The lesser of three browser evils
-
A set of computers I can't control have a selection of three browsers available: Internet Explorer, Edge and Chrome. They had Firefox for a brief period which was great, but for some time I haven't been sure which to use.
So far I've stuck with Internet Explorer because, being older and now unsupported, it hopefully steals my info less than the other two. However, being old, it doesn't support quite a lot of new Web 6.32e12 features. When that was a significant problem, I used Edge.
Which would you say is the least worst?
-
Chrome is pretty good.
-
@pie_flavor Cool, but, reasons?
-
@kazitor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
it hopefully steals my info less than the other two.
Do you mean your browser sucks up info, or your browser lets websites suck up info? if the latter, then disabling JS and third party cookies by default is a good direction to start in
-
@kazitor Well, IE is universally shit, and Edge is IE with a coat of paint, and in some cases that means painted shut. So Chrome automatically wins by default. Plus it's got the bleeding edge of the new website features, and as a bonus will happily integrate with your Google account and back up all your browser data. Optionally, you don't have to do that. Certain people will harp on about Google stealing your stuff, but if you actually care about that you can install Chromium which is open-source and therefore does none of that. I can't really compare Chrome to Firefox, since I use Chrome all of the time and Firefox none of the time. But if it's a choice between IE, Edge, and Chrome, then Chrome is the winner hands down.
-
@pie_flavor As far as I've experienced, Edge works well with new features too, hence indecision. Also note that anything to do with Google accounts, or accounts of any variety, is irrelevant to me.
[...] if you actually care about that you can install Chromium which is open-source and therefore does none of that.
I feel like you missed where I said "computers I can't control". I'd just install Firefox if I could.
But seriously, please keep to better reasons than "is [...] shit". I'm trying to actually evaluate these.
-
@bb36e said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@kazitor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
it hopefully steals my info less than the other two.
Do you mean your browser sucks up info, or your browser lets websites suck up info?
I mean the browser, with regards to privacy et al.
-
@kazitor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@pie_flavor As far as I've experienced, Edge works well with new features too, hence indecision. Also note that anything to do with Google accounts, or accounts of any variety, is irrelevant to me.
Edge will fuck you up in various ways, though. Its IE-ness really shows through sometimes. Example: one of the things in the tech support routine for us was driver updates, and there was one particular error you could get when installing it, which used to only happen when you downloaded it in IE. Then Edge started existing, and now you get the error from downloading the driver in Edge too.
[...] if you actually care about that you can install Chromium which is open-source and therefore does none of that.
I feel like you missed where I said "computers I can't control". I'd just install Firefox if I could.
Ah, whoops, wasn't thinking.
But seriously, please keep to better reasons than "is [...] shit". I'm trying to actually evaluate these.
I can't really think of a better way to put it than Edge and IE are shit. Microsoft is simply behind the times when it comes to browser development. You get into the lotus haze from being able to draw on websites and whatnot, and then you download a JAR file and it ends up as an unzipped folder in your downloads folder and you remember precisely why you hate Microsoft browsers.
-
@kazitor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@bb36e said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@kazitor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
it hopefully steals my info less than the other two.
Do you mean your browser sucks up info, or your browser lets websites suck up info?
I mean the browser, with regards to privacy et al.
As far as I know Chrome only records your info if you sign into it with a Google account.
-
@kazitor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
, it hopefully steals my info less than the other two.
Wat
-
Eh, maybe I will bite the bullet and use Chrome. Main issue is that I'm biased against Google in pretty much every fashion, but what can I do?
-
@kazitor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
Eh, maybe I will bite the bullet and use Chrome. Main issue is that I'm biased against Google in pretty much every fashion, but what can I do?
Study zombo.com for a while.
-
IE, starting with 8 or possibly earlier, has a whole bunch of Bing and Microsoft integration services like "suggested sites". So your initial assumption was unfounded.
If you want privacy, go with Firefox. It's their last remaining selling point after all.edit: misread post, sorryIn terms of features and usability, I'd say they're almost exactly the same. In terms of privacy I'd say Chrome has a bad record, but then again so does Microsoft, so... I'd basically say they're the exact same product developed by different companies.
-
@anonymous234 said in The lesser of three browser evils:
If you want privacy, go with Firefox.
I do at home.
It's their last remaining selling point after all.
Though barely, they're trying to remove that too. I recall reading a post here somewhere where somebody said that Mozilla seems unaware that their core demographic is "people who want complete privacy in their browsing."
-
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
As far as I know Chrome only records your info if you sign into it with a Google account.
Since v70±1 there's a small annoyance - it does that automatically for all Google services. There's a setting, but it defaults to enabled.
Edit: I might have been wrong about this, but
As far as stealing goes, that's an ages old question of whether you should fight to the death when you know perfectly well it's hopeless. You will be assimilated, resistance is useless, etc..
-
Chrome turns the entire interface upside down every few weeks. Edge has been pretty stable on that front. Also, in Chrome, logging to Gmail now acts as logging to Google account in the browser itself, and there's no way to turn it off, and you'll have your (or someone else's) avatar following you everywhere you go.
-
@kazitor If you are feeling adventurous you could try https://iridiumbrowser.de/
In a nutshell, it's a fork of the Chromium sources (so reasonably up to date) where defaults have been changed so that the browser doesn't bother you to make a "synchronization" profile in the browser, that it turns cookies off by default, uses different default search engines like Qwant or DuckDuckGo, and finaly tries to neuter some events where the browser "calls home".
The latter is the most controversial thing though: the developers found it hard to neuter the code where the calls happen as there is supposedly other stuff depending on the HTTP response. The browser thus opens some URLs from the iridiumbrowser.de domain instead, which security researchers have rightly commented that you are now in the logs of that domain rather than Google's.
In the end it boils down to trust: any browser maker can insert shady code, but I would think that the smaller guys have such a disadvantage that they can hardly use the data they might collect, unlike Google which can easily correlate loads of small information.
-
Secure, Fast, & Private Web Browser with Adblocker | Brave
The Brave browser is a fast, private and secure web browser for PC, Mac and mobile. Download now to enjoy a faster ad-free browsing experience that saves data and battery life by blocking tracking software.
It is bollockingly fast, blocks pretty much everything (however I am sure the same can be achieved with plugins in firefox or opera).
-
@sweaty_gammon from Wikipedia:
In June 2018, Brave released a pay-to-surf testing version of the browser. This version of Brave is preloaded with approximately 250 ads, and sends a detailed log of the user's browsing activity to Brave for the short-term purpose of testing this functionality. Brave announced that expanded trials will follow.[14] Later that month, Brave added support for Tor in its desktop browser's private browsing mode.[15]
-
@sweaty_gammon said in The lesser of three browser evils:
Secure, Fast, & Private Web Browser with Adblocker | Brave
The Brave browser is a fast, private and secure web browser for PC, Mac and mobile. Download now to enjoy a faster ad-free browsing experience that saves data and battery life by blocking tracking software.
It is bollockingly fast, blocks pretty much everything (however I am sure the same can be achieved with plugins in firefox or opera).
I'll quote the OP:
A set of computers I can't control have a selection of three browsers available
-
@Rhywden The discussion had moved onto what he was using at home.
-
@Gąska said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@sweaty_gammon from Wikipedia:
In June 2018, Brave released a pay-to-surf testing version of the browser. This version of Brave is preloaded with approximately 250 ads, and sends a detailed log of the user's browsing activity to Brave for the short-term purpose of testing this functionality. Brave announced that expanded trials will follow.[14] Later that month, Brave added support for Tor in its desktop browser's private browsing mode.[15]
OH FFS. I quite liked it.
-
From the source link
opt-in trial
That is, if you want to get "paid" you can do this, otherwise it will continue to leave you alone. At least from what I can tell.
-
@kazitor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
Main issue is that I'm biased against Google in pretty much every fashion, but what can I do?
Wrong attitude. If you want to surrender, just do it and spare yourself the drama.
Embrace google whole or don't use it. G made sure that there's no middle ground.
-
@JBert said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@kazitor If you are feeling adventurous you could try https://iridiumbrowser.de/
They've repeatedly said no alternative software is capable of being installed...
-
@sweaty_gammon said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@Rhywden The discussion had moved onto what he was using at home.
Did it?
-
@Applied-Mediocrity said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
As far as I know Chrome only records your info if you sign into it with a Google account.
Since v70±1 there's a small annoyance - it does that automatically for all Google services. There's a setting, but it defaults to enabled.
As far as stealing goes, that's an ages old question of whether you should fight to the death when you know perfectly well it's hopeless. You will be assimilated, resistance is useless, etc..
No it doesn't. It displays a signed in symbol if you're logged into Google services, but that's not the same as actually signing into the browser.
-
@Gąska see above.
-
@kazitor Now would be the time to ask why it is you can't install additional browsers. Because if it's an unprivileged user thing, Chromium can install as an unprivileged user too.
-
@pie_flavor Some places have a "please don't install whatever shit you want" policy.
-
This post is deleted!
-
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@Applied-Mediocrity said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
As far as I know Chrome only records your info if you sign into it with a Google account.
Since v70±1 there's a small annoyance - it does that automatically for all Google services. There's a setting, but it defaults to enabled.
As far as stealing goes, that's an ages old question of whether you should fight to the death when you know perfectly well it's hopeless. You will be assimilated, resistance is useless, etc..
No it doesn't. It displays a signed in symbol if you're logged into Google services, but that's not the same as actually signing into the browser.
But I still have my (or not my) face following me around everywhere.
-
@Gąska said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@Applied-Mediocrity said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
As far as I know Chrome only records your info if you sign into it with a Google account.
Since v70±1 there's a small annoyance - it does that automatically for all Google services. There's a setting, but it defaults to enabled.
As far as stealing goes, that's an ages old question of whether you should fight to the death when you know perfectly well it's hopeless. You will be assimilated, resistance is useless, etc..
No it doesn't. It displays a signed in symbol if you're logged into Google services, but that's not the same as actually signing into the browser.
But I still have my (or not my) face following me around everywhere.
Does it matter?
-
@pie_flavor For me - yes.
-
@Gąska Why?
-
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@Applied-Mediocrity said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
As far as I know Chrome only records your info if you sign into it with a Google account.
Since v70±1 there's a small annoyance - it does that automatically for all Google services. There's a setting, but it defaults to enabled.
As far as stealing goes, that's an ages old question of whether you should fight to the death when you know perfectly well it's hopeless. You will be assimilated, resistance is useless, etc..
No it doesn't. It displays a signed in symbol if you're logged into Google services, but that's not the same as actually signing into the browser.
I particularly like how the justification for that update was to reduce confusion.
-
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@Gąska Why?
Because I don't like photos staring at me all the time? I might be reading garage topics or something.
-
@Gąska
https://imgur.com/5LNSeYEe: dang, they changed it. Was hoping to embed the page with the eyes that follow you around.
-
@pie_flavor all I see is an invalid Imgur link.
-
@Gąska Right. If you click it, though, you'll get the page with the eyes that follow you around.
-
@pie_flavor has it used to embed the moving eyes? I'm pretty sure Imgur's 404 has always been this boring text.
-
- Cheap drivetrains for Solaris Trollinio, -70% off! Last items in stock!
- Looking for tickets to {destination}? Look no further!
- Garage Management Simulator 2019 - free Steam keys here
[X] Ads by Google
-
@loopback0 said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@pie_flavor Some places have a "please don't install whatever shit you want" policy.
Which Chrome gets around by installing into a non-standard location.
Just another fuck-you from Big Goog.
-
@El_Heffe What part of
~\AppData\Roamingis nonstandard?
-
@Gąska said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@pie_flavor has it used to embed the moving eyes? I'm pretty sure Imgur's 404 has always been this boring text.
I've seen such examples in TDWTF threads (more likely something which is posted in the megathreads).
Likely there's a difference somewhere between forcefully deleting a picture from your own account, deleting your own account, and getting "blackholed" by an admin. Or it could be caused through the way an image gets linked, e.g. as a single image link vs a gallery link.
-
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@El_Heffe What part of
~\AppData\Roamingis nonstandard?~
-
Windows PowerShell Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Loading personal and system profiles took 4390ms. C:\Users\Adam> cd ~\AppData\Roaming C:\Users\Adam\AppData\Roaming>
-
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@El_Heffe What part of
~\AppData\Roamingis nonstandard?Installing a program into
~\AppData\Roaminginstead ofProgram FilesorProgram Files (x86)where it belongs.But you already knew that.
If you don't have permission to install into the standard location, it most likely means it's not your computer and whoever owns the computer doesn't want you installing random shit whenever you feel like it.
But you already knew that.
-
@El_Heffe No, that's simply not the case. If a program should only be installed for a particular user, it gets installed in
~\AppData\Local\(not Roaming, I typoed). It's perfectly standard and I've seen plenty of programs that do that.
-
@pie_flavor said in The lesser of three browser evils:
@El_Heffe No, that's simply not the case. If a program should only be installed for a particular user, it gets installed in
~\AppData\Local\(not Roaming, I typoed). It's perfectly standard and I've seen plenty of programs that do that.In fact I believe that's how Microsoft's ClickOnce installers work
