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The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

davidgerard.co.uk

261–270 of 394 posts

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#261
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Brave because it's a "degoogled" Chrome. Having good blocking built in is a plus. Being able to use Chrome extensions is also a plus. I've tried Firefox many times over the years, and only recently has it gotten to a point where it's fast and nice enough on macOS. There are still corners of the app I dislike (it doesn't always feel like a native app, for example), but this may be a reason to finally switch.

I've been using Brave for this reason too on desktop. I installed opera for the first time in years last week, very nicely surprised. Fast, chrome based browser. The extension bar on the left is a useful add-on. I'll be removing Brave after this news and be using Firefox mainly, with opera as my 2nd browser.

I hope you are aware of Opera's corporate parentage.

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#262
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using Brave for this reason too on desktop. I installed opera for the first time in years last week, very nicely surprised. Fast, chrome based browser. The extension bar on the left is a useful add-on. I'll be removing Brave after this news and be using Firefox mainly, with opera as my 2nd browser.

Consider Vivaldi too. It is closer in spirit to the original Opera IMO.

Both are closed-source, also Opera now owns by Chinese company, which is minefield for privacy.

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is STILL largely funded by Google right? I find it odd that one of Firefox's only features, over Chrome, is privacy, but they're funded by Google who is the anti-hero right now in the privacy space. If Firefox's mission is successful they would lose all their funding.

Mozilla is indirectly funded by Google, yes. They don't have ownership. It's the same way that the NY Times is indirectly funded by Mazda. They pay for ads.

Mozilla is funded by Google and also sends user data to Google:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14753546

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1165858896176660480.html

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#264
post #49
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm quite happy with FF on desktops, but the mobile version is just ... overall a miserable experience compared to Brave. After using it for a while, going back to FF constantly makes me feel like useful QoL features are missing and I end up going back to Brave.

Using FF on mobile, I have no complains.

Firefox is the slowest mobile browser I ever seen.

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but unless you are a heavy Google user I don't see a cap in my performance to work with, GMail for example from time to time or using Drive, etc.

The Google Voice desktop site performs remarkably poorly on Firefox, often locking up entirely.

The Google voice desktop site is a piece of crap on chrome too... Though I totally believe it's way worse on Firefox.

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#266
post #96
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Not sure what else needs to happen to encourage Chromium users to finally give Firefox a try.

Latency. Just tested with a "hello world" page (18ms ping). Chrome takes 102-200ms to render the page, Firefox takes 150-400ms. 1.5 to 2x slower -- and that's after all the performance upgrades they've done with Rust and Quantum. Network inspector says Firefox is spending 150-270ms "blocked" before it even initiates the connection. On Chrome the block is 3-18ms (15-50x (!!) faster). There's also UI lag. When I press…

Also performance issues, especially on Linux. Fan works in ~50% of my laptop usage.

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#267
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except they don’t “maintain the entire browser,” rather, they “maintain” a trimmed-down build.

I'm not sure what distinction you're trying to draw here. The fact that Moonchild has removed some a few features they don't like from Palemoon doesn't make the remaining codebase meaningfully easier to maintain. They're still left with what is effectively an orphaned codebase, increasingly unable to use patches from mainline Firefox, and subject to unknown vulnerabilities in portions of the codebase which no longer…

Maybe we're touching the same elephant but we're obviously on opposite ends of it. That's how I perceive Firefox security with all it's crazy new features, old experiments left in, black box DRM that's literally unauditable, etc.

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use Ungoogled Chromium. Why suffer rent seeking crypto shenanigans?

Automated updates on Windows. That said there is no shortage of Chromium forks with auto update these days.

Why would you trust those random forks? I only use Chromium from authors who have been around for a while.

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use Ungoogled Chromium. Why suffer rent seeking crypto shenanigans?

Last I checked, Ungoogled Chromium did not have self-updates, and installing Chrome Extensions was a bit of a chore without a special extension.

You can install extensions normally with a regular Chromium and then uninstall it and use the ungoogled.

Re: The Brave web browser is hijacking links, and inserting affiliate codes

#270
post #96
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Not sure what else needs to happen to encourage Chromium users to finally give Firefox a try.

Latency. Just tested with a "hello world" page (18ms ping). Chrome takes 102-200ms to render the page, Firefox takes 150-400ms. 1.5 to 2x slower -- and that's after all the performance upgrades they've done with Rust and Quantum. Network inspector says Firefox is spending 150-270ms "blocked" before it even initiates the connection. On Chrome the block is 3-18ms (15-50x (!!) faster). There's also UI lag. When I press…

This is always the answer for me. I stayed on Firefox long after most of my friends had switched to Chrome back when it came out, but it was eventually impossible to deny the difference. Every time I've tried to switch back over the years, the difference in latency is still noticeable.
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