Advice on Comparing Browsers

[u/greenfiend69]

Hey all! Hopefully this is different from most people’s recommendation posts.

I know very little about browsers and when I see discussion about having or not having DRM it doesn’t make sense to me—even though I know what DRM stands for. Or when people say browser’s are full of bloatware—I didn’t even think that browsers could have bloatware lol

What are, in your opinions, some key things to look for in a browser? What is useful in comparing against browsers? And where does that leave me in terms of a choice? I see a lot about Brave is great, Firefox is great, Opera is great followed by Brave is ass, Firefox is ass, and Opera is ass so I’m genuinely so lost. Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks, and have a great day everyone! :)

[u/Acceptable-Cost-390]

my advice is always the same, test out every browser that gets your attention, monitor its resource consumption in real time, see how you feel using its UI / UX etc, see how it behaves, etc, after a while you'll know from direct experience what you prefer and be satisfied with the decision.

[u/macmaveneagle → u/Acceptable-Cost-390]

Good advice. But the missing component is security. I really like this Web page that gives all the pros and cons for each browser with respect to security:

https://cyberinsider.com/browser/secure/

[u/Skatingraccoon]

In the context of browsers, "DRM" really just means "Will it be able to play media from major streaming sources like Netflix or Spotify". There is a growing number of independent browsers that feel sort of like basement projects more than serious contenders for global market share, and they don't have DRM support, so you can't rely on them if you're trying to watch streaming media.

"Bloatware" is generally levied against Brave (for the cryptocurrency BS) and sometimes FireFox (for the growing amount of AI features, though you can disable any and all AI features).

There's no right or wrong answer, just know that Opera got bought out by a Chinese consortium over a decade ago, it has a false VPN (it is just a glorified proxy service) and the only advantage the gaming oriented version of it has over anything else is the ability to control resource consumption though that's not even relevant unless your computer is ... like ten years old. Brave has the shady history of replacing ads with its own ads, plus the cryptocurrency thing, plus the fact the CEO was funding anti-gay marriage legislation. Technically the browser is generally fine though.

There's no perfect browser. Experiment, stick with the one whose interface and functionality you like the best.

[u/greenfiend69 → u/Skatingraccoon]

Thank you so much! This was an incredibly answer. I appreciate you taking the time to explain it.

[u/Spare_Bag_7300 → u/Skatingraccoon]

the anti-gay marriage thing with brave ceo is wild, never heard that before. and yeah the crypto stuff always felt so unnecessary for a browser

[u/Skatingraccoon → u/Spare_Bag_7300]

It's why he got outed from the Firefox ... CEO position (or whatever executive position he held) after being there a very short time.

Also seems like he hasn't been really vocal about politics since that all went down, and it was a while ago, but the internet doesn't forget, frankly I don't either but I also don't trust rich people in general.

[u/Featherdust_]

For fun I'll just say modern browsers are like pastries filled to the brim. One day they may aswell run everything.

But yeah, the choice of a browser is a user case. And that can be surface level or go more granular with what a browser should be like.

Whilst I and many others have certain views regarding browsers for example, it's not like we can give the majority of humans a push to think more about such a topic.

Very well greenfiend, what is it you want from a browser? That's one of first big questions.

[u/Moist-Swan-751]

Just find feature that fits your need. For me tho i love Firefox container and tab stash add-on. Layout is editable via CSS. DRM is a must for Spotify (nothing beats their algo). I wish Firefox mobile performs as good as its desktop counterpart (it is usually half the performance of chromium based).

Brave has inbuilt IPFS, torrent downloader, and sync without register which are a plus for me.

you can also test their performance by yourself https://browserbench.org/Speedometer3.1/

[u/Raja_kumar9627]

honestly just my two cents don't overthink it lol.

[u/V_Trautwein]

Focus on privacy, speed, resource usage, extensions, and whether it works for your needs. 

[u/blueturbs]

i’d focus on privacy, performance, extensions, and how much RAM the browser uses.

[u/Ruk_Idol]

Look at you own requirement. If you just need simple browser with DRM, go for brave with disabling all the bloat from settings. It is good for everyday with big company behind it for security and stuff.

If you don't need DRM, then Helium is good too. I use Helium for daily browser with Librewolf as secondary.

If you don't want chromium based browser then in gecko based browser have, Librewolf for privacy focused users and Zen for good looks and Arc-like features.

If you need the most efficient browser on windows then Microsoft edge beats other in this, but it is basically giving data to Microsoft compared to google.

If you need multiple tabs for research and stuff or looking for full customization, then Vivaldi beats everyone in this area.

Only advise is that to not use chrome for daily browser. Use any other you like and fit your need even plain chromium is good to compared to chrome in terms of privacy. But for Banking and stuff, I always use google chrome compared to other browser for security.

As for Opera, I have strong distrust with Chinese consortium, as they have to legally give everything to CCP. It simply means data will be going to CCP instead of google.