to it :)
I use Floorp, it's balanced well between looks and privacy, you can't even enable data collection if you wanted to
Brave, FOSS. Because it's the best one I have found for my use case. Been using it since 2021, after some 20 years with FF. No regrets.
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I moved to LibreWolf back when Mozilla announced AI features
I appreciate its privacy-focused approach
Been using zen for a few days with ublock, no issues so far but I might go back to librewolf soon even though it feels less modern. It just feels safer, idk tbh
Mostly fennec (firefox) on android but there are concerning news every half year about firefox. No idea how long I can withstand.
Vanadium is my alternative but it has no (good) browser tab overview (list instead of huge squares). And bottom navigation is sub par as well. Brave would be better in that regard but vanadium is rock solid.
As soon as firefox drops ublock, I'm out. For me, that day is still far away, but I guess it's inevitable. You can't trust firefox not chaning their path anymore. :'( .
Everything is just a skin of either Chrome or Firefox. Until recently, all browser on iPhone were a skin of Safari. Ladybird is the exception.
Gnome browser and Konqueror are WebKit based like safari is
Despite my issues with it, I use Chrome. It's simply too integrated into my life. But I just saw (like 2 minutes ago) from another thread here about Zen Browser and maaaan is it nice.
Zen is good. Arc is decent if you must have a chromium browser for some reason, but not OSS
IMO, if I'm going to jump from Chrome it might as well be for libre/OSS. No reason to just from proprietary to proprietary.
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i've been using firefox and its predecessors since the very beginning, all the way back to pre-release navigator.
i do have (and have always had) other browsers installed (using 'portable' installations of them, mostly, these days). currently those include vivaldi, opera, librewolf and waterfox. at least one of which is added along side firefox on each desktop (most often also with a firefox dev edition). these are mostly for testing but also to separate specific online tasks into their own browser. the chromium-based ones are used for very specific things requiring addons that don't work well or at all with firefox.
unless i need to in order to assist a client, i do not use chrome as provided by google, and i do not use edge from microsoft except for its primary function: downloading another browser when i don't have a flash drive handy with its installer already downloaded and saved to it.
having actually read the policy documents in question and considering the intent and purpose of the changes that mozilla is making, i have no plans on changing my primary browser.
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Trivalent, i.e. "a hardened chromium for desktop Linux inspired by Vanadium". Vanadium, for the uninitiated, is the browser found on GrapheneOS; the most secure and privacy-friendly/conscious OS for phones.
I gave up on firefox 1 year ago and went to the dark side with Brave. I am really happy with it even tho part of it is closed source.
Uninstalled firefox yesterday. Trying out vivaldi, the company lead has a history of advocacy. Might give librewolf a go soon, need a browser that ping pongs mobile and desktop seamlessly, has ad blocks available and a flatpack.
Mullvad browser, simply I used to used hardened Firefox but a pre-hardened one is so much more efficient
FireDragon because it's the version of Firefox that Garuda ships with and I never saw a reason to change from it.
Right now I use mainly Firefox, not because I like it but because it comes with my distro (whereas LibreWolf requires Flatpak) making it work well with the PWA project and it supports weird hacks necessary to install Widevine on my system so I can listen to Tidal. I also have LibreWolf installed with data set to delete on close and set up to proxy over Tor and I2P using privoxy and has LibRedirect installed which is set up to redirect to the corresponding onion/i2p domains. I was trying to install Zen Browser using the Guix package manager earlier but had problems, but I might try again later.
On Android, I use Vanadium for sites I stay logged into, Cromite with auto clearing history for other stuff, and Ironfox for Kagi and to use plugins like LibRedirect.
I have only tried Zen from your list and it's been nice so far. The most recent update last night broke something with the multi account containers, but other than that it's been smooth sailing for months.
Ladybird looks promising but it's not out yet. Planning to try switching to it when it's out.
Arc is apparently dead (or dying), but it was chromium based, VC funded, and Zen does most of the same things anyway. https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/24/24279020/browser-company-ai-browser-arc