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UnGoogled Chromium: Chromium with enhanced privacy, control and transparency

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Re: UnGoogled Chromium: Chromium with enhanced privacy, control and transparency

#131

Post by ashark »

alphapapa wrote: post #77
callahad wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you please tell me more about your experience? The core Firefox / Gecko repos can be a bit conservative and slow to accept patches, but subprojects like Firefox Accounts / Sync, Devtools, Rust / Servo, browser.html, TestPilot, etc. tend have much lower friction while still affecting the direction of Firefox. As an example, we recently replaced the JavaScript debugger with one written in HTML instead of XUL, usi…

I mean, just look at the recent "3rd Generation bug" story here on HN, a bug which was originally reported by a man who is deceased, and is now affecting his grandchildren. There are plenty of 10-15 year-old bugs on Bugzilla. And we all know how Mozilla is fond of pulling the "advocacy" card and locking bug reports. "To the forums with you!" they say--where discussions can be ignored and deleted even more easily. On…

People who loved Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox lost their browser when 2.0 came out. I still trusted the project then, but in hindsight it's clear that was the turning point. They got too feature-hungry and changed too much at once, adding tons of bloat in the process. There's no well-supported multi-platform lightweight open-source browser now. Just doesn't exist. I'm hoping Servo's allowed to fill that niche at least for a while, but I'm not holding my breath.

Re: UnGoogled Chromium: Chromium with enhanced privacy, control and transparency

#132

Post by shabbyrobe »

ams6110 wrote: post #91
echelon wrote: post #82

Is there a decent alternative to Chrome on Android? I am absolutely, nauseatingly sick of ads on mobile. Almost every news website I visit fills the browser with full screen ads that are infuriatingly difficult to close, change the scrolling behavior and viewport in an entirely unusable way, or try to launch Google Play Store links in the background. It's so annoying, and definitely to the point of being one of my to…

I use Firefox on Android, with uBlock Origin plugin. It's not perfect. There are deviations from the usual "Material Design" UI standards. Some sites don't render properly. It's slower. But it's worth it to me.

A user agent switcher helps too. Google intentionally hobble their own websites (can't access search tools, for example) if you use Firefox, but changing the user agent made things work well for me. YMMV of course, but I used the "Android Phone" setting in the "Phony" extension for years and had far fewer problems than I had using a Firefox user agent.

Re: UnGoogled Chromium: Chromium with enhanced privacy, control and transparency

#133

Post by SquareWheel »

nixos wrote: post #108
fowlerpower wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how corporate marketing works. For a long time I used to really love their products and their processes. Maybe it was when they got rid of "don't be evil" but at some point they started turning into just another corporation. A corporation with a ton of resources and a ton of people's information. Anyway I don't want to go into a rant but lately everything they do even the open source stuff is just to furth…

As far as I remember, it was around when Google+ came out. Google started as a technology company for nerds. Remember when Google broke all "rules" when their website was a simple image, input, and two buttons? Then they were into open standards, tech innovation, and where the company was run by engineers, and not media people (see Yahoo). The result was a focus on UX and not design. Unfortunately, around when Google…

>remember when most apps put out by Google were open source?

Most still are. Look at their github. They release an insane amount of OS code.

https://github.com/google/

https://github.com/chromium/

The only thing they really don't open source are web services (Gmail, search) - probably both for competitive reasons but also because it ties in too deeply with their infrastructure.

Chromium and Android being their two largest projects are OS though, and thousands of tools and libraries that they've built. Also TensorFlow, their newest machine learning library.

Re: UnGoogled Chromium: Chromium with enhanced privacy, control and transparency

#134

Post by sowrabh »

NeutronBoy wrote: post #4

While I applaud the effort that's gone into this, I urge people to consider (and use and contribute to!) Firefox. It's one of the last truly open-source browsers - both in terms of source code visibility (which Chrome(ium) has), and in terms of being able to contribute (which Chrome(ium) has not).

My problem with using Firefox is the extensions. Though one of my faves is Firefox exclusive(Yes, Downthemall!), but some of the other useful extensions(like Google Dictionary and it's alternatives for Firefox are crap) are not available for Firefox and that often pulls me back to chrome after some time.

Re: UnGoogled Chromium: Chromium with enhanced privacy, control and transparency

#136

Post by ocdtrekkie »

quickben wrote: post #72
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to. But as a recent and former Firefox user, the performance just wasn't there. Both Edge and Chrome are significantly faster. I'm hoping electrolysis helps greatly in this regard. I'll be happy to switch back.

Just out of curiosity, what are you using the browser for that one is noticeably slower than the other?

Just general web browsing. The big hindrance was that combined thread for UI and rendering. For example, the old version of Google+ had an average page load time of twelve seconds. During that time, Firefox's entire UI would seize (Windows would mark it as "Not responding" until the page load completed.) You couldn't even go look at another tab or something in the meantime.

Re: UnGoogled Chromium: Chromium with enhanced privacy, control and transparency

#137

Post by yabatopia »

Larrikin wrote: post #127
Pharylon wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wish Firefox for Android played nice with other apps. I mean, I like that it has AdBlock, but no, Firefox, I don't want to open that YouTube link in Firefox.

Firefox includes the android app button in the URL bar for easily switching from Firefox.

Wow, thanks for the tip. I've been using Firefox on Android for years and never noticed that. I've immediately tried it out and it works fantastic. One more reason to keep on using Firefox!

Re: UnGoogled Chromium: Chromium with enhanced privacy, control and transparency

#138

Post by tnone »

Frondo wrote: post #128
gnarbarian wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They fired a founder for retroactive wrongthink (post ex facto). That's pretty disturbing. Hard to trust someone like that. Meanwhile, Google doesn't return results for guns in the shopping section. So I get to search a bunch of sites and call people like i'm on astalavista in 1998. Sad Truth: both companies inject a brand of exclusionary (read: discriminatory) politics into their products. I don't trust either.

Eich resigned because his political views made it difficult for him to continue doing his job. He wasn't imprisoned, nothing was done to him with the force of law. He just had/has unpopular views and accepted the consequences of holding those views. I struggle to see how the world could be arranged such that we could all hold forth with controversial views, but such that there was never a consequence to holding those…

Funny how at the same time, those spouting this tired refrain scream bloody murder when this logic is applied to themselves rather than the usual punching bags.

"Never" is a strawman, but I imagine that would be a world where academia doesn't feel a need to protect its students from ideas, and where people of different viewpoints can work alongside each other instead of shaming groupthink into existence.

Re: UnGoogled Chromium: Chromium with enhanced privacy, control and transparency

#139

Post by xelxebar »

Tangentially related, but I'm curious why non-Firefox and non-Chromium browsers don't get more love.

Started trying out alternative browsers a while ago--vimb, dwb, and luakit--and enjoyed their snappiness and customizability.

Recently, however, I discovered uzbl and fell in love. It feels like everthing a shell for the web should be.

I am unsure whether I should be worried about security pr something though. Would love to hear others' input!

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