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Helium Browser

helium.computer

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Re: Helium Browser

#161

Post by NaomiLehman »

godelski wrote: post #124

> Helium is based on Chromium > Best privacy by default Sorry, pass... Even with un-googled Chromium I do not think these statements are self-consistent. We need browsers that do not allow Google to control the ecosystem. We need legitimate competition. So what, our choices are Firefox (Gecko), Safari (WebKit), and Ladybird? Personally I go with Firefox on most devices and Orion (WebKit) on my iPhone and iPad. > Heli…

For me, the fact that a browser is based on Chromium is a deal breaker when compared to CPU/RAM usage of Safari on Mac OS. When I open the some JS heavy tabs like Notion, AIstudio.google.com, email, the difference is huge.

Orion is the only alternative, because as you said, it's built on WebKit, but I had trouble it working with extensions that I need for my work.

Re: Helium Browser

#162

Post by nayuki »

> Fast, efficient, and light

> Helium is based on Chromium

> [screenshot image of geckos and lizards]

Is the marketing page deliberately trying to rub it in Mozilla's face?

Re: Helium Browser

#163

Post by leenify »

hnlmorg wrote: post #149
zarzavat wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WebKit is easy but has terrible compatibility because the fruit company makes money from native apps. They do the bare minimum to keep Safari functional so that people keep buying iPhones. Gecko has an uncertain future and is perpetually at risk of dying. It's at least possible to switch from Chromium to WebKit if necessary so the risks of building off of Chromium are not that big.

Gecko is too big to die. Even with Firefox’s market share being a shadow of its former self, it’s still used by millions. The real problems with Gecko is just that it’s harder to fork and has less compatibility with the web (that last part is largely just due to Chromium being the de facto standard so fewer people test their sites against Firefox).

> The real problems with Gecko is just that it’s harder to fork

That goes contrary to my experience. I'm a maintainer of a Firefox fork (with rather extensive changes to a lot of the internals), and it is pretty manageable to maintain. We manage to keep it roughly up to date and add new features without financial backing or folks working full-time on it.

If all you do is change the branding and apply some superficial stuff, Chromium might be doable, but that is hardly a new browser. Everybody who forked Chromium from the folks I know (mostly research/security testing people) gave up due to the constant churn.

For this reason, from my experience, Firefox forks are much easier to maintain once you start applying changes to internal things. Firefox is changing at a slower pace, making keeping up to date much more manageable, but that also has its drawbacks, as it does not support every crazy feature Google pushes out, e.g., WebUSB. But, for example, folks I know maintained a v8 fork that was shelved as the introduction of Torque (which has spotty public documentation, to be very kind) means it is a complete rewrite.

Re: Helium Browser

#165

Post by chr15m »

coolgoose wrote: post #147

I am really trying to understand how the web would work with 0 ads. I hate all the invasive pop-up crap ads with a passion, but this 0 ads just gets to a lot of gatekeeping, putting things under subscriptions etc.

Good. "Free" is a lie.

Re: Helium Browser

#166

Post by acka »

that_guy_iain wrote: post #144
godelski wrote: post #124

> Helium is based on Chromium > Best privacy by default Sorry, pass... Even with un-googled Chromium I do not think these statements are self-consistent. We need browsers that do not allow Google to control the ecosystem. We need legitimate competition. So what, our choices are Firefox (Gecko), Safari (WebKit), and Ladybird? Personally I go with Firefox on most devices and Orion (WebKit) on my iPhone and iPad. > Heli…

> Even with un-googled Chromium I do not think these statements are self-consistent. We need browsers that do not allow Google to control the ecosystem. We need legitimate competition. If you fork Chromium, Google doesn't control the ecosystem, it controls a large part of it. But you're able to build on top of that ecosystem. So you can have the best of both worlds, all the extensions and ecosystem from Chrome but wi…

While I appreciate your perspective, the widespread adoption of Google Chrome has presented challenges. The implementation of Manifest V3 demonstrates Google's significant influence over extension developers, requiring adherence to increasingly restrictive APIs or facing limited visibility within less popular browsers.

Re: Helium Browser

#167

Post by rkomorn »

NetOpWibby wrote: post #156

Yeesh, tough crowd in these comments. And yet everyone's excited for new Gmail skins. Anyway. I hope more people take ungoogled-chromium and create new interfaces. It's a shame that Servo's in an unusable state, I'd love to see more tooling around that. I just want someone to give me Opera 12...I suppose that's Vivaldi though.

I tried Opera a few months ago and could not stick to it. All the features they were pitching at me felt a little off. The various panel integrations were clunky and didn't seem to offer anything over just... tabs.

Maybe not surprisingly, I'm currently on Vivaldi (although it has its own issues of not infrequent slowness or hangs).

Re: Helium Browser

#168

Post by nunobrito »

lunarcave wrote: post #32

In the "choose a default search engine" page, it has a slightly amusing summary for each. > Google > Your personal data fuels its monopoly. Market-dominant due to anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices. > Qwant > Based in Europe. Uses Bing results. Sends tracking data to Microsoft. > DuckDuckGo > Privacy-focused. Relies on Bing results but never tracks or profiles you. > Ecosia > May plant trees for clicking ad…

Please review your opinion about Qwant, the overwhelming majority of search results are produced internally and they are very clear about what isn't: https://betterweb.qwant.com/en/2023/09/18/web-indexing-where...

In Europe they are still IMHO the best option for an independent search engine.

Re: Helium Browser

#169

Post by httpsoverdns »

john01dav wrote: post #159
godelski wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allow me to rephrase my earlier choice Chromium: Entirely dependent on Google, a $3T company who's entire business model relies upon invading your privacy and currently has a >70% global share of browsers WebKit: A closed source browser with ~18% of browser share and run by a nearly $4T company who forces all browsers on their mobile devices to be reskinned versions of their browser and probably wants to do the same…

You can't donate to Firefox. You can donate to Mozilla, but that money doesn't go to Firefox.

I recently purchased Firefox relay because I thought it was a nifty service to start using to prevent spam and preserve my privacy, but also a driving factor in my purchase was giving money to Mozilla. I didn't really look into it beyond that internal thought process. Your comment made me wonder, are things so segmented at Mozilla that supporting something like relay doesn't actually help Firefox in general?

Re: Helium Browser

#170

Post by rkomorn »

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #131
ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #107

Can someone explain to me why most browser forks are based on Chromium? If the goal is to make a privacy focused browser which is independent of Google, isn't it then a bit counterproductive to put all your eggs in a basket which only exists due to the goodwill of your main competitor? Why not webkit or Gecko? There might be a good argument for it, but as a person concerned with privacy and the future freedom of the…

Everyone mentions compatibility and performance as the main reasons, but this still doesn't make any sense to me. If I switch to a browser which has a stated goal of protecting my privacy and protecting the freedom of the web, then performance and web site compatibility is much further down my list of priorities.

I'd agree but performance and compatibility bubbles up to top concern pretty quickly when you use something nearly constantly (which I'd say is applicable for a browser).
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