Consider a SearXNG instance. It can use Quant as a source, but balance across other engines to get the best results based on overlap (you choose the engines).

And if you're concerned about the way Mozilla is headed, there are multiple open source versions like waterfox that should work with all extensions.

Their shields AdBlock is very good though, it's done in ram in a memory safe way, arguably doing it through an extension like ublock is not great. I can't wait until a project facelifts shields and puts it on top of an unbloated security focused chromium (or Firefox grows some balls and builds it in). Vanadium pls 🥺

I am pretty set with Firefox in Android and desktop to be honest.

been using firefox since before it was called firefox, and netscape before that. while i do use 'other' browsers, too, their use is limited to testing and a few select sites or purposes only (for instance, i use a 'portable' opera for mail, and only mail).

And now Morphe too, continuation of the revanced project, and it's acually really good i have to say

On iOS it might be though, because there's no revanced and browsers can't have plugins so the only way to adblock is to use a browser that bakes it in.

This means (afaik) Brave, DuckDuckGo or Opera. IME adblocking for youtube specifically is patchy with Opera, can't speak for DuckDuckGo.

Or just don't use iOS. I don't much but we have an iPad for occasional use

Firefox is becoming a shitty ai browser now. Consider waterfox or librewolf

Firefox is great. Mozilla, however, is making some weird moves every now and then. A lot of people don't quite trust Mozilla to have their interests at heart anymore.

The obvious solution is to use a Firefox fork. I have no idea whether there's a meaningful difference between the various Firefox forks, and would welcome a summary.

Mozilla changed their privacy policy and terms of use about a year ago in ways that show they cannot be trusted. I think Librewolf offers more privacy/security features than Firefox can with plugins (disabling some canvas features that are used for fingerprinting for example). I think Firefox has some advertising/tracking crap enabled by default too (PPA API?). IDK, I just don't trust them anymore with their policy changes. Mullvad Browser is even more "hardened," but less convenient than Librewolf.

For me it’s a combination of Mozilla making strange business decisions (removing of the “we never sell your data” policy) and the fact that a lot of websites take forever to load on Firefox.

I’ve tried forks, LibreWolf pisses me off. Too many settings to change just to still have a broken browsing experience in the sake of privacy. If I need that level of privacy, I’ll use I2P/Tor.

I hate the fact that chromium has won, but it’s getting difficult to avoid the fact that web developers don’t give a rats ass if the website doesn’t work well on Firefox.

Brave was my primary for a while, but I switched to Vivaldi after reading about some of the BAT bait and switch.

My main browsers are FF or Zen (a fork of FF), but I think a lot of sites aren't able to work with just a plug-in due to how deeply they are coded for Chromium. Some of them being Amazon sites like Luna, Amazon Music, and Audible (pretty sure their other media sites/services also refuse to work if any hint of non-Chromium browsers are detected. I have run into non-Amazon sites with media or similar tell me to "update your browser" or "use a supported browser" (which is at least more honest than telling me that my FF is "out of date").

While there are likely elements in some sites that actually can work with FF (I have had really random moments where I got part of a song to play on Amazon Music but then gives the "browser is out of date" message). The Chromium focused coding is IE all over again. Just a self-fulfilling cycle of making it look like FF is not as capable. And I hate that in the instances where changing the User Agent to be Chrome works, that it just keeps stats looking like Chrome and forks are what people are using (and might lead to seeming like FF is used less than it actually is).

With sideberry and second sidebar, it's literally the best browsing experience that exists currently and it's not even close

Provided I can still use about:config to clear out all the Mozilla crap then I'm happy with Firefox. The only add-on I use is ublock-origin on my phone and also NoScript on desktop.

Use Librewolf as your main browser with Helium for Google Meet.

I don't have issues with Firefox and Google Meet? What issues are you having?

For the Google-specific stuff, maybe just use a different browser that supports it? My current approach is multiple browsers, but minimize Google/Chromium as much as possible.

Not trying to be facetious, but "don't use Google Meet". If you have to for work I get it, but suggest something else.

The default should not be assumed.

It should. Typically it would be a choice between Mullvad DNS and the unencrypted whatever your ISP uses. People who care about DNS (like me) will change that right away (NextDNS in my case). People who just want something easy may not even know what DNS is, or may not care enough.

The problem with the internet is not the internet itself, but the big tech platforms.

By using sites like Mastodon and Lemmy, using a browser with uBlock Origin installed, and disabling Web & App activity, personalised ads, etc on your phone, you are taking a stand, and routing around the bad stuff exactly as intended.

If you want to experience the old internet: https://kagi.com/smallweb

A curated list of sites with specific criteria, I’ve found a bunch of good stuff from there

I'd say we don't need go go so far as to stop using the internet (there are open and free services we can use), but I'd agree that we need to reduce our overall internet usage as way to fight aginst the system. Many times, there aren't alternatives to things, and the alternative can be doing something else! Doing something with out life time that the corporations have been stealing.

And the tech industry have become the main players int he economy and in many destructive and unethical practices in the world, that by reducing our internet usage, we are working against them.

Technically, there's Gemini (protocol) and Gopher as alternatives to the usual web stack, but they're still pretty niche in usage.

We can still build small, text-based websites for free.

I have built fileshare and chat before switching to OSS solutions, which I can selfhost.

No adblocker needed, I can enjoy my part of the internet with people I care about.

Also Wikipedia.

Not the Internet, but rather the World Wide Web. The once-humble webpage has become such a complex stack of technologies that it's impossible for small dev teams to make alternatives to the established web browsers.

The 90s web isnt the same product the internet is today. Therefore you'll never get people to leave. Just like youtube and twitter. These are just new "cable." The only reason people had cable was for entertainment. We can start a new internet tomorrow but it will just be me and you and if thats what you really wanted, you'd be completely fine with that.

I posted this a year or two ago and got hit by a huge wave of furious Brave users lol. Occasionally to this day someone will stumble on it and post some tirade