Alternative Browsers to Chrome

gryphon1911

Hall of Famer
Location
Central Ohio, USA
Name
Andrew
Looking for an alternative to Google's Chrome browser.

Looking for something speedy and not as much of a resource hog. I've get a well spec'd machine but still, it never hurts to find something better or faster.

Right now I'm currently running the newest Firefox, MS Edge 88 and Brave through the paces.

What are you all using out there as an alternative to Chrome?

I like what Brave has to offer so far, but Firefox is no slouch and Edge is proving to be rather decent.

I don't use a ton of extensions, but I have recently migrated from using in-browser password managers to a secure vault system called Bitwarden. I was going to use LastPass, but since they changed their terms of service and their tier pricing, I looked elsewhere and landed with Bitwarden and am happy. It integrates well with both browsers via extension.

Just would like to hear others experiences out there and what they are using and what they like and don't like.

In the future, I will probably also look into the following alternative browsers as well:

Opera
Vivaldi
 
Vivaldi is essentially a copy of Chrome with a bunch of builtin goodies. All well and good but if you don't like what Chrome does on a technical level (not referring to any possible spyware or anything) then Vivaldi is not any better.

I think Opera is pretty much the same story nowadays. Some old Opera devs started Vivaldi IIRC.

I've been a Firefox user since the early days. Sometimes it's the fastest browser, sometimes it's not. I care that its UI and its "engine" works for me. As far as I can tell, some page rendering options dear to me are only available for Firefox.
 
For almost twenty years now I've been using Firefox on Windows PC and Macs without the slightest problems. No ads either popping up because of Adblock Plus. Undisturbed and relaxed working.
 
I switched to Opera on the weekend. I have no real beef against Firefox but it did seem to leak memory like a sieve on Linux. I liked Firefox extensions and tab-containerisation but the same extensions tend to be available on multiple browsers these days + I can live without the account-container features. Opera is pretty nice, seems to get out of my way and just let me browse - memory utilisation is creeping up but not as quick as Firefox. The extensions I use seem to mainly work (Privacy Badger, No Script, Dormancy etc; the only one I can't find is a type expander which was quite useful for text shortcuts of commonly used blocks of text).

On my work Windows 10 laptop, Edge has been serving me wheel - similar spec to my Linux laptop but Edge is letting me keep 2 times as many tabs open without any slow-down.

If my Opera experience goes well over the next week or two I'd be prepared to pay for it (although I'm not 100% sure if it is commercial anymore... I need to poke around their website some more).
 
Just found this test comparing browsers in the German magazine CHIP dating from February 14, 2020.
"If you count all test criteria against each other, Firefox wins just ahead of Brave, followed by Chrome and Opera. The new Edge clearly outperforms its predecessor thanks to a new engine and enabled tracking protection. If security and data protection are important to you, Firefox is the right choice. Brave is the first alternative from the Chromium faction, which scores especially with Tor integration. Chrome is the fastest browser in the test, but a RAM raffle without tracking protection. Those who cannot decide simply use several browsers in parallel for different tasks."
 
On the Mac I have always been happy with Safari. With Apple pushing the envelope on privacy and security, it has only gotten better with Big Sur. I suspect other browsers will follow suit. Although advertisers and data tracking programs will be pushing back.
 
I've heard of Brave but, uh, some of their connections don't gel with my personal morality/ethics (appreciate that this forum is not really the place for this - mods feel free to remove my post). Not that this isn't a fraught area or easy to avoid with the likes of Google controlling/funding a number of browser engines these days - The Goog is problematic for a whole other set of reasons.
 
So, I started using Opera for a bit. Like how it works on the desktop, hated the iOS experience on my 11 Pro Max. It took forever for it to initially pull up a site.

put Brave back on the phone for now. Going to give the opera desktop experience some more time though.
 
Edge at work (windows) and at home (mac). Switched from Chrome some months agoo.
At home, Firefox is dedicate to deezer.

I have Opera, Vivaldi and of course Safari installed.
These I rarely use.
 
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