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Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

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Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#461
post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All Chromium-based browsers have a feature that I can't get through my day without. I can write click on any website and say " translate this page into English ". I use this feature around 20 times a day, sometimes more. It's painstaking to do this in Firefox, even with extensions. Once every year or two I try switching to Firefox, then I remember this is the reason why I don't use it and I go back to Chrome. The day…

ask and you shall receive (as of firefox 118) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/website-translation if you need a language they haven't developed a production model for yet, you can install the beta version of the add-on, which supports more languages https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-translations-ad...

I really hope it's getting to mobile Firefox soon.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to pass those environment variables to Firefox through sudo. sudo has a --preserve-env=list option but you must know the value for DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS. That's usually unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus where 1000 is the id of the user Firefox is running for. Your root console could have no DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS or have a different value for it. To be 100% sure of the value, as you are root you could look i…

Assuming it is "unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus", what would be the command to start Firefox as the normaluser with that setting?

[deleted]

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#463
Even when chrome was new, it was known that it included heavy tracking by google. I briefly checked out iron back in the day, a chromium version without google tracking. But I realised that even just opening the settings resulted in requests to google (for some spelling library if I remember correctly). So obviously it was difficult to remove all the tracking, and it was clear that it would be difficult to keep removing it in all versions. Also it was clear already back then that google would try to capture as much of the browser market as possible, to control the browser, many online services, and just get the power to do whatever it wants. Now they are pushing hard for DRM in the browser, to take power away from the user. Firefox is definitely not perfect, but back in 2008 it was obvious that we, the users, should not support chrome. So I stayed with firefox, and don't need to swtich back now.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, you're switching browsers not 3D modelling software. It's easy people. Switch to Firefox today.

All Chromium-based browsers have a feature that I can't get through my day without. I can write click on any website and say " translate this page into English ". I use this feature around 20 times a day, sometimes more. It's painstaking to do this in Firefox, even with extensions. Once every year or two I try switching to Firefox, then I remember this is the reason why I don't use it and I go back to Chrome. The day…

I use this extension, it even lets you highlight text and translate just that too.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/traduzir-pagi...

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use 3D modeling software, but I use a browser for like... 95% of my day. Any minor UX differences are going to be like nails on a chalkboard, given that. It's no wonder why people don't want to switch, really.

I went from Netscape to IE to Firefox to Chrome and back to Firefox. Sure they're different, but it's not jarring. It's like switching to another car. You can just hop in and drive away. Then you gradually adjust the seat just how you like it and install your favorite air freshener in a natural progression, and so on.

The car analogy doesn't quite work that way.

Disliking one browser's UI/UX over another is like trying to drive two different cars: one with a touch screen console and another one with an analog console. There are genuine reasons to want one over the other and it will color how you use it day to day.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#466
post #64

I tried moving to Firefox a year ago but found that the lack of Tab Groups really killed me. There are several extensions that try to emulate this behaviour, but I didn't find that they worked particularly well. And then there are the security concerns. I guess when Chrome break uBlock Origin next year I'll give Edge a go, or one of the various chromium builds

Just in case you're open to something new: Tree Style Tabs is my goto extension to managing tabs on firefox You manage your tabs vertically in a sidebar, organized as a tree. Every new tab is opened as a leaf from the tab that you came from, grouping your tabs by branches following your navigation on the web. This make managing groups of tabs by topics really natural.

Addressing grandparent's comment regarding lack of tab grouping, I'd like to share a custom stylesheet for TST that somewhat tries to tackle this:

https://github.com/piroor/treestyletab/discussions/3369

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#467

I keep seeing Edge mentioned as a worthy alternative, and I just don't get it. First, all Chromium-based browsers will eventually block uBlock Origin for the sole reason that they can't maintain Manifest v2 on their own, and they all rely on Chrome's Web Store anyway. This won't happen immediately because Manifest v2 will probably stick around for longer because of enterprise users, but the writing is on the wall. Th…

>Edge also exposes an advertising ID, meant for Bing's Ads, much like what Chrome does for Google. And in true Microsoft spirit, it also has telemetry, which you can't turn off.

Answering the question 'what is the motivation for Microsoft to pay for Edge development?' also answers the question 'why is Edge not an acceptable alternative to Chrome?'

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#468

I keep seeing Edge mentioned as a worthy alternative, and I just don't get it. First, all Chromium-based browsers will eventually block uBlock Origin for the sole reason that they can't maintain Manifest v2 on their own, and they all rely on Chrome's Web Store anyway. This won't happen immediately because Manifest v2 will probably stick around for longer because of enterprise users, but the writing is on the wall. Th…

I use Vivaldi (and firefox before that) but a reason to use Edge is because it's supposedly very resource-efficient.

What percentage of users actually, really care how marginally more efficient their web browser is these days?

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't test it but probably DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus \ DISPLAY=:1 \ sudo -H -u normaluser \ --preserve-env=DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS,DISPLAY \ firefox I'd add -H to the options of sudo to make it set the home to normaluser's one. I assumed that your DISPLAY is :1, which is what my Debian has set for me. That's another variable that you could read from the environment of Firefox. You migh…

Whe don't you test it? It takes less time than to guess and have a back and forth via HN comments.

Because this is not a support forum or a stack exchange. I give the idea, then all the test and debugging is for who has to actually make the code work.

Re: Choose the browser that best suits your privacy needs

#470
post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>to get the EU digital markets update, which lets you uninstall Edge. Again — as a former anti-EU person — I am reminded why I am now pro-EU. While nowhere perfect it is much better than not having an EU and way, way better than the US.

I've come across many anti EU persons and there are some broad categories: - the uninformed, they have no idea about how the EU came about or what it does, but they're against it anyway - the people on the receiving end of the regulations (anti-trust, advertisers, marketeers, bankers, data sellers etc). They have a very good idea about what it does, but it interferes with their preferred way of getting to more cash.…

Spot on. There's a lot to criticize the EU for and it's definitely in dire need of reform in some places, but overall it's a net benefit to all members despite the squabbles, that being anti-EU feels strange.

The wealthy countries that chose never to join like Switzerland and Norway have their own valid reasons to not join (fear of regulation on banking, fishing and oil that's not in their favor) and still thrive due to their wealth. But leaving the EU doesn't automatically turn your country into Switzerland or Norway like the UK expected.

People often do miss the forest from the trees and that stuff like quality democracy and unions like the EU are never a "fire and forget" solution but a rolling grinding game that must constantly be kept in checks and bounds witch citizen involvement and outcry, over generations, otherwise it slowly gets eroded.

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