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Ask HN: Can someone suggest an open source lightweight alternative to Chrome?

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Re: Ask HN: Can someone suggest an open source lightweight alternative to Chrome?

#72

Post by genpfault »

lavignegagnon wrote: post #66
quicklime wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m also using Firefox, but instead of ublock origin I’m using an extension called “Disable JavaScript” combined with the out of the box tracking protection (in strict mode). On my laptop with 4G of RAM, this works fairly well. For the vast majority of news websites, running without js is a huge improvement to both performance and user experience. It even gets around a lot of paywalls. I don’t think the sites that ru…

I discovered this only months ago, but you can configure uBlock Origin to disable javascript, block remote fonts, and/or large media files (check "I am an advanced user" in the settings). One extension to rule them all!

Can Origin whitelist specific fonts? Google's bugtrackers & Android docs are an absolute trainwreck without whatever wonky Webfont they're using.

Re: Ask HN: Can someone suggest an open source lightweight alternative to Chrome?

#74

Post by adamhearn »

genpfault wrote: post #72
lavignegagnon wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I discovered this only months ago, but you can configure uBlock Origin to disable javascript, block remote fonts, and/or large media files (check "I am an advanced user" in the settings). One extension to rule them all!

Can Origin whitelist specific fonts? Google's bugtrackers & Android docs are an absolute trainwreck without whatever wonky Webfont they're using.

Off the top of my head I know you can reenable specific things such as JavaScript for individual web pages. Probably the same is possible with fonts.

Re: Ask HN: Can someone suggest an open source lightweight alternative to Chrome?

#75

Post by skinnymuch »

basch wrote: post #58
axaxs wrote: post #3

Brave and Vivaldi are both Chromium based, but perhaps worth a shot. There's only two other engines left: firefox and webkit. You may want to look into a webkit based browser?

ill give Brave a nod as well. Everybody is so offput by its optional ads, they are missing out on the most efficient, fastest, and best "it just works" ad blocker out. It's a pleasure to surf the web again after years of ublock/umatrix and constantly having to tweak the settings for each site I visited. Edge has become my backup quick test of "is it something in Brave breaking it" I have Firefox open at all times as…

No other reason for Brave? Some don’t want to or care for blocking ads and others don’t do it at the browser level. Does Brave have anything at that point?

Re: Ask HN: Can someone suggest an open source lightweight alternative to Chrome?

#77

Post by piyush_soni »

axaxs wrote: post #3

Brave and Vivaldi are both Chromium based, but perhaps worth a shot. There's only two other engines left: firefox and webkit. You may want to look into a webkit based browser?

Firefox's browser engine is called 'Gecko' ...

Re: Ask HN: Can someone suggest an open source lightweight alternative to Chrome?

#78

Post by jmnicolas »

haffi112 wrote: post #43
jmnicolas wrote: post #12

I use Firefox but it's a memory hog too. To be fair, websites are the memory hogs imo. Sadly I don't think you can have the full web experience without sacrificing a couple gigs of ram if you have several tabs open at once. I know it's not open source but on a Macbook I would expect Safari to be the lightest browser. If you really want open and still like Chrome, you could try ungoogled chromium here : https://chromi…

For Firefox I am using an extension called auto tab discard ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/auto-tab-disc... ). It will suspend tabs from memory that have not been opened for a given time but you can easily open them again by pressing the tab. You can also whitelist some domains to prevent them from being suspended. Give it a try. There is also the great suspender for Chrome.

Contrary to OP, my problem with a browser (or Electron app) consuming a lot of RAM is philosophical not material : I have 16G at home and 32G at work so it's more than enough to accommodate any gluttonous browser.
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