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Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by abandonliberty on Thursday March 17, 2022 @09:36PM (#30717804)
I can't believe the apologists commenting on this.

Firefox put a lot of effort into tracking download to install behavior. Maybe this is the only violation you know about. There's no reason to continue to believe in Mozilla's good faith. They've been captured, and are 90% dependent on Google revenue.

Discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28954390

Firefox is dead. It's time to move past denial. It doesn't stand for anything you think it does. I'm sad, too. Time to bury the putrid, rotting corpse.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by pigbearpig on Thursday March 17, 2022 @11:20PM (#30718436)
I can. I'd still rather use Firefox than Chrome or Edge when it comes to privacy. "Firefox is dead ... Time to bury the putrid, rotting corpse" is ridiculously dramatic.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by coffeeblack on Friday March 18, 2022 @03:14AM (#30719404)
What about Vivaldi or Brave?
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by ohgodplsno on Friday March 18, 2022 @04:22AM (#30719768)
"What about unmaintained Chrome or Chrome with ads?"
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by coffeeblack on Friday March 18, 2022 @10:51AM (#30723016)
Your post makes no sense. No idea what you are trying to say.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by eybbus on Friday March 18, 2022 @06:06AM (#30720307)
What do you mean with unmaintained Chrome?
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by pigbearpig on Sunday March 20, 2022 @04:08PM (#30746133)
I like the idea of Vivaldi and honestly probably would use it, but I've been using Firefox as my primary browser for the last 7 years or so and just don't have a reason to switch.

I also think competition is good and am concerned if Blink became the only browser engine.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by devwastaken on Friday March 18, 2022 @01:05AM (#30718907)
Mozilla as an org is a husk of it's former self. They're constantly playing catch up with Firefox, almost abandonwared thunderbird, and have little actual usable innovation. What part of Firefox is "open source" when you can't integrate in your own projects? What's the point when the tech is non portable? Chromium is the clear OS winner, so open and modular you can just make your own browsers.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by jraph on Friday March 18, 2022 @01:17AM (#30718967)
> What part of Firefox is "open source" when you can't integrate in your own projects?

Let's not mix everything up. For a good debate we need clear ideas. Firefox can be built from sources available under open source licenses, it is sufficient to makes it open source. Being embeddable and modular may be desirable features but it isn't a requirement to be open source.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by yjftsjthsd-h on Friday March 18, 2022 @03:25AM (#30719461)
> What part of Firefox is "open source" when you can't integrate in your own projects?

AFAIK, all of it; there are even full independent forks running around. Just because you can't bend the code to your particular use doesn't make it not FOSS.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by onurtag on Friday March 18, 2022 @06:25AM (#30720423)
> What's the point when the tech is non portable

I know that you meant something else with this, but the wording amused me as currently Firefox is the only up-to-date "portable" browser that lets you carry around your browser profile in a usb stick.

Anything with Chromium deletes your extensions, passwords etc. whenever you open it in a new computer.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by nnt38 on Friday March 18, 2022 @07:16AM (#30720717)
You are wrong, portable chromium exists.

https://chromium.woolyss.com/

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by onurtag on Friday March 18, 2022 @07:47AM (#30720952)
Yes, they exist and the application is portable. It works when you open it.

But your profile is not fully portable. They have a page explaining exactly what I mean.

https://chromium.woolyss.com/#secure-preferences

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by jl6 on Thursday March 17, 2022 @11:15PM (#30718410)
How about we try and fix this rather than walking away? All the alternatives are even worse.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by sn41 on Thursday March 17, 2022 @11:49PM (#30718574)
I still often use Lynx, and eww when I am in Emacs.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by toastal on Friday March 18, 2022 @12:05AM (#30718640)
NetSurf GTK and w3m are still on the list for me
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by nmz on Friday March 18, 2022 @12:20AM (#30718712)
Useless alternatives. you might as well suggest we use gopher. frankly they'd be better as gopher browsers.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by toastal on Friday March 18, 2022 @06:35AM (#30720472)
Somebody's never been on low-end systems or stuck without a working video driver and can be happy most wikis work through TUI
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by account42 on Friday March 18, 2022 @10:46AM (#30722951)
Ok then how do you plan to fix this? The only outside entity who has any say what direction Mozilla takes Firefox in is the one paying them: Google.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by rackjack on Thursday March 17, 2022 @10:03PM (#30717993)
What're the alternatives to Firefox? The only ones that come to mind are Opera and Brave, and Brave had some controversy too.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by e2le on Friday March 18, 2022 @12:01AM (#30718618)
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by cmroanirgo on Friday March 18, 2022 @02:12AM (#30719169)
Looks great, but their only focus is desktop it seems (ie, no android solution)
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by prox on Friday March 18, 2022 @02:31AM (#30719236)
Well, to be fair if you run Android that’s another bag of privacy problems. But phones are a whole different discussion. We need more Linux phones!
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by scns on Friday March 18, 2022 @05:48AM (#30720209)
Check out Mull on Android.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by moistly on Thursday March 17, 2022 @11:13PM (#30718397)
Opera was sold off to Chinese investors, and I recall stories about it offering sketchy banking/bitcoin services.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by willcipriano on Thursday March 17, 2022 @10:52PM (#30718274)
Lynx is the only one I trust, but it's quite limited. Everything else has my suspicion.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by alfiedotwtf on Friday March 18, 2022 @02:25AM (#30719212)
What's the lynx-but-graphical alternative?

I just want a minimal web view and input a URL. Why doesn't this exist

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by commandnotfound on Friday March 18, 2022 @03:37AM (#30719520)
It does exist, it's called netsurf[0].

[0]: http://www.netsurf-browser.org/

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by alfiedotwtf on Friday March 18, 2022 @04:47AM (#30719899)
oh! Thanks
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by lextuto on Friday March 18, 2022 @08:46AM (#30721470)
Maybe Min [0] works for you.

[0] https://minbrowser.org/

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by yjftsjthsd-h on Friday March 18, 2022 @03:27AM (#30719476)
> What's the lynx-but-graphical alternative?

Dillo or elinks

> I just want a minimal web view and input a URL.

Surf (suckless project)

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by alfiedotwtf on Friday March 18, 2022 @04:47AM (#30719901)
Also thanks, TIL alternatives do exist
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by NylaTheWolf on Friday March 18, 2022 @03:15PM (#30726327)
Elinks looks like it hasn't had an update in years. There's a fork of it called Felinks [0] which seems pretty actively maintained. The last release was on December 24, 2021.

[0] https://github.com/rkd77/elinks

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by jraph on Friday March 18, 2022 @01:13AM (#30718944)
w3m too.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by yinyang_in on Thursday March 17, 2022 @10:42PM (#30718230)
I see Vivaldi is good browser, operated by former opera people
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by RedHobbit on Thursday March 17, 2022 @10:55PM (#30718302)
I've been using Vivaldi ever since reintroduced tab stacking which I loved from the Opera days. Solid browser, no complaints.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by anthropodie on Thursday March 17, 2022 @10:57PM (#30718311)
It's closed source, right?
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by UberFly on Friday March 18, 2022 @01:45AM (#30719087)
The UI stuff on top of Chromium is closed. They don't want it ripped off I guess. Vivaldi an awesome browser for those who like to customize.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by babypuncher on Thursday March 17, 2022 @11:31PM (#30718486)
Vivaldi is still Chrome though
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by abandonliberty on Sunday March 20, 2022 @06:39PM (#30747492)
Yes, I'm in Vivaldi as well. For now! We need to avoid making software/product choices part of our identity.

A true firefox fan would've raised the alarm years ago, and voted with their feet when it kept moving in the wrong direction and stopped being the best option on the market.

Loving a brand no matter what they do is suboptimal.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by anthropodie on Thursday March 17, 2022 @10:31PM (#30718165)
I read about librewolf the other day which is a fork of firefox.

Edit: BTW what happens if I download Firefox from site like Softpedia.All the people who downloaded Firefox from this website have same identifier?

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by hiccuphippo on Friday March 18, 2022 @01:26AM (#30719008)
Yes, the article mentions Mozilla's http repository[0] and some other third party as ways to download it without a unique identifier.

[0] https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by bigbugbag on Friday March 18, 2022 @06:58AM (#30720616)
I've been using librewolf for a while after experiencing issue with waterfox.

it is not really a full fork of firefox, it's firefox with a few patches applied and sane default configuration.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by nanomonkey on Friday March 18, 2022 @02:20AM (#30719186)
Nyxt,"the hacker's power-browser"?! https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by OrlandoHakim on Thursday March 17, 2022 @10:27PM (#30718140)
What is controversial about Brave? Seems like the best alternative at the moment IMHO
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by vlark on Thursday March 17, 2022 @11:27PM (#30718460)
Some folks object to the Brave Rewards system and the embedded crypto wallet.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by SllX on Thursday March 17, 2022 @11:55PM (#30718597)
I just disabled all of that. No Chromium browser is my main browser but when I need one, Brave seems like the best option.

If you were to pick between Brave, Vivaldi and I dunno, maybe Edge, just for when you need Chrome-compatibility and pretty much no other reason, which one would you pick and why?

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by GlumWoodpecker on Friday March 18, 2022 @12:20AM (#30718716)
Ungoogled Chromium.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by heikrana on Friday March 18, 2022 @02:20AM (#30719193)
Ungoogled chromium is the most google-less you can go when it comes to using chromium engine.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by SllX on Friday March 18, 2022 @11:40AM (#30723650)
Honestly forgot this existed. I’ll look into it.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by vlark on Tuesday March 22, 2022 @11:37AM (#30767389)
Vivaldi. Like Firefox, it has cross-system syncing (Windows, MacOS, Linux -- including Android & Raspberry Pi).
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by moralestapia on Friday March 18, 2022 @01:11AM (#30718937)
It is opt-in and also extremely easy to enable/disable.

It also comes with a built-in ad blocker that works really good.

It's fast and doesn't eat your CPU/RAM.

Recommended, 100%.

Disclaimer: Not a Brave shill.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by babypuncher on Thursday March 17, 2022 @11:32PM (#30718490)
Even without all the controversies, Brave is still Chrome.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by UberFly on Friday March 18, 2022 @01:46AM (#30719099)
Brave is still Chromium you mean. Chrome is a browser by Google. Chromium is the open-source engine.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by highwind on Thursday March 17, 2022 @10:41PM (#30718226)
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by dangerface on Friday March 18, 2022 @07:53AM (#30720994)
They report anonymised data that can be turned off. They also connect to servers for auto updates and safe browsing checks, everything you would expect of a modern secure browser.

The people upset with brave for auto updates also consider tor browser spyware because it checks for updates LOL.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by coffeeblack on Friday March 18, 2022 @03:15AM (#30719411)
Careful, Opera is owned by a Chinese company that is controlled by the CCP.

What you want is Vivaldi.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by aembleton on Friday March 18, 2022 @02:24AM (#30719211)
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by aembleton on Friday March 18, 2022 @05:34AM (#30720129)
As pointed out elsewhere, this is unmaintained, and you should instead use https://librewolf.net/
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by illiac786 on Friday March 18, 2022 @07:52AM (#30720987)
Does not work with 1password for me. Seems I'm not the only one: https://www.reddit.com/r/LibreWolf/comments/qom9br/1password...
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by bigbugbag on Friday March 18, 2022 @06:55AM (#30720595)
waterfox and librewolf.

then otter, seamonkey, falkon, k-meleon, srware iron, qutebrowser, comodo dragon and comodo icedragon, dooble, midori, epic.

not sure if maxthon and Avant Browser are still a thing

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by NylaTheWolf on Tuesday March 22, 2022 @03:42PM (#30770539)
I always thought Otter was just a mobile browser! Thanks for sharing! I love hearing about obscure browsers!
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by WhyNotHugo on Friday March 18, 2022 @06:52AM (#30720573)
> Firefox is dead. It's time to move past denial. It doesn't stand for anything you think it does. I'm sad, too. Time to bury the putrid, rotting corpse.

I don't disagree, it's just that I need a browser, and there's no real alternatives.

Looking a lot at Librewolf. Have there been any independent audits of it?

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by babypuncher on Thursday March 17, 2022 @11:31PM (#30718478)
You say all this as if Chrome is somehow not even worse
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by UberFly on Friday March 18, 2022 @01:48AM (#30719105)
Chrome is worse. Chromium is the open-source engine which is fine until someone like Google turns it into their minion.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by MrYellowP on Friday March 18, 2022 @07:01AM (#30720629)
You make it sound like Google took Chromium and created Chrome out of it.

It's the other way round.

Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by UberFly on Friday March 18, 2022 @01:31PM (#30725060)
The two are separate things. Chrome is built on top of the chromium base. I guess technically chromium and chrome v1 were developed and released about the same time so chicken and egg thing.
Re:Each Firefox download has a unique identifier by bigbugbag on Friday March 18, 2022 @06:44AM (#30720528)
ever heard of waterfox or librewolf ?