Currently, I’m a Vivaldi user. My issue with Vivaldi is simple: it isn’t fully open source.
So what are my options? The obvious ones are Brave and Firefox.
But.
Brave has all the crypto crap, its sync feature sucks, as it doesn’t even save all my settings, the mobile browser version of it sucks even more, because I couldn’t find a way to access tabs from my laptop on the mobile client, and Brave mobile only supports the tab bar at the top (I want it at the bottom, phones are big, at least make them easier to use)
Firefox has the sync features, the mobile version supports tabs at the bottom, and sync is easy and works well, and on top of all that, it is either packaged by or preinstalled on most, if not all Linux distros BUT I have 3 issues with Firefox: Data collection is on by default (not that big of a deal, as it’s Mozilla, not Google, the data isn’t that much and can be turned off with a single toggle), Something very important for me is small tabs, and Firefox’ tabs are MASSIVE. I just want small tabs that look like Brave’s tabs, same colours, small and simple. And third, I want a better start page. Firefox’ start page doesn’t support custom backgrounds, and I want one that does. And preferably also has privacy statistics like number of ads and trackers blocked.
Lastly, it has to be based on Chromium or Gecko (Firefox’ engine) so I can use all my browser extensions.
Is there a browser out there that meets all my criteria?
As for your firefox issues, thats pretty trivial to fix by adding some CSS in usercontent.css/userchrome.css
See here for some examples: MrOtherGuy/firefox-csshacks
Wow this is a great resource!
Firefox’ tabs are MASSIVE
You can change the tab size.
Go to about:config and change
browser.tabs.tabMinWidthThe answer is Firefox CSS: https://firefoxcss-store.github.io/
You can change firefox’ start page with addons.
Iceraven is a fully open source Firefox fork.
Ungoogled Chromium is the same for chromium.
But what about sync functionality on Ungoogled Chromium? Would I need to depend on Google for sync features? I use those quite often, and Google is certainly not someone I would trust with my tabs, if I can avoid it.
I think you can’t sync ungoogled chromium at all. At least that is how i remember it. Don’t quote me on it
You can also change the tab size in Firefox.
Go to about:config and change
browser.tabs.tabMinWidthWhat exactly are you trying to sync? If it’s just passwords I recommend switching to a proper Password Manager like Bitwarden. There are plugins for both Gecko and Chromium.
Mostly tabs. My browser tabs.
I use sync for bookmarks and sending links berween devices. I could work around not having the latter, but are there any good options for keeping bookmarks synced between computers?
You could use SyncThing to sync the bookmark files across your devices.
I know on Ubuntu those are stored at ~/.mozilla/firefox/<randomstring>.default-release/bookmarkbackups,
and on Windows at C:\Users<your Windows login username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
you can change how firefox looks by modifying userchrome.css and usercontent.css files easily, if the issue is how it looks maybe you can find a theme you like firefox css store has a lot of themes you can try, be careful with version numbers though
for example here is a video explaining how to modify the start page backgrounds using css files on firefox here
I mean, that video is great. Will definitely use it and give it a try.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=K3iSxljSo8Q
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
For the small tabs, you may try to enable custom stylesheet (userChrome), there are plenty of themes on the web, but if you’re looking for something more specific you may edit it yourself, it’s very easy. Oh and the default start page is pretty ugly I agree, there are plenty of alternative start pages on the add-on store For the data collection, firefox forks like librewolf should have that disabled by default (I don’t have any experience tho)
Brave does support opening tabs from other devices, sync works good so long as it always has at least 1 device in the sync chain, so if you only have 1 device and have to reinstall it the settings might be lost, but if you have 2 devices and reinstall one the settings are still saved whenever you rejoin the chain. The reason is there are no accounts saved in brave, so the only way to ID your browser is by the sync chain. If the sync chain has no devices it may be removed from the sync servers.
All of the crypto rewards stuff can be disabled with 1 switch, and a second switch if you also want to turn off wallet, but it’s not really active unless you configure it. Rewards is there as a way for them to make money without having to make Google or Bing the default search engine as other browsers do.
Brave is a great browser, but Firefox is also great and very configurable. And thanks to this thread I learned that FF’s interface can be customized, which was one of my main reasons not to use it anymore. I’ll play with it again, it’s important to have a non-chromium based browser as an alternative.
There is about 4 switches on mobile and similar for pc.
- Brave Rewards tab
- Brave Wallet tab
- Appearance tab, Brave wallet icon in search bar toggle
- New pages tab, Show Sponsored Images toggle
Then you are good.
While it may be possible, the more requirements make it harder to meet.
When you move from one relationship to another, you don’t expect your new partner to be exactly like the old one. You accept and learn to love the differences.
Stat page and tab size are very particular deal breakers. Are they really key? I prefer FF tabs to Chrome as I can see what I’m clicking on and not accidentally close it. I don’t stay on home page long enough to notice. My old tabs open at start up.
your new partner
Not exactly a new partner per se, more like some exes.
Are they really key?
Not necessarliy dealbreakers. In fact, I’m thinking of giving Firefox a shot again. Using your relationships example as an extended metaphor, Firefox is the one that will always be there (packaged everywhere), will never leave you, unless you want them to, and while lacking a bit in the visual department (personal preference), is a stable choice for a “relationship”.
Brave is the one that’s hot, but crazy. It offers you an alternative way of doing things, and while a lot of people fall for it, personally, I’d prefer someone else.
Vivaldi is the one that looks good, and is stable, but might not always be with you (not packaged everywhere), and hides some things from you (not completely open source).
Fair points. I like your extended metaphors :). Go for it, you won’t regret it. Try to just experience it, focus on what it is, and not what it isn’t and you might you find yourself falling for it.
UI is very opinionated and sometimes you notice the differences at the start, but as you use it, you realise you could love it more :). I’ve found this with a few things (Matrix, Libre Office, GrapheneOS). I haven’t discovered this with FF as i’ve been in a relationship with it for over a decade now :). I occasionally dabble in chrome stuff, but it the way they hate people that use more than 10 tabs is something I cannot handle.
You might want to look into Firefox forks—LibreWolf, maybe? Or Seamonkey, which is technically not a Firefox fork but might as well be. I use Pale Moon, but while it does have small tabs and no data collection that I’m aware of (even the code supporting it may have been ripped out in the ongoing efforts to get rid of unwanted maintenanace burdens), it uses the old Firefox extension framework that was deprecated some years ago, so you’d likely have to find alternatives to some extensions.
I use the Tabliss extension to change my start page, but there’s other ones as well. If you use UBlockOrigin or Privacy Badger those have counters for the amounts of ads and trackers blocked.
