The DMA already having an impact. Brave Browser installs surge after introduction of browser choice splash screen on iOS.

FatCat@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 1077 points –
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Yeah but Brave? Why not Firefox or Vivaldi.

Forgive them. They aren't used to choosing their browser yet.

They're Apple users. They aren't used to making any decisions when it comes to how their phones work

I’d defend myself, but I work in digital marketing so I’m not going to dissuade anyone from using AdWords.. I mean Android.

Don’t lump us all in with them, Safari with Adblock extensions on mobile, Firefox everywhere else

We don't have to, cuz they work 😉

Vivaldi is a proprietary rebranding of Chromium. Can't say I'd recommend it over (or in addition to) Firefox.

We need less forks of Chromium. Any one company (Google in this case) having total control over browser engines is dangerous, and is a big reason why the whole Apple/Safari/Webkit situation is such a big deal to begin with.

Remember kids, if it's Chromium based, it's still part of the problem. The Chromium project only exists to provide the illusion of choice. Don't let Google have the power to dictate web standards at will.

The worrisome thing is that there's no alternative other than Firefox, or Safari on Apple platforms. Every single other browser is Chromium.

We must defend Firefox at all costs, it's the last glimmer of freedom.

Every single other browser is Chromium.

One exception I'm aware of: GNOME Web (aka epiphany-browser) uses WebKitGTK, which is based on Apple's WebKit rather than Google's Chromium/Blink. But it's Linux desktops first and foremost. Not on mobile platforms, not exactly intended for Windows (might be usable with Cygwin/WSL) or macOS (seems to be on MacPorts) either, and even on non-GNOME desktops like KDE it might seem a bit out of place.

I daily drive Firefox but Epiphany is my first choice fallback on the rare occasion I encounter a site that's broken on Firefox.

True but if you use Vivaldi and then you try to go back to Firefox, it's like going back in the early 2000s. I always say this, Firefox should have been like Vivaldi. Super customizable and packed with features. Instead you have to rely on extensions and thus put your trust in the creator of said extension that they will not sell it. Heck even with extensions, trying to mimic the new tab page from Vivaldi is a masterclass in patience.

Vivaldi is my go to browser. Brave does a better job with blocking ads. I'm switching to Brave whenever I need to stream something on a site loaded with ads, or when YouTube manages to detect my Adblock for a few days.

Not like uBlock Origin is a thing?
Can it really get better than that and consent-o-matic?

I am using uBlock Origin on my Vivaldi. It doesn't block everything.

"This Other Browser is just as good as Brave*!"

*if you install x, y, and z and uninstall a and b

You are comparing a tool to a tool-belt in terms of capabilities.

You think Firefox is the only browser that can use extensions and add-ons? Brave just doesn't need them for adblock because it's built in. But, like all chromium browsers, you can use loads of extensions for loads of use cases. Anything that works on Chrome works on Brave.

It's maybe a few clicks to find the add-ons store in Firefox then searching "uBlock Origin". Hell, when I switched to Firefox last year, I want to say there was even an onboarding that pointed me to the extension upon setup.

I don't like that you can't use the Dark Reader extension on mobile in Vivaldi. I like all of my websites to be dark.

as someone said, its randomised, and I'm sure that other browsers also saw more downloads

Vivaldi is extremely slow on IOS and 2gb+ big. Firefox has no extensions so no Adblock. Generally there are few privacy friendly/Foss browsers on IOS.

Firefox has no extensions so no Adblock.

That's because so far every browser on iOS had to use WebKit as it's HTML rendering engine, meaning that even if you installed another browser manually you were basically still using Safari under the hood. IIRC the new DMA rules include allowing other browser engines like Gecko, so Mozilla is probably already working on making addons available. I mean they are available on Android, so why wouldn't they make them available on iOS now that they finally can?

I wouldn’t be sure because of how stupid Apples compliance is. But if they do I would definitely switch. I guess it’s just going to be Firefox focus until then.

Generally there are few privacy friendly/Foss browsers on IOS.

Um, Safari is so privacy friendly that Google regularly asks me if I'm human. For example it has "private relay" which is similar to TOR* so trackers don't even know your IP address — combine that with blocking third party cookies (and even some first party cookies) by default and providing false data to fight fingerprinting even if you don't block trackers entirely - and blocking them entirely is as simple as installing an extension. Private Relay also adds a layer of encryption on top of DNS queries and otherwise unencrypted http traffic.... so your ISP/Cellular provider/Work/School/abusive husband/etc can't track you

99.99% of the Safari's code is FOSS — dual licensed under LGPL and BSD.

It's not the browser I use - pretty lacking in the feature department, but it's definitely more pro-privacy than Brave or FireFox. I've never had to jump through a captcha to use Google in those browsers.

(* if anything, it's better than TOR... with that service there's a risk your entry/exit nodes are tracking you. With Private Relay it's always one of Apple's servers for the entry node and a reputable cloud company like Akamai for the exit node. Both would have to be compromised in order to identify you... maybe a nation state can do that, but a big data tracking company definitely can't)

I mean they did say few. Generally speaking, every browser is basically safari (WebKit) on iOS and apple doesn’t allow support for 3rd party browser extensions (least natively, Orion supports this somehow). So you’re already limited in that regard. If you don’t use safari , a browser like FF + VPN is IMO a better experience. You also have the option of just using wireguard and controlling your traffic at home/VPS if you’re into that.

WebKit might be open source but the browser deployed by apple is not. That’s like saying chrome is open source. They both use open source engines.

it’s definitely more pro-privacy than Brave or FireFox. I’ve never had to jump through a captcha to use Google in those browsers.

You have this backwards. Google showing you captchas is basically them saying they can't match your browser to any know (shadow) profile they have already stored. So they aren't sure you are a human and if so which one specifically. Getting harassed with a captcha is essentially like a badge of honour for your browsers privacy settings.

No they don’t, that’s exactly what they said. Safari makes them do CAPTCHAs so it is the most privacy friendly. It is true that it has better blocking features than Firefox on iOS (because Firefox doesn’t have extensions).

Because it blocks ads out of the box. I know its new tab screen causes a lot of y’all’s buttholes to clench because it mentions cryptocurrency, but there are harder things to ignore

Careful, if you try to advocate or defend Brave on Lemmy, you're stepping on a minefield.

Idk if I would advocate for or defend it, but I find mobile ads especially abhorrent cuz they take up more relative space on the screen and my upload speed isn’t good enough to be VPNing through my pihole anytime I’m outside the house

iOS browsers are just skins for Safari anyways, and Brave addresses my issue out of the box, so yeah

Because it's listed as the first item on the browser choice screen for some reason, probably

The list is randomized, I've seen several screenshots with different order.

I mean it’s probably just alphabetical, but I wouldn’t know for sure.

Cause Firefox is trash and Mozilla a shell of their former selves?

Also it's so liberating to speak your mind without caring what some scrub with his sweaty fingers on the downvote button thinks

firefox sucks for most people and vivaldi it's too complicated to configure + it looks like pure bloat

Why does it suck though? Works fine for me. Granted, I’m a software engineer, but even looking through my “end user glasses”, I don’t see anything wrong with it.

I wouldn't say Firefox sucks but there are definitely some things that made me use Edge occasionally back when I used Firefox as my main browser. It was mainly stuff like a webpage that doesn't support Firefox and extensions not having a Firefox version. Which sure aren't problems with FireFox, it's more a problem of it not having enough adoption, but to an end user if the thing they wanna use doesn't work in FireFox but works in Chrome then that's FireFox's fault.

I’ve used edge before my university disabled profile syncing (only reason I was using it, to be honest). Edge was fine. Switched to Firefox just to see how it is nowadays, never looked back. Honestly, can’t think of any extension I’m missing. Got quite a few myself, but probably not the same niche as you.
So far I haven’t encountered broken websites yet. Fingers crossed to keep it that way. Though I’ll probably steer clear of such a website unless absolutely necessary.

Granted, I’m a software engineer,

Lmao love how you inserted "software engineer" there like that supposed to mean something.

In this context, maybe it kinda does. We tend to be techies, so a bit more accustomed to shitty UI/UX than most users.

I have very few issues with Firefox. I fine across a site that does not render properly maybe once every other month. I did have some resource issues with it in Windows 10 with it using too much RAM (regularly using 3-4GB) but that has been fixed since I switch to Linux.

every site i use is slow af in librewolf (basically firefox) and also uses a lot of resources more than chromium based browsers

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