Chromium Browser Recommendations Solicited

[suzyne]

I have been trying to understand the v2 vs v3 extensions issue in relation to uBlockOrigin Lite and the original blocker.

From what I have read, if I am the type of user who installed and never touches or does customisation in uBlockOrigin (other than making sure the lists are up-to-date) then the v3 Lite extension will perfectly meet my needs  (and I might not even notice the difference).

As far as I can tell, that is the situation, so for my case whether Edge (or whatever Chromium browser I am using at the time to visit a site that doesn't play well with Pale Moon) continues to support v2 seems unimportant.

[Moonchild]

For the record, if you are on Windows or Mac and want to have an extension to the usage of V2 manifest, you can, by adding a specific registry entry for the browser of your choice:

Create a plaintext .reg file:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome]
"ExtensionManifestV2Availability"=dword:00000002

save it and double-click it to add to the registry.
Instead of "Google\Chrome" you can also use the same for other Chromium-based browsers, e.g.:

Code: Select all

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Chromium]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Vivaldi]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\YandexBrowser]

For Mac, open a terminal and use the following:

Code: Select all

defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist ExtensionManifestV2Availability -int 2

I'm not sure of the exact .plist names for other browsers on Mac...

[frostknight]

If you are going to base yourself on the market leader then you are also going to be using something which has the most attack volume against it. Remember the last time a 0day was found in Chromium? Cue mad scramble because hackers were on top of exploiting it within hours. So if something bases on Chromium and falls well behind, you can be pretty certain it is an actively exploited set of risks you're exposing yourself to.

Yeah and here is the ironic part. I hear people with major egos even people on free software friendly communities talk about how Chrome is more secure than firefox and firefox based web browsers. They admit privacy is way worse, but they don't have the mental capacity to realize how full of crap such an argument is.

[frostknight]

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.

I recommend steering clear of any proprietary web browsers and bloated ones too if possible.

UXP based web browsers I make exception for because they have almost none by comparison.

Off-topic:
Btw, not that I expect Moonchild to do this, but it would be nice if for people who don't use dbus could load the web browser anyways by default.

Not saying that he would take sync out either, its just a bloated piece of crap that's all that blocks me from using it. But it is only me that I know of who wants this, so I understand if this is too much. Just a tiny qualm.

There are more important things to be done I am sure.

Then again, redhat created dbus for that reason lol. They want people to depend on them for their services, aka enterprise contracts and beyond.

[van p]

The search is not going well. I've downloaded a couple options for now, but they and all the others I've considered have some kind of downside. Now this . . .

Tuesday night at midnight my email provider radically changed the design of its website.

This is the top of the home page as shown in Pale Moon . . .

Screenshot (1078).png

This is the top of the home page as shown in Chromium . . .

Screenshot (1079).png

Once I log on nothing has changed. Of course, I don't want to have to deal with Pale Moon's current rendering, and it would be nice if this could be "fixed." If the email provider is now using some kind of technology or process that Pale Moon just can't get around then I guess I'll be spending more time than I expected with whatever Chromium browser I wind up choosing. Then again, I don't spend any meaningful time on the home page; I just log in and go; maybe I can live with it.

EDIT: Ignore the different URLs. I intended for them to be the same in the displayed attachments. The URL makes no difference in how the pages look.

[suzyne]

Tuesday night at midnight my email provider radically changed the design of its website.

Have you tried bookmarking the page of your inbox in Pale Moon?

It probably depends on the email service, but with mine I can go straight to the inbox and avoid the front page. Occasionally, I do need to refresh the login and sign in again, but sometimes it will stay logged in for what feels like weeks in the same browser.

[van p]

suzyne, I can't go directly to my inbox, and I don't want to stay logged in all the time anyway. What I can do is change the URL in my bookmark to take me directly to the login screen, which is graphically minimal and looks normal. However, I'd rather start at the home page and proceed from there. Hopefully Moonchild or somebody can investigate this situation and remedy the faulty rendering.

[suzyne]

I don't want to stay logged in all the time anyway.

Fair enough. As I was typing my reply, I was wondering whether staying logged in may not be desirable. I guess I do it because my laptop Windows account needs credentials, and my thinking is that if someone has that access, then being concerned about my emails is a lower level concern. But maybe I need to rethink that?

Of course, better rendering of the page in Pale Moon is the best solution!

[van p]

Does being logged into something constantly make it easier for the account to be hacked/compromised?

[adoxa]

The primary issue is that CSS clamp is not supported, here's a Modify HTTP Response workaround.

Code: Select all

[["www.fastmail.com",["/main-.*\\.css/",["/clamp\\(.*?,(.*?),.*?\\)/g","calc($1)"]]]]

There's also issues with the dark/light toggle not displaying correctly (not sure why, maybe it doesn't like the class names) and the main image not displaying (also not sure why).

[moonbat]

Does being logged into something constantly make it easier for the account to be hacked/compromised?

Only if the device in question is itself compromised. Say you left your screen unlocked and someone else showed up to access your logged in web account or mail client. Or your smartphone had no screen lock and was stolen. Or shoulder surfing etc.
If your primary computer is the one you have at home, I'd say the risk is far less, assuming you're also not dumb enough to let it get infected by remote access malware.

[van p]

adoxa, I'll keep that suggestion in mind. For now, I'll wait to see if the developers can do anything.

moonbat, I've had my current computer for almost 11 years. Before that, I was hit by the FBI ransomware 3 times. I think once came from Amazon.com, once from some music-related website whose name started with the letter 'T' (can't remember the name anymore), and once I don't know. All 3 times I was able to solve the problem by restoring a system image. I guess that won't work if the MOBO is infected; in this case I assume the computer would have to be trashed.

[frostknight]

Btw, the best firefox based web browser currently that isn't in uxp land, probably is mullvad.

As for chromium which is more on topic, still think it would probably be ungoogled chromium but others say its outdated. No idea how true this is currently though.

[van p]

others say [ungoogled chromium is] outdated. No idea how true this is currently though.

I believe it's up-to-date now. Don't know how long it may have been out-of-date. I think the primary concern maybe should be that it's maintenance is "unofficial," having been abandoned by its creator and nobody "official" having picked up the ball and run with it. Anybody may correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't know anything about how to verify that what I'm downloading is legit, but if this browser has been run "unofficially" for a long time and nothing bad has happened, maybe I should give it greater consideration.

EDIT: Iridium may be more of a problem in the 'outdated' category. But it seems to have been updated 2 days ago. Before this, I think it was out-of-date since Jan. of this year. Also, for a non-technical person, it's not immediately obvious how to download and install this thing.

[frostknight]

I believe it's up-to-date now. Don't know how long it may have been out-of-date. I think the primary concern maybe should be that it's maintenance is "unofficial," having been abandoned by its creator and nobody "official" having picked up the ball and run with it. Anybody may correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't know anything about how to verify that what I'm downloading is legit, but if this browser has been run "unofficially" for a long time and nothing bad has happened, maybe I should give it greater consideration.

No idea myself either, I don't use chromium based web browsers anymore since I switched to firefox based ones like, say, from the XP days.

EDIT: Iridium may be more of a problem in the 'outdated' category. But it seems to have been updated 2 days ago. Before this, I think it was out-of-date since Jan. of this year. Also, for a non-technical person, it's not immediately obvious how to download and install this thing.

I don't know, why it would be hard to install either. Unless Ungoogled chromium and iridium dont have executables for the OS you are using.

[Moonchild]

Off-topic:

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/.

As an update to this, Infinity Browsers did not send me a reply, but have changed their phrasing on-site.
Arc, and "The Browser Company of New York" have so far taken no action, nor responded to my amicable e-mail. I had a feeling they might not, given the vibe I got from Arc and the team behind it so far.
I have now sent them a cease & desist pre-suit letter. I'd rather not litigate anything, but I will if I have to.

[frostknight]

As an update to this, Infinity Browsers did not send me a reply, but have changed their phrasing on-site.
Arc, and "The Browser Company of New York" have so far taken no action, nor responded to my amicable e-mail. I had a feeling they might not, given the vibe I got from Arc and the team behind it so far.
I have now sent them a cease & desist pre-suit letter. I'd rather not litigate anything, but I will if I have to.

But uh didn't they change the problematic parts already? Or am I missing something and they are doing something else too?

[Potkeny]

As an update to this, Infinity Browsers did not send me a reply, but have changed their phrasing on-site.
Arc, and "The Browser Company of New York" have so far taken no action, nor responded to my amicable e-mail. I had a feeling they might not, given the vibe I got from Arc and the team behind it so far.
I have now sent them a cease & desist pre-suit letter. I'd rather not litigate anything, but I will if I have to.

But uh didn't they change the problematic parts already? Or am I missing something and they are doing something else too?

Right now on their website:

arc_browser.PNG

[frostknight]

Right now on their website:

arc_browser.PNG

Right... got it. That's foolish on their part.

[ron_1]

I don't check the off topic section of the forums often, so I'm late to this party. Right now I'm using Chromium as my backup. I'm on Linux so it's Chromium from the repos of my distro. I've also used Vivaldi in the past, and didn't have any issues with it. If I ever decide to drop Chromium I'd go back to Vivaldi.