Are there realistic browser alternatives to Chrome and Firefox?

[-]

Hkmarkp@reddit

Keep using Firefox. it will have issues with Youtube occasionally because Google will F with it now and again and try to get people to use Chrome.

Firefox is the only alternative engine to Google.

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Unfortunately Mozilla is positioning itself as an ad company, much like Google, and is also making like 80% of their income from Google, and they have been moving towards more data collection practices.

With their trajectory, we’re going to have to move on eventually, but maybe not completely from the code base. I recommend checking out the other forks of Firefox over Firefox itself, like Librewolf.

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jorgejhms@reddit

Mozilla is not position themselves as an ad company, stop spreading FUD.

They are developing a primary first data analyst for ads that gather cluster data on how many people see an ad (without identifying anyone). If this turns out to be viable, they can work to push legislation that requires privacy preserving ads in the future, as they still are a non profit organization.

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HotSeatGamer@reddit

Nothing to Fear just yet as long as we have alternatives, but it certainly is Uncertain and I Doubt this is really good for the consumer.

The ad industry is basically THE definition of the phrase, “Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile”, as they have repeatedly demonstrated. Why should we keep giving them another inch? Why should we even mess around with giving them anything at all? They’re going to do all they can to de-anonymize the data, they aren’t going to keep it protected, and it will eventually be leaked without so much as an apology.

They are also jumping into AI, which we know has an insatiable appetite for human generated content.

Ya I really don’t think my concerns are unwarranted, and downplaying them with the label of “FUD” is foolish.

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Frequent_Writer_3833@reddit

Hot Seat Gamer you missed the point. You made claims without any proof that Mozilla is ads based. You provide no evidence of who you are and where you got your data from. You just provided your opinion so don't be surprised if someone call it out as being "FUD".

FUD I give to you kind person. Own it.

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HotSeatGamer@reddit

https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/zorin_os_173/

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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AutoModerator@reddit

Your submission was automatically removed because you linked to the mobile version of a website using Google AMP. Please post the original article, generally this is done by removing amp in the URL.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[-]

HotSeatGamer@reddit

https://therecord.media/noyb-europe-complaint-mozilla-firefox-privacy-preserving-attribution

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HotSeatGamer@reddit

Well I never know when posting links is going to get me post removed on Reddit but here you go:

https://www.osnews.com/story/140047/mozilla-acquires-ad-analytics-company-for-some-reason/

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/advertising/formats/

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RequirementNo147@reddit

mozilla become shit

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whattteva@reddit

Such is the reality of the modern web these days. Chromium clones, Firefox, or Safari are really the only viable ones. Other browsers either lack some crucial feature or just plain won't render a lot of sites.

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NolanSyKinsley@reddit (OP)

That's the odd thing, one of the reasons I don't want to keep with firefox is it isn't properly rendering a couple of websites. One being the USGS earthquake map, for a whole week it wouldn't render the actual dots to show where the earthquakes were, it is working now but it wasn't just a day ago. The other is an interactive fallout 76 map, it was just acting odd and flickering.

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65726973616769747461@reddit

it's been 6 months, did you found what you're looking for? cause I'm in a similar position right now

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mrvictorywin@reddit

I can open fo76 map on FF android, could you have yoo many extensions enabled?

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alexklaus80@reddit

YeahI hear that. I was a webdev until recently and cross-browsing test has become so much simplified that I only needed to check on one of the Chromium family and Safari, and previously used resource making sure it works on IE, earlier Edge, Firefox and whatnot was allocated onto making sure it works cross-device like PC and smartphone of various sizes. I don’t see Firefox getting a good attention from webdev any time soon.

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Altareos@reddit

that's exactly the problem with chrome and other chromium clones (yes, that includes brave, and that's not its only unredeemable flaw) flooding the market. many web apps now are developed for chromium specifically and not the web at large, and it sucks.

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HotSeatGamer@reddit

That’s always been and probably will always be a problem.

The browser with the most market share will get developed on first and worked on the most. It just makes sense.

I remember when I used to have to open a page in Internet Explorer to get it to load correctly, and now the Microsoft default web browser is Chrome-based too…

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UntestedMethod@reddit

Lol remember back in the 00s when websites would show a banner like "this website does not work on internet explorer, please download firefox"

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ERICduhRED@reddit

Both of those sites seem fine to me in Firefox. Have you tried the flatpak version of Firefox?

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goonwild18@reddit

Or you could run an OS that is capable on the desktop and stop wasting so much time chasing application compatibility - since it's the ONLY thing that matters on a desktop.

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whattteva@reddit

I'm not sure where this rant came from when the only thing I've mentioned is browsers. You sound like a tortured individual.

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goonwild18@reddit

Sure I added value. Linux is the only OS out there with a 1% market share or higher that can't competently run 40 of the top 50 applications human beings rely on computers to run. That's literally the job of the OS.

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whattteva@reddit

Ok. This post has more "value" since you actually explained your position further and not just ranting like your post above.

I actually agree with some of your points about applications and upvoted your comment. But your argument is flawed though. ChromeOS has like 4-5% market share and while Chrome is excellent there, it doesn't really run things like Photoshop, MS Office etc. So Linux isn't alone there. I do like ChromeOS way better than Linux for my potato computers though. Cause none of the so-called "lightweight" Linux distro actually runs a modern web browser well (which is like 70-90% of what you do on a computer these days). Chrome on ChromeOS though runs 10 times better than it does on any Linux.

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Bestmasters@reddit

The lightweight distros are more lightweight than ChromeOS. However, just because the OS is lightweight doesn't mean the apps are. Chrome is a giant RAM eater, so even on the most light OSes, it will still lag a potato. ChromeOS runs on Chrome, meaning the only OS there is to run is the browser. That's why it runs Chrome so well, because ChromeOS is just Chrome. Hell, it's desktop environment is neither X11 or Wayland, it's Aura/Ozone, the GUI engine for Chromium.

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EzeNoob@reddit

Bait used to be believable 🚬

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Bestmasters@reddit

GNOME Web is also a viable one, since it's based on WebKit (Safari's engine)

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abhishek_parihar0@reddit

Having same problems, YouTube and ChatGPT are very laggy in Firefox.

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humid_mist@reddit

Check here: https://www.reddit.com/r/browsers/s/vUCcqaJ5OM

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theRealGrahamDorsey@reddit

Not realistic but up and coming and something to pay attention to: ladybug browser.

https://ladybird.org/

I am skeptical and hopeful of this project at the same time.

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Calm_Bit_throwaway@reddit

Kind of dumb question: how does the browser plan on supporting the DRM keys that Netflix et al require for HD content? Or is it planning to forgo that in favor of a completely open build?

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vixalien@reddit

they will probably integrate Google Widevine, like Firefox does

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isxios@reddit

Can these be add-ons, like extensions, or do they have to be built into the browser itself? The add-on option could allow them to have a fully open browser that allows the user to choose if they want the proprietary code.

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vixalien@reddit

On firefox, widevine is provided as a plugin. when you play DRM-protected media for the first time, firefox will ask you if you want to enable it

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Echo_Monitor@reddit

Given that it’s lead by Andrew Kling, a man who thinks using "they" for build instructions for his software is political, I’d rather steer clear of it, personally.

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MidnightJoker387@reddit

I heard he doesn't return deposit bottles. Fuck that guy's browser!

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QueenOfHatred@reddit

Well.. at the very least, there is also Servo..

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ilikedeserts90@reddit

That is political, and I'll be using it.

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5thvoice@reddit

Non-men compiling software is political? How?

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ilikedeserts90@reddit

ALL of this gender-war shit is inherently political.

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Kleeb@reddit

Representation isn't inherently political. It has become political because one party is running on a platform attacking it.

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5thvoice@reddit

I don't understand. If a woman wants to run his code, in what way is that political?

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ilikedeserts90@reddit

It isn't, but that isn't what this is about and you know that perfectly well.

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5thvoice@reddit

Having read the original issue, that seems to be exactly what it's about. Is there some other context I'm missing?

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loozerr@reddit

Well, that's a bit disappointing, such a trivial change and people can't be adults about it.

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5thvoice@reddit

Honestly, it's about what I expected. Most people who complain about the "gender wars" tend to get really weird about it.

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loozerr@reddit

Yeah, just didn't expect Andreas to be one of those people, I've followed his YouTube on and off during development.

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ilikedeserts90@reddit

Yes, you're asking me to believe that you people give a shit about women. We've been doing this for more than a decade now. Jig is up and you're getting told no.

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5thvoice@reddit

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Can you please explain how using gender neutral language in documentation, when the software itself has nothing to do with gender, is political?

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ilikedeserts90@reddit

Poor little guy, just has no idea and is so confused :(

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5thvoice@reddit

Yes, it's awfully confusing when the person you're talking to is being vague and failing to say anything concrete.

that isn't what this is about

So what is that disagreement actually about?

We've been doing this for more than a decade now.

Doing what, exactly?

Jig is up and you're getting told no.

If I'm getting told no, then what is the question?

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henry1679@reddit

I'll be using it still.

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SlightTaro@reddit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5pEFAm63NM

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Zeldakina@reddit

I didn't realize this was happening. I ran SerenityOS for a short time just see what it was looking like about two years ago I think.

It's nice to see something new.

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Papa_Kasugano@reddit

Fireship recently did a video that talks about ladybird a bit.

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gw-fan822@reddit

very laggy for me too. Hard to pause, change volume or scroll the video.

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Cuboid_Raptor@reddit

You might've already done this but you can try using betterfox/arkenfox and just tweaking in general
(e.g. youtube was giving me problems on firefox too, I disabled av1 encoding in firefox about:config as I have older hardware, ambient mode is another thing I've heard lots about)

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Iksf@reddit

Sorry but no there's no better game in town, there's only firefox and chrome. There is gnome web built on webkit the safari engine so maybe try that, but you'll likely be disappointed its a pretty primitive browser

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dafzor@reddit

Firefox is the only "viable" non chromium based and anything else is firefox based so you'll have the same issues. And I put "viable" in quotes because there's already a fair number of sites that wont work on anything non-chromium.

I use firefox and also lag on youtube after a while, my current recourse is to open firefox task manager and kill the youtube tabs or restart the browser.

Just need to learn to live with the least anoying option.

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chickenthechicken@reddit

Gnome Web, it's based on WebKit. All browsers are going to be based on Blink (Chrome/Chromium), Gecko (Firefox), or WbKit (Safari) and are going to preform about the same as those three browsers. Like another comenter mentioned, there are a few others in development like Ladybird but they are not up to the same level as the big three yet.

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crosphxx@reddit

YouTube purposely makes it unpleasant to use with Firefox easy way to fix this is change your user agent to chrome or something and it should fix the lagging and there's YouTube videos on this issue with people even finding the code in which why YouTube sucks on Firefox and the fix and why Google does this.

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jr735@reddit

I can't say I've been having trouble with Firefox and YouTube, and I do have pretty dated hardware. I'm using the distribution repositories of Firefox in Mint and Firefox ESR in Debian.

For what it's worth, I tried benchmarking the Firefox ESR versus the binary Firefox straight from the Firefox site, and the latter was significantly faster. That may be of interest to you. I was fine with what I had.

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AvonMustang@reddit

I use Firefox almost exclusively at work (Mac) and home (Ubuntu) and never have lag issues so it’s surprising to me OP is having issues.

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Datuser14@reddit

I get a fuck ton of dropped frames in video playback.

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jr735@reddit

Try something different, then. There are several ways to install Firefox, and there's no reason my 10 year old desktop with no discrete graphics card should play HD YouTube videos without problems while people with newer hardware cannot.

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carltp@reddit

Agree. I've got a 2012 Mac running Kodi, Firefox, mpv, vlc just fine (if not a bit slow to launch).

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jr735@reddit

Mine is about the same vintage, 64 bit desktop. There's no reason something newer should be slow.

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jr735@reddit

Anything is possible. Someone could have something set up wrong, something else going wrong causing lag, who knows. In the end, there are alternatives right within Firefox itself. Set it up correctly, or try something different, such as regular distribution Firefox, Firefox ESR, Firefox installed from source, Firefox from their own Debian type repositories, the binary, a flat, whatever.

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Trick-Apple1289@reddit

netsurf, midori, mothra, nyxt, qutebrowser, surf, badwolf.

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Makefile_dot_in@reddit

midori is Firefox-based now, since it got taken over by the Astian foundation which rebased it on Firefox

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geolaw@reddit

Original version still available as I installed it recently on a minimal crunchbang build

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DeliciousIncident@reddit

crunchbang

Last crunchbang release was in 2013. Are you a time traveler from the past?

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geolaw@reddit

Crunchbang++ took over , I think their last build was June of this year

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RiabininOS@reddit

For text - links

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Zireael07@reddit

Can you explain? (I am increasingly interested in text mode browsers, because I expect they'll ignore CSS, which will mean ignoring most of the floating windows crap)

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RiabininOS@reddit

When you open documentation you have no ads, no banners, no odd pics. But in beginning its not comfortable

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Zireael07@reddit

Sadly it looks like links doesn't support javascript?

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RiabininOS@reddit

Not sure, but seems there's a further version of that called elinks. Marked as ecmascript supports, so probably js too

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Zireael07@reddit

Thanks, will check it out

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DeliciousIncident@reddit

Nope, most (all?) production-ready browsers are either Chormium-based or Firefox-based.

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Eternal_Flame_85@reddit

There is no usable browser that isn't Firefox based or chromium based. The best thing you can do is to found the one you like more between them

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gnerfed@reddit

I mean... The 2nd largest browser by marketshare isn't based on Firefox or Chrome. It's safari and uses WebKit is the engine instead of Blink that is used by Chrome.

GNOME Web also uses WebKit so if you want a browser that isn't either go with that?

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MidnightJoker387@reddit

The question was a browser alternative (aka one can switch to) and needing to buy new hardware and use a different OS is probably not practical for a browser change. LOL

I use GNOME Web on my Linux install but is rather bare bones and really only good for a backup browser.

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gnerfed@reddit

What are you even saying? Nothing about what I said requires a change of hardware.

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MidnightJoker387@reddit

Ummmm Using the Safari browser would require a Mac or iPhone. The post OP was asking about an alternative to Chrome and Firefox (aka switch). Safari is irrelevant outside the Apple ecosystem so not sure why you are even mentioning it on a Linux subreddit.

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plazman30@reddit

Google Chrome uses Blink, which is a fork of WebKit that happened in 2013. Over the last 11 years, Blink has gone in a different direction from WebKit. And I believe Apple stopped porting WebKit to Linux and Windows after the split.

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gnerfed@reddit

You can get a webkit based browser on Linux and that is the point.

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Eternal_Flame_85@reddit

I haven't heard of anyone using safari on Linux(I'm not sure that it even has a port for Linux)

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gnerfed@reddit

No, probably not. However, Safari uses Webkit and so does GNOME Web.

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9aaa73f0@reddit

Konquerer uses webkit as well I think.

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plazman30@reddit

WebKit is based on KHTML, which was the original rendering engine used by Konqueror.

Though Apple did give back all the code they wrote for WebKit 1.0 to the Konquere developers, they really didn't work with them for new features. So, Konqueror ended up just adopting WebKit.

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tajetaje@reddit

Gnome web uses webkitGTK, which is completely different besides sharing some core components.

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Wonderful-Citron-678@reddit

The core components being 85% of a web engine.

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0riginal-Syn@reddit

I guess he didn't like being wrong. He deleted all his comments.

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tajetaje@reddit

I mean not really. WebGTK provides a custom implementation if everything that interacts with the system (from downloads to notifications to GPU) and iirc also has modifications to the renderer. Plus all the UI components being completely different

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0riginal-Syn@reddit

None of that has anything to do with web rendering. That is generally what will determine whether sites work well or not. The other stuff is the bridge between the web rendering and the desktop environment.

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gnerfed@reddit

Yet it still isn't gecko or blink or goanna.

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dagbrown@reddit

Konqueror is a sort of ancestor of Safari, so you could give that a go.

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Retticle@reddit

Blink was forked off of WebKit. Yes it's been a bit and they've diverged, but it's similar and controlled by another mega corporation.

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human-exe@reddit

They are quite different nowadays. Webkit focuses on web standards (they are best on the market right now) and privacy,
while Chromium focuses on ChromeOS features and Google's self-invented web techs

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gnerfed@reddit

It's been more than a decade, that's a pretty long time. Sure, it's owned by another massive corp but that wasn't the question.

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feror_YT@reddit

Writing extensions for Safari sucks…

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Wonderful-Citron-678@reddit

As of a few years ago it supports the same extension api ad chrome/firefox.

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feror_YT@reddit

Except you have to build them with Xcode…

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primalbluewolf@reddit

Lynx works fine.

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jr735@reddit

It's a great tool to read news articles behind paywalls.

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MarsDrums@reddit

I was going to say this. But I'll add, LibreWolf is pretty good. I couldn't play videos on Odysee with Firefox so I switched and now I can do everything I was doing with Firefox and now I can watch those videos on Odysee.

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fellipec@reddit

I need to stop being lazy and check LibreWolf...

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MarsDrums@reddit

If you use FireFox then it's really easy to back up your passwords and bookmarks and port them over to LibreWolf. I needed to do this the other day. Someone I follow only uses Odysee (I will probably start using it too now that I can actually watch videos on it again).

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xdsp1d3r@reddit

Waterfox user here, I always see LibreWolf being recommended instead, is it any better?

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MarsDrums@reddit

I've never used waterfox but I may give it a try later today.

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KeijoKanerva@reddit

DuckDuckGo has a really good browser.

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SkiFire13@reddit

That doesn't really answer the question though. DuckDuckGo uses the system webview component. On Windows and Androdi that will use Blink (Chrome's engine) and on MacOS and iOS it will use WebKit (Safari's engine), so ultimately you'll still use one of the main engines. And as the other comment pointed out, it isn't even supported on Linux.

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_greg_m_@reddit

From their website:

Does DuckDuckGo make a browser?

Yes, the DuckDuckGo Private Browser for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android is a privacy-protecting alternative to Google Chrome and other browsers.

No Linux listed there.

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siodhe@reddit

Vivaldi is pretty good, comparable with other major browsers. Not quite "better", since it has a few stupid bits of its own (separate sessions aren't separate enough, some sites' menus are invisible to mouse clicks), but it's fine. What it didn't do is burn stunning amounts of I/O all the time, and gobbled memory slower than Firefox.

Firefox and Chrome are both contemptable resource guzzlers. The last Firefox that was good was probably between 52 and 56, when the superior Session Manager addon still worked. FIrefox's own session manager is pathetic. Both browsers now consume terrifying amounts of CPU time with parallelism many people did not want, because it means those browsers' impacts are no contained to a single CPU core, but can now bring an entire system to its knees.

Firefox makes my computer's fan run even when the system is idle, meaning I've screenlocked it and am off doing other things. Firefox continues to suck power, to the point I changed my screenlock to suspend all firefoxen during lock. When reopening the session later, Firefox apparently wants to incrementally do every single update (disk I/O) over the entire suspension time, slamming the system load way over 500, and locking up some older computers for up to 30 minutes while it continues its utterly stupid updates.

That being said, I've come back to Firefox for the moment. Both FIrefox and VIvaldi are incomprehensibly bad once they hit a point where the session starts crashing on launch. While Firefox is bad at handling this, it limps through. VIvaldi has nothing to handle this situation, and the devs really just want you to blow your session away to fix the problem.

Most popular browsers have little respect for the user's session, treating it as nearly throwaway data, instead of realizing some users find their session content to be rather important.

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MilitisTemplarii@reddit

Now im ussing waterfox, give It a try, i feel It a little bit faster than firefox (wich IS based on), and Works stable

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enesbala@reddit

Zen is absolutely amazing.

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semeionic@reddit

What about Opera?

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19GK50@reddit

I loved Opera, then; Chinese money became involved, removed it moved to Vivaldi

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semeionic@reddit

Vivaldi have a builted-in VPN?

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DamonsLinux@reddit

AFAIK no.

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Retticle@reddit

They used to have their own engine but they switched to Chromium. Either way it got bought by a Chinese company and I wouldn't trust them. If you're looking for something Chromium based from the creators of Opera check out Vivaldi.

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guest271314@reddit

Either way it got bought by a Chinese company and I wouldn't trust them.

You must not trust Apple devices or Levi's either.

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polish_jerry@reddit

It's based on chromium

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Original_Dimension99@reddit

There's Microsoft Edge

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TheDouchiestBro@reddit

I enjoy Brave. I use it for watching videos and stuff because it blocks a lot of ads by default.

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scara-manga@reddit

Upvote. Still have to keep Chrome on standby, but its generally been good for me.

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TheDouchiestBro@reddit

Yeah, that's basically what I do. Chrome keeps all my passwords and favourites and stuff.

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Just-Spirit6944@reddit

using opera since 2001 :D

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redoubt515@reddit

If nobody has mentioned it already, you could give Gnome Web a try, it uses the WebkitGTK browser engine (a fork of Webkit, Safari's Browser Engine, which is itself a fork of a no longer maintained browser engine called KHTML which came out of the Linux world). Gnome Web is a basic browser, I think it has basic adblocking built in. Its too simple for me, but it might be a good option for you.

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redoubt515@reddit

but it is video playback on youtube is pretty laggy even if I have plenty of headroom on my CPU/GPU

Have you checked to make sure hardware acceleration is configured properly?

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fin_a_u@reddit

Vivaldi

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epidemiks@reddit

I've been on Brave for a few years. Lately it has been a pain in the same way you describe. 40GB+ of free ram, low CPU load, yet pages are hanging, sluggish, crashing. I downloaded edge for a laugh a few days ago and I have been impressed by everything I've thrown at it. Nothing like the MS browsers of yore.

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Personal-Sea8977@reddit

What about edge

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ar_argento@reddit

I was a user of Firefox since...ever, but switched to Brave brower a couple.of months ago, and i'm pretty happy with it. I use a Tom of extresions and Firefox was struggling , Brave runs fine with the same extensions

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johncate73@reddit

Not really. Pretty much everything that actually works is derived in some way from one or the other, unless you're on Mac and can use Safari. And if you were, you wouldn't be on a Linux subreddit, I don't imagine.

Pale Moon is a hard fork of Firefox, but even it often backports FF security updates. Everything is either based on Blink or Gecko (or Goanna, as Pale Moon calls their fork) engines.

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MrMrsPotts@reddit

Opera?

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brotherkin@reddit

I use Edge on Ubuntu 24 and it runs great 🤷‍♂️

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birds_swim@reddit

Untill Ladybird makes an official release, your browser choices are only Firefox-based or Chromium-based.

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plazman30@reddit

I've been using Firefox since 1.0. No issues on YouTube. No lag. It all just works. Are you trying to block YouTube ads? Cause that will cause all sorts of problems. I've used Firefox on Mac, Windows and Linux. No issues.

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primalbluewolf@reddit

Lynx or firefox.

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JerryRiceOfOhio2@reddit

there's konqueror, chromium, edge, opera. i think they all still exist and are still available on Linux. i use Firefox for everything except a couple things for work, where i use chrome or edge, which are basically the same browser

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SubstantialArm6307@reddit

Firefox works fine mostly cases except youtube (try to disable ublock addons)

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Lost4name@reddit

I am trying Falkon right now and having no problems.

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mitko17@reddit

Currently trying Firefox but it is video playback on youtube is pretty laggy even if I have plenty of headroom on my CPU/GPU.

Check whether you are using ffmpeg or ffmpeg-free. The latter version is laggy for me on some sites.

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crlcan81@reddit

Can someone please explain this 'youtube is laggy for firefox/adblockers' thing? I've seen maybe.. a fraction of a second difference and had more unrelated problems on mobile youtube then I have on desktop.

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Todoroki_FR@reddit

I mean I had a decent experience with the Brave browser

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Hans_Wurst_42@reddit

You can follow the zen browser hype. Based on FF with some addons like betterfox etc and looks like ARC (which is chromium).

There are just some different browser alternatives without webkit and gecko:

Midori
gnome web (ex epiphany, like safari on mac)
ladybird (in dev)

BUT ... you need to try out yourself, if they'll fit your needs. For the most users, they unfortunately don't (yet).

[-]

seventhbrokage@reddit

Word of warning with Zen, it's still in alpha and it definitely shows. I was using it up until recently, when it just flat out refused to render videos on YouTube. It was also getting flagged by various virus scanners as having a Trojan in the most recent release, which could just be because it's very new software and they don't trust stuff like that, but still. I swapped over to Librewolf instead.

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Hans_Wurst_42@reddit

Yeah, you'll get to the alpha issues from time to time. I experienced it at the splt screen and the workspaces.

I am curious: Which release has the virus/trojan alert?

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seventhbrokage@reddit

It's whatever the current release is. There are a few posts on r/zen_browser over the last few days about it.

[-]

GolbatsEverywhere@reddit

Midori

Previously WebKit, now Chromium

gnome web (ex epiphany, like safari on mac)

WebKit

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Hans_Wurst_42@reddit

Uhh. Well then ....

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Serializedrequests@reddit

I use Firefox with YouTube, but I have disabled all extensions including adblock, as YouTube detects this and makes the experience shit.

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sheeproomer@reddit

Palemoon, but it still lags behind.

A better alternative is Vivaldi or Brave.

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gosand@reddit

+1 You really should run Palemoon for a while. you'll hate it so much you'll really appreciate Firefox when you go back to it.

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Diligent-Thing-1944@reddit

Have been using brave for quite some time.

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outm@reddit

Brave.

Works fine, can be fairly tuned to your liking, and it includes ad-blocking, including on YouTube, out of the box.

It’s great to be able to watch YouTube with zero ads

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yxz97@reddit

Brave.

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19GK50@reddit

I have Vivaldi on one machine, the rest I have Librewolf and Thorium.

I didn't like how Brave did some things, so took that off but that is another option many like.

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AndyGriffith1@reddit

I switched to Vivaldi everywhere. I used to love Brave for personal use and Firefox at work, but IMO Vivaldi is the best now.

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OkNewspaper6271@reddit

I love Vivaldi, im just not sure on if its gonna support manifest v2 in future

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wormbooks7853@reddit

W3w

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FineWolf@reddit

but it is video playback on youtube is pretty laggy even if I have plenty of headroom on my CPU/GPU

Did you verify in about:support that hardware acceleration for video is properly configured?

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unbounded65@reddit

I am quite satisfied with Brave and FF here on Arch and Ubuntu.

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segin@reddit

Not really. Brave Browser, Microsoft Edge, DuckDuckGo Browser, Opera, etc. are just rebadged Chrome.

Technically you have Safari but that's been Apple-only since version 5. Safari 4 was the last Windows release.

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RogerRoger501@reddit

I have the exact same problem on Firefox and I have no idea why, it’s only on windows 11 for me tho, if I boot into Linux then it doesnt seem to happen

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VacationAromatic6899@reddit

Brave

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NolanSyKinsley@reddit (OP)

My dude, look in the comments how many people recommended brave and how many times I have said that brave is chromium based so not what I am looking for.

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VacationAromatic6899@reddit

Ahh,works for me

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NolanSyKinsley@reddit (OP)

Chrome works for me, but I am looking for an alternative to chromium/firefox based browsers.

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VacationAromatic6899@reddit

Cool, i hope you find one then

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Jimlee1471@reddit

I've done really well with Qutebrowser. The only problem with using it is that you have to be willing to put in some work for certain things which (on other browsers) was as easy as installing some extension. In fact, I often split time between Qutebrowser and Vivaldi as my daily drivers.

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StandAloneComplexed@reddit

Did you somehow manage to get rid of ads on YouTube with qutebrowser?

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DriNeo@reddit

Qutebrowser minimal UI is appealing but sadly I'm too dependant on Ublock origin and to Firefox Sync.

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iamapataticloser240@reddit

I would recommend looking for the ladybird project because there is some potential

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menthol-squirrel@reddit

Are women allowed to use it?

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iamapataticloser240@reddit

No silly woman aren't real

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Admirable-Safety1213@reddit

Then why Debian?

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iamapataticloser240@reddit

Lesbians

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Admirable-Safety1213@reddit

Lesbian are Women

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iamapataticloser240@reddit

Idk i thought that they were a third more sinister thing

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FryBoyter@reddit

Ladybird is in a pre-alpha state, and only suitable for use by developers

Source: https://github.com/LadybirdBrowser/ladybird

It will probably be years before the project is ready for use.

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iamapataticloser240@reddit

I fully understand and just recommended to keep an eye on it

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FryBoyter@reddit

I just wanted to point this out because I think /u/NolanSyKinsley is interested in an alternative that he can use in a timely manner.

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goonwild18@reddit

I love how I'll get downvoted when I mention that Linux is garbage on the desktop - and has been for 30 years..... and then 25 threads like this pop up every single day with essentially every single person saying there isn't even a web browser that works worth a shit on Linux.

You can't make this stuff up.

Imaging if you guys took all this wasted time and .... you know.... did something with it.

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13Esco37@reddit

My magic ball says you are getting downvoted for being clueless.

Nothing in this thread mentions issues running the browsers differently than on Windows. The issue is Chromium monopoly.

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goonwild18@reddit

You're wrong..... and nobody mentioned Windows.... that's your rage. Funny.... I don't run Linux and I don't have any problems at all with laggy browsers.... on any of the other 3 OS's I use...... I guess that's a Chromium problem.

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dannoffs1@reddit

Did Linus fuck your wife or something?

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goonwild18@reddit

My entire career centers around Linux. I've made literally millions of dollars thanks to Linus. That doesn't make Linux a desktop OS.

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dannoffs1@reddit

Of course that doesn't make it a desktop OS, what a weird internet troll with a masturbation-themed username and a 4th grade writing level does for a job has no bearing on what people use Linux for.

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Zeldakina@reddit

that's your rage

You're projecting.

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Modern_Doshin@reddit

I have been running linux for almost 10 years straight and only use firefox. Never had an issue with either. Sounds like OP has either internet issues, old PC specs, outdated browser/distro, or tons of bloat extentions.

Windows or MacOS isn't better

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aragorn43@reddit

I dont know much but this may be a answer that is not liked. I use microsoft edge in my linux. I have 3 browsers, chrome, firefox and edge. I liked since I use it on my work laptop. IMO is fast and simple, sometimes I feel is faster than the other two.

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Neglector9885@reddit

Brave, Chromium, Ungoogled Chromium, LibreWolf, Floorp.

Since you specifically mentioned YouTube, the problems you're experiencing likely aren't inherently Firefox's fault, especially if you have plenty of system resources. Google and Google services, like YouTube, have become increasingly aggressive toward Firefox in an attempt to push users to use Chrome or Chromium-based browsers (but mostly Chrome). When YouTube detects a Firefox user agent, playback quality is intentionally reduced. Changing Firefox's user agent manually may help.

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Brorim@reddit

why would you not use firefox ?

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Drwankingstein@reddit

Aside from forks, No. Ladybird and Servo are quickly progressing if you want to use them. No webkit browser is a good alternative. at least not one that works on linux.

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dsn0wman@reddit

Microsoft Edge works really well on Linux. I use it for my M365 apps at work.

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DueToRetire@reddit

WebKit (Safari, Epiphany)

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thegreenman_sofla@reddit

Librewolf

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IuseArchbtw97543@reddit

brave (allthough its still based on chromium)

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thiagohds@reddit

Brave? Or you mean browsers that are not netscape / chromium based?

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differential-burner@reddit

Haven't had these sorts of issues with FF and if anything I have found it to be lighter weight. Responding to link clicks sounds very basic that makes me think something else is amiss eg IO devices

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nphillyrezident@reddit

Firefox isn't the snappiest thing ever but what you're supporting sounds off, especially with the video. Your compositor settings might need tweaking, or it could be an issue with the audio.

For a lighter weight browser you could try Pale Moon or qutebrowser, though the latter is technically chromium based.

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DividedContinuity@reddit

That's a good shout, I'm betting on an audio issue too, it would produce these sorts of problems.

@op slightly impractical, but can you try muting audio and seeing if the problem stops happening? If it does then you have your culprit.

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Mongera032@reddit

Opera has been working just fine for me since Is started using it a few months ago.

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DividedContinuity@reddit

YouTube is laggy on Firefox? That doesn't sound right. Either you're using a potato or something is off.

Even pure software rendering shouldn't produce "laggy" YouTube unless you have the horsepower of a raspberry pi.

A real laptop or desktop with a CPU from the last decade won't have any trouble. Plus, you should be able to get hardware rendering these days by default, but perhaps check the arch wiki for tweaks

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox/Tweaks

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222fps@reddit

If you mean alternatives to chromium, not really. If you mean chrome, a shitton and most are better than chrome in most ways.

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Fit-Key-8352@reddit

curl

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xSova@reddit

Mullvad was pretty good imo

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RudePragmatist@reddit

I would suggest LibreWolf. It’s derived from FF and it plays YT for me without any issues.

You can install as may different browsers as you like and then remove them if you don’t like them. You could also try Thorium which is based on Chromium.

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Opening_Creme2443@reddit

for youtube try freetube. maybe that will help.

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Zeldakina@reddit

Why is this suggestion being down voted?

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Opening_Creme2443@reddit

probably bc that solution doesnt solve problems with firefox which is some borked but at least youtube will work lol.

as for diffrent browser maybe he can try librewolf but i think that problem lies not in browser but in system overall.

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Zeldakina@reddit

I just suggested LibreWolf, Falkon, Qutebrowser, and PaleMoon.

As for freetube, you provided an excellent solution for OP or anyone to be able to watch youtube videos.

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Opening_Creme2443@reddit

thanks. yeah freetube rulez.

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VoidLance@reddit

I will say again: Edge would be far and away the best browser available if it weren't for the privacy issues, which just happens to be what most Linux users value above everything else. Firefox does indeed suck unless you're comparing it to other mid browsers. Chromium itself is a good lightweight and open-source browser, lighter than both Chrome and Firefox. I like QuteBrowser for its customisability - if you know a bit of programming you can do some really cool stuff. Other than that, it's going to be very difficult to find a good browser that isn't Chromium-based because there's not a lot of reasons that someone making their own browser wouldn't just base it on Chromium.

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Infinite_Rebel183@reddit

Duckduckgo is my go too.

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rapka888@reddit

Using Brave 3-4 years, no issue

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hugh_jorgyn@reddit

Is it safer these days? I remember using it many years ago and likinging it, but then they got on the crypto bandwagon and I couldn't trust them anymore.

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seventhbrokage@reddit

They're still doing the crypto stuff. You can opt out, but it certainly doesn't instill confidence for me.

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G0rd0nFr33m4n@reddit

Crypto stuff is alread OPT-IN.

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NolanSyKinsley@reddit (OP)

Brave is based on chromium, so not what I am looking for.

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itastesok@reddit

Sadly what you're looking for doesn't exist.

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Zeldakina@reddit

After a quick scroll, is nobody mentioning LibreWolf? Or Falkon? Or Palemoon? Or even Qutebrowser?

As for youtube, freetube is the way to go.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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RevolutionaryBeat301@reddit

I'm curious about what distro / DE you are on, and which build of Firefox you are using, and if you have any extensions enabled, because I use Firefox on a ten year old laptop, and I have not experienced any lag or responsiveness issues whatsoever. Also, how much ram do you have on your system? It's possible that there isn't an answer to your question. Every viable solution has been thrown your way.

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Embarrassed-Ad-7500@reddit

Brave Browser is based on chrome. I've been using it for several years and like it. Try it and find out.

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KosmicWolf@reddit

I personally use Floorp which is based on Firefox ESR, but if you have issues with Firefox I don’t know if a Firefox based browser will help much but you could try

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Girlkisser17@reddit

I've never had the issues with unresponsiveness, but I would recommend you use a third party client for YouTube. I use FreeTube.

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zz_spawn_zz@reddit

Sounds like an X-Y problem to me. Firefox and Chromium are well tested products and I do not ecounter particular lag in either of them. Instead of switching to something much less supported, I would investiage the issue. Does it happen on X/wayland, another desktop environment, w/o a compositing manager, on another distro, another graphics card, another pc, to name a few. Also, consult the logs (dmesg, /var/logXorg.0.log) etc. ...

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CMRC23@reddit

A different base other than Firefox and chromium? Not really. Different flavours? Sure, try waterfox or degoogled chromium. Personally I use librewolf

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BranchLatter4294@reddit

I mainly use Edge and Chrome. Sometimes Firefox.

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DriNeo@reddit

As a Firefox user, have to admit, when I tried chromium the experience was nice, its fast and all websites looks correct. Maybe a Blink based browser, without the chrome layer is acceptable for privacy ? I don't know.

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SkiFire13@reddit

Maybe a Blink based browser, without the chrome layer is acceptable for privacy ?

On the immediate, you could say yes. But ultimately you're giving power to Google thanks to using their Blink engine.

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Gotxi@reddit

That's because most sites are tested on Chrome only, web developer's fault.

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FLMKane@reddit

Idk if you read about it when it was in the news, but google deliberately slowed down YouTube for Firefox users.

At the time, spoofing YouTube by changing the user agent to chrome was a viable solution for speeding up YouTube on Firefox. Not sure if that still works.

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ivanmaher@reddit

you could try opera

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Snowrunner06032024@reddit

In response to all of your "based on Chromium/Firefox so not what I'm looking for" replies - good luck finding something else that works - I don't think it exists - maybe you should write your own!

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