If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser • Hacker News Board

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#111

Post by tomjen3 » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 3:25 PM UTC

teekert wrote: post #23

adrianh wrote: post #11

The author was testing these browsers on an iPhone — but neglected to note that Apple actually prevents other browser engines on iOS. So if you use Firefox or Brave on an iPhone, you’re simply using Safari with a different “skin.” This skin can clearly do some content blocking, and it can provide a different browser UI — but it cannot change the fundamental web technologies that are available in the browser. As such,…

I recently switched from Android to iOS and this was super confusing. No plugins, except for on the OS level (like AdGuard) and then those don’t even work in that weird neutered Firefox, only in Safari :s Oh and Bitwarden does not work in FF. It it does work in Safari! So now I, a Firefox by default person switched to Safari (on iOS at least). I wish full Firefox was present.

Bitwarden works in Firefox. I used it to login to HN a few hours ago.

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#112

Post by detaro » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 3:27 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #111

teekert wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently switched from Android to iOS and this was super confusing. No plugins, except for on the OS level (like AdGuard) and then those don’t even work in that weird neutered Firefox, only in Safari :s Oh and Bitwarden does not work in FF. It it does work in Safari! So now I, a Firefox by default person switched to Safari (on iOS at least). I wish full Firefox was present.

Bitwarden works in Firefox. I used it to login to HN a few hours ago.

on iOS?

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#113

Post by city41 » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

BlueTemplar wrote: post #102

city41 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're conflating two issues. Chromium's dominance is a problem for sure, but that is separate from the web being an open platform. The web is more open than Linux (which I use btw) because a web app can run on Linux, MacOS, Windows, FreeBSD, Android, iOS and more without recompiling, redistributing or re-anything. Would it be nice if it wasn't HTML/JS/CSS based? Absolutely. But we gotta take what we can get. I could…

Works for simple web apps, but for anything complex you are going to run into performance and especially UI issues. (Maybe also being limited to HTTP(S) can be an issue?)

There has been a ton of work to address all of that such as web assembly, webgl, webgpu, webworkers, websockets, http2, sse, on and on. There's a lot of web tech out there (for better or for worse). You really can make a webapp that's just as feature rich, complex and performant as a native app these days. Still tons of work to be done though, web assembly in particular needs some additional features before it can really shine.

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#114

Post by igetspam » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #57

After trying Duck Duck Go and Brave’s products, it turns out I actually don’t care much about privacy. I care much more about using a product I like and that works the way I want. Has anyone else felt this way?

I use the DDG browser exclusively, on mobile devices. Haven't noticed anything not working as expected. I ditched chrome years ago though, so perhaps there's some shiny internet whizbang I'm not aware of. I care about privacy more than I care about most things though.

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#115

Post by BlueTemplar » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 3:57 PM UTC

city41 wrote: post #113

BlueTemplar wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Works for simple web apps, but for anything complex you are going to run into performance and especially UI issues. (Maybe also being limited to HTTP(S) can be an issue?)

There has been a ton of work to address all of that such as web assembly, webgl, webgpu, webworkers, websockets, http2, sse, on and on. There's a lot of web tech out there (for better or for worse). You really can make a webapp that's just as feature rich, complex and performant as a native app these days. Still tons of work to be done though, web assembly in particular needs some additional features before it can re…

In theory you can, but it's a mindset of "if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail", happily pushed by Google trying to wrestle control over people's computers from Microsoft.

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#116

Post by city41 » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

BlueTemplar wrote: post #115

city41 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has been a ton of work to address all of that such as web assembly, webgl, webgpu, webworkers, websockets, http2, sse, on and on. There's a lot of web tech out there (for better or for worse). You really can make a webapp that's just as feature rich, complex and performant as a native app these days. Still tons of work to be done though, web assembly in particular needs some additional features before it can re…

In theory you can , but it's a mindset of "if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail", happily pushed by Google trying to wrestle control over people's computers from Microsoft.

Yeah I agree with that. But Apple has an app store hammer, and Microsoft has a Windows hammer too. Of all the hammers, I feel Google's is the least evil of them all. They're all really bad, the state of technology today is er ... something. But at least with the web, I maintain hardware freedom and really the most freedom overall.

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#117

Post by tomjen3 » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 4:17 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #112

tomjen3 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitwarden works in Firefox. I used it to login to HN a few hours ago.

on iOS?

ah, no. Firefox doesn't run on IOs.

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#118

Post by detaro » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #117

detaro wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

on iOS?

ah, no. Firefox doesn't run on IOs.

Well there is a browser called Firefox for iOS, but it's not the same as on the other platforms due to iOS limitations, that's the point of their comment.

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#119

Post by teekert » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 7:07 PM UTC

ornornor wrote: post #80

teekert wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently switched from Android to iOS and this was super confusing. No plugins, except for on the OS level (like AdGuard) and then those don’t even work in that weird neutered Firefox, only in Safari :s Oh and Bitwarden does not work in FF. It it does work in Safari! So now I, a Firefox by default person switched to Safari (on iOS at least). I wish full Firefox was present.

Try nextdns.io. It blocks ads systemwide (except the YT app, and a few websites that use JS tricks to inject ads) Bitwarden works very well for me in iOS FF and any other app.

Oh I see, indeed it works on iOS Firefox, thanx that makes a big difference, back to (neutered) FF it is.

Re: If you care about privacy, it’s time to try a new web browser

#120

Post by teekert » Sun, Apr 04, 2021, 7:09 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #118

tomjen3 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ah, no. Firefox doesn't run on IOs.

Well there is a browser called Firefox for iOS, but it's not the same as on the other platforms due to iOS limitations, that's the point of their comment.

Yeah and Bitwarden does seem to work, just tap “passwords” it brings up Bitwarden, not ff’s password store. Btw does anyone know why bitwarden then asks for a pin and does not use face unlock?