Chromium Browser Recommendations Solicited

[suzyne]

I went to the Iridium site to check for myself and it says:



which looks like it's 9 months old.

[back2themoon]

Is there a stable, download-able version of vanilla Chromium? Got lost somewhere in between the various Dev, Canary and instability warnings. Or does it exist mainly for testing and not really for standard usage?

fatboy, is "Vanilla Chromium" a product or a characterization of a Chromium browser? I'm a little confused here.

Doesn't look like "vanilla" is part of any related product name. I assume it just means "plain": the basis of the other Chromium-based browsers.

[van p]

In general, do browsers that have built-in ad blocking allow that feature to be turned off?

[moonbat]

In general, do browsers that have built-in ad blocking allow that feature to be turned off?

You have to explicitly turn them on.

[van p]

Thank you.

I'm going through a list of possibilities, and they all appear to have drawbacks. I may wind up using Edge just because it's already on my machine and I know it'll be updated quickly.

[moonbat]

You can still use uBlock Origin with Edge, at least until Manifest v3 is firmly in place.

[back2themoon]

There's also uBO Lite, specifically made for Manifest V3. It is obviously significantly limited compared to standard uBO.

[noellarkin]

I've been using Ungoogled Chromium for a while:
https://ungoogled-software.github.io/un ... -binaries/

[moonbat]

I've been using Ungoogled Chromium for a while

Used to have that since all I wanted was a bare bones Chrome for the rare site that didn't work in PM - but they've dropped the ball on updates so I gave up and switched to Brave.

[van p]

Concerning Ungoogled Chromium (UC), my understanding is that the original developer walked away from the project and now anybody who wants to can jump in, muck with the code, and say he has updated the browser. The info that noellarkin linked to is a little scary. I don't know anything about hashes, binaries, reproducible builds, etc. I just need to know that what I'm downloading is legitimate. Is it accurate to say that nothing bad has ever come from this method of maintaining UC? Could something bad easily happen? Also, UC seems to be current with Chrome. Is this normal or not?

[Sajadi]

If you want Chromium with features - then Vivaldi is your choice.

Pure Chromium - check out this rebuild:
https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium
https://thorium.rocks

Seems also to be a bit privacy optimized and in comparison to Ungoogled Chromium has no various unknown contributors - and is in its legacy branch also compatible with XP and Windows 7

[Basilisk-Dev]

The only Chromium browser I can recommend to anyone is https://pissandshittium.org/

[van p]

Sign me up!!!!

[van p]

Anybody know anything about Sonic browser? I think I've heard the name before, but it appears to be brand new.

EDIT: Upon further investigation, it appears Sonic was created by a company called Infinity Browsers which has commandeered Moonchild's Pale Moon slogan: https://infinity-browsers.com/#our-mission.
EDIT: Another appropriation of Pale Moon's slogan: https://arc.net/.

[Moonchild]

Okay, time to put two companies on notice of trademark infringement, then

[suzyne]

Another appropriation of Pale Moon's slogan: https://arc.net/.

Arc, OMG.

Even though I am curious and would like to try it, I never have because they don't support Windows 10. Even so, I still want to mention that from the online articles that I have read about it, that Arc and The Browser Company appear to be the most over-hyped and suspiciously venture capital focussed project in the world of browsers that I have come across.

[moonbat]

Okay, time to put two companies on notice of trademark infringement, then

Had you already trademarked 'Your browser, your way'? I hope you succeed in stopping them from using it. It's misleading as well given this is a Blink based browser we're talking about.

[Moonchild]

Yes. "Your Browser, your way." has been claimed as a trademark for years.
While it is not a registered trademark ® (since that is specific to each region of the world and not necessary to claim and carry a trademark), it is a common law trademark ™ that cements my ownership of and rights to the mark.

Initially, Opera wanted to use it too, but that was quickly resolved when I notified them of the use and historic claim of it.

[van p]

Slimjet and Vivaldi have a ton o' stuff I would never use. I might consider Sonic, but it would take a whole day at least to go through the entirety of their Cookie Policy, User License Agreement, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Use documents--corporate, bureaucratic nonsense. The hype is 'private' and I'm guessin' the reality is anything but.

Thanks, Sajadi, for the Thorium mention. I'm lookin' into it.

[Blacklab]

Anyone with a Chromium browser installed, and using Windows or Mac OS, and wanting to continue using fully-featured MV2 extensions, e.g. uBlock Origin (uBO), for as long as possible, may be interested in trying this registry hack posted in various places in the last few weeks.

The best or most detailed 'howto' is probably this set of step-by-step instructions posted in a recent Reddit r/chrome topic:

'Tutorial on how to Enable Manifest V2 extensions for another year (until June 2025) such as Ublock Origin on Windows/Mac using the registry editor (regedit)': https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comment ... xtensions/

Note. Take care to use the correct path in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\?????? for your particular Chromium browser.

This Vivaldi Forum topic link and screenshot are included here because the Reddit r/chrome 'howto' tutorial (above) only mentions the .reg files needed for Chrome and Brave... for Edge and Vivaldi .reg files see: https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/93057/h ... lang=en-US (Some info for Linux users in the comments added to the "gorhill's post on this" link in text of Reddit r/chrome 'howto' post.)

Example .reg file for Vivaldi, Chrome, etc (adapt as needed).png

Screenshot: Vivaldi Forum link (above) - Example .reg files for Brave, Chrome, Edge, and Vivaldi.

Result in Vivaldi after hack installed and URL 'vivaldi://policy' entered to open browser's 'Policies' page:

Vivaldi Policies page - added Chrome Policies entry.png

Screenshot: Vivaldi Policies page - added 'Chrome Policies' entry