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Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

Off-Topic discussions about science, technology, and non Debian specific topics.
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bedtime
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Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#1 Post by bedtime »

All of these browsers claim to modify either Firefox or Chromium in a way that makes your surfing more private. By 'private', I am referring to not selling your information, which I presume both Firefox and Google do. I am very skeptical of the intentions of all three, and I would like input from you guys.

If one wanted to surf the web without their data being sold by their browser, one could just install Midori (has more bugs than a Detroit apartment building) or Epiphany-browser (which sometimes will install but won't show anything in the browsing window.


Anyways, here are the three suggested:

Ungoogled: https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium

Though they have packages that can be downloaded, I could not get Ungoogled to install; it went through a roundabout cyclic dependency issue that I couldn't resolve. Sad, because this browser showed promise.

Iridium: https://iridiumbrowser.de/

The development team claim that browser is Chromium based and has most of the Google stuff ripped out of it; such as the code that eagerly siphons your data and calls home to Google; but this browser is support by companies, and who knows where that could lead.

Waterfox: https://www.waterfoxproject.org/en-US/

This one seems the least to be trusted, at least at first glance. It's run by a company, and its website sounds like another sly Firefox with their own privacy policy and a new logo stamped in place.

Why does it have to be so complicated... :roll:

I would appreciate any comments you have. :)

n_hologram
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Re: Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#2 Post by n_hologram »

Privacy is really the 21st-century paradox. Another way to approach the issue is, for all we know, Debian could be selling our data for countless dollars ;)

Iridium is a fallback-browser; I don't hate it, but I don't use it every day, either. I monitored the inbound-outbound connections once and didn't see anything intrinsically suspicious. Also, the source code is quite open, if you have any doubts.

Waterfox is also nice. The only caveat there is it follows firefox 56.x, which is deprecated in lieu of quantum. Some users are wary because of that. It's my understanding that the developer maintains security updates, so it's not "unsupported," but comes down to whether or not you trust the dev's skills. With that said, this was, mind you, not only the first x64 firefox, but also a major deblobbed spin. (Personally, I have no issues with it.)

I like palemoon, surf, and w3m. I'm also working on an addon to (hopefully) de-bloat quantum, since I haven't seen one ready for its new features and changes.
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debiman
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Re: Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#3 Post by debiman »

the problem with every chromium derivate is that you're still tied into google's extension/plugin universe. I'll prefer firefox' addons every time.

i don't think firefox proper is so bad, really, but there's still seamonkey, palemoon and one or two other derivates that can be used.
just make sure you go through the settings and carefully set it up.
also do NOT check the one where it warns you against "suspected phishing sites" or some such - that's just connecting to google's blocklists.

once you've chosen your browser, it is important to allow javascript and cross-site-requests only very selectively.
i use 'noscript' and 'requestpolicy continued'.

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Re: Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#4 Post by bedtime »

Thank you for your replies. I've read through them each a couple of times, and each time I feel less confident in these browsers. Reading their sites makes me sad.

This situation reminds me of the movie Christine (from the novel by Stephen King). There is a part were the mechanic tells Arnie Cunningham, "You can't polish a turd," and I feel like this is the case with these browsers; there is no way to polish clean millions of lines of code. And I just can't bring myself to trust that these companies have my best interest at heart. Been let down too many times. :(

However, I do trust the no budget Linux browsers, as well as Debian in general; so, I've decided to use surf for now, and since it doesn't run youtube for me, I made a script to easily stream it in mpv when needed.

I'm still open to ideas, but I'm not that hopeful.

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Re: Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#5 Post by Bulkley »

Waterfox here with added extensions ublock-origin, https everywhere, privacy badger and self destroying cookies to keep it clean. At the moment I have nine browsers (because I'm curious and like to try them). Most of them are downloaded as tarballs and kept entirely in my user space. Doing it this way avoids having to risk my system with third party .debs which are usually aimed at *buntu users.

n_hologram
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Re: Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#6 Post by n_hologram »

Bulkley wrote:Doing it this way avoids having to risk my system with third party .debs which are usually aimed at *buntu users.
+1

The other answer to the original question is: compile it yourself. Then, you can see the code, note any undesirable aspects, modify anything undesirable, and have a usable browser geared towards your specific needs.

EDIT: Just a quick clarification on Waterfox. Officially, they patch Waterfox based on fixes from mainstream Firefox.
https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/issues/531
bester69 wrote:There is nothing to install in linux, from time to time i go to google searching for something fresh to install in linux, but, there is nothing
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Re: Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#7 Post by bester69 »

bedtime wrote:...

Ungoogled: https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium

Though they have packages that can be downloaded, I could not get Ungoogled to install; it went through a roundabout cyclic dependency issue that I couldn't resolve. Sad, because this browser showed promise.

...

I would appreciate any comments you have. :)
Ungoogled Chromium, seems a great choice if you dont want extensions and google inside.. I like this browser you show me..

Ive been using for long OperaV42 for performance and usability reasons, I cant upgrade cos new browsers put my system into obsolescent gap.. So i use Opera for every day, and last Firefox for security operations.
bester69 wrote:STOP 2030 globalists demons, keep the fight for humanity freedom against NWO...

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Re: Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#8 Post by bedtime »

Bulkley wrote:Waterfox here with added extensions ublock-origin, https everywhere, privacy badger and self destroying cookies to keep it clean. At the moment I have nine browsers (because I'm curious and like to try them). Most of them are downloaded as tarballs and kept entirely in my user space. Doing it this way avoids having to risk my system with third party .debs which are usually aimed at *buntu users.
Here's the thing: I wonder if the extensions themselves are not sending your info out. And why not? All the work they put into them, and they might want somehthing back for their effort.
bester69 wrote:
bedtime wrote:...

Ungoogled: https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium

Though they have packages that can be downloaded, I could not get Ungoogled to install; it went through a roundabout cyclic dependency issue that I couldn't resolve. Sad, because this browser showed promise.

...

I would appreciate any comments you have. :)
Ungoogled Chromium, seems a great choice if you dont want extensions and google inside.. I like this browser you show me..

Ive been using for long OperaV42 for performance and usability reasons, I cant upgrade cos new browsers put my system into obsolescent gap.. So i use Opera for every day, and last Firefox for security operations.
Opera would be the worst of all considering it is closed source. :(

Anyways, I must admit that I am on waterfox right now. :oops: I am going to try again to get ungoogled working. Surf is nice if you just have one site you want to visit, but I like to have at least the bare minimum of buttons to click on with the mouse. Even something like epiphany would be more than enough, but epiphany-browser doesn't work for me.

Will let you guys know if I get ungoogled working. Gonna try a one of the older versions to so I don't run into issues with outdated dependancy apps.

Oh, and I have iridium running (chromium browser). It runs good, but, still, can I trust it? :?


Thank you guys, and keep the comments coming.

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Re: Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#9 Post by Bulkley »

You can always use Tor. Or you can use a VPN.

The data collectors will get a certain amount of data even if it is just that bedtime is the guy in Trenton who's trying to block us. Every site that you visit has bots monitoring each visitor so it is a struggle to stay hidden.

Slimjet is fast but it comes loaded with stuff and it takes time and trouble to clean it out or turn it off. I suppose that is it's Chrome genes showing.

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Re: Ungoogled vs Iridium vs Waterfox (browsers)

#10 Post by bester69 »

Bulkley wrote:You can always use Tor. Or you can use a VPN.

The data collectors will get a certain amount of data even if it is just that bedtime is the guy in Trenton who's trying to block us. Every site that you visit has bots monitoring each visitor so it is a struggle to stay hidden.

Slimjet is fast but it comes loaded with stuff and it takes time and trouble to clean it out or turn it off. I suppose that is it's Chrome genes showing.
You can use Tor plus VPN (Bitmask), or
Use Chromium "mode Private" plus VPN (Bitmask); Bitmask is a VPN easy to install, works very fast and its free.

Iridium seems a fair browser for privacity
bester69 wrote:STOP 2030 globalists demons, keep the fight for humanity freedom against NWO...

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