I’m using librewolf now, after Mozilla actions.
Is there a privacy-centric open source browser that follows web standards and doesn’t come with any unfortunate baggage in the room? It’s time to find out.
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In the end, I looked for two candidates, one each from the Firefox and Apple/Google orbits. I tried them all, and settled on LibreWolf from the former, and Vivaldi from the latter. LibreWolf because it’s done a fine job of making Firefox without it being Firefox, and Vivaldi because its influence from the early Opera versions gave it a tiny bit of individuality missing in the others. I set up both with my usual Hackaday bookmarks, tabs, and shortcuts, changed the search engine to the EU-based Qwant. I’m ready to go, with a bit more control over how my data is shared with the world once more.
Why Vivaldi though? It’s closed source, which should disqualify it from their initial statement of considering open-source browsers.
Yeah Im not sure as well. Vivaldi didnt really impress me when I tried it out.
I put this article up since we still have a lot of people thinking about different browsers as of 2025. Its interesting to see how people use the internet.
Oh don’t get me wrong, I think this is absolutely an appropriate article for this community, I just think the article is a bit… lacking. There’s also the FUD about Mozilla, which is a bit more complex of a topic than they lead on, so kind of shoddy journalism IMO.
Thats fair. Any good ones that have come out in the last month or so?
Not sure exactly which part you’re asking about.
For Mozilla, the best source I’ve found is Louis Rossmann’s wiki on Mozilla’s TOS changes (and his breakdown on YT if you don’t want to read).
For articles about which browser to pick, idk, I don’t really follow that. I use Firefox and Firefox derivatives because I believe engine diversity is of utmost importance, and I only use Chromium forks as a backup for sites that don’t work properly on Firefox.
Librewolf
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The only “issue” I have with libre is its essentially a full pull of Firefox nightly with some rust patches on top. Its reliant on Firefox, so its not really a “new” browser per-say.
That being said, I use it everyday :) Its an excellent project.
Per se is a Latin phrase meaning “in itself”. To see if you’re using it properly, replace per se in your sentence with “in itself” and see if it makes sense.
Been with Vivaldi even when it was uncool to be with Vivaldi. The recent incorporation of Proton felt really dirty / sketchy ad pushing. I hope Librewolf takes off, I’m guessing that’s where I will head when Vivaldi completely jumps the shark.
Vivaldi and Librewolf are good recommends. So good call by the author.
I wish I could completely ditch Blink based browsers for Gecko ones, just because I dislike how dominant Blink is thanks to Chrome. But some sites don’t render correctly on Gecko. So a fallback is needed.
Edit: I haven’t used Vivaldi in a long time, and apparently it’s not what I thought it was. Are there really no outstanding open source Blink-based browser out there?
What’s wrong with Vivaldi?
If you dont require open-source in your decision, Vivaldi is great. Its what i use most. It has a ton of granular features that i appreciate, but can be a bit too much for folks that want a more minimal experience.
Agreed. It’s the enthusiast’s browser for sure.
Some people are uncomfortable with it being closed-source. It’s more of a philosophical objection than a criticism of the browser’s functionality.
Fair enough. I love the browser and while I know there’s ways to emulate the same experience, its native with this one.