As I listen to podcasts and read Linux forums I keep hearing and seeing people speak of using one browser. Just one browser. Sometimes, they speak of using another browser when a page just won’t render properly in their normal browser. But, they only use one browser.
Use cases and all that, but am I really that unusual? I use four browsers regularly and one of those has two user profiles. I can’t imagine just using one browser.
My usage is basically each browser to it’s strength and purpose.
I use Vivaldi (I love speed dials) for my regular haunts. The sites know me and I am ok with that.
I use Firefox under one profile for banking and that sort of thing with containers. The other profile is used as the system default and gets general use by wife and daughter.
I use Slimjet for youtube using a login only used on that browser. It has ad blocking that works and media downloading built in.
I use Chromium for Google applications. Nothing else.
I am playing with Elinks to see if I can use it to view tech articles without the exquisitely obnoxious, annoying and ubiquitous video inserts that they seem to think are needed on every page. I’ve stopped clicking on search results for some sites because I know there will be videos playing as soon as I load the page.
I am having a hard time finding any add-ons for my browsers that actually stop all videos so I am to the point of trying terminal based browsers to get away from them. sigh.
Do you use just one browser? Do you have browsers that serve specific purposes?
I’m curious because there always seems to be a brilliant idea out there that I have never heard before and only find out by asking this type of question.
Great topic, and worth taking the time to explore. I would suggest anyone interested in Internet privacy take the time to watch Rob Braxman’s video on browser isolation and how to use different browsers for anonymity. Per Rob, you should use all the browsers but use them for isolated purposes. For example, if you have a need to login to Google, make sure and use Chrome since they already own that browser, but limit Chrome’s use to Google services alone.
This is a simple technique but goes a long way towards maintaining privacy.
I use 4 difference browsers – each has a different purpose and is used at different sites. Tor, Chrome, Brave, Firefox. Some of these browsers might have multiple installations.
@tuxtech that was an interesting video, I guess I’m not alone in my thinking. Thank you for sharing it.
@haroldcrews I started doing some searches on the browsers you listed and came across this Neocities(?) site which has reviews of browsers based on it’s take on privacy. I found it interesting, but I am not sure how tight their tinfoil hats are.
@VE64RD I suspect you are right abut the deals. I have heard that those industries are not friendly to price shoppers. I’m thinking I may need to set up an amnesic shopping browser.
Well I use FF with containers too but also with discrete profiles. To me they serve different purposes.
So I have a ‘work’ profile witch still has containers in it but it is designed for doing all my ‘work’ stuff in. So it has a list of clients configs it’s own bitwarden login and own set of plugins.
But I have another profile for my day to day browsing. Another for Google services specifically (Docs Talk youtube etc) And then I keep a few blank profiles around and ones that go through anonymising services etc.
I also keep a Chrome based browser around for compatibility checks on certain websites.
I used to run lots of different browsers like Opera and Konquerer but these days I just don’t really need them. FF works mostly fine for me and some extensions I just could not live without so.
I don’t usually go to those types of sites on Firefox. And I don’t see that author in the play store (Except, possibly, as the classmate of another app author).
I am running HTML Content Blocker (blocking javascript, media and object), uBlock Origins and Autoplay Stopper add-ons on Vivaldi which doesn’t let very many through. Occasionally, a site won’t load without scripts allowed to run and once those are enabled it’s guaranteed that if they are of a mind to annoy the hell out of their visitors, you’ll get a video.
I tried some html5 blockers before, but they only seemed to block videos that were the point of the page, not the weeds that were injected into the page. HTML Blocker seems to get more of those as long as the page will load without javascript enabled.
Curious. For me between NoScript, uBlock-Origin and HTML5 video disable I don’t get any popup annoying videos. Sometimes there are animated GIFs but they are easy enough to disable with image.animation_mode
Same here but I don’t need much from a browser, I don’t use any Google services (and don’t have to) nor any social network. Work doesn’t need much browsing either except to connect on the company portal.
I only use one browser and that was always the case. I just cannot bear opening another one and they all consume too much memory, one is already enough.
Though I have one backup browser just in case. But I do not use anything related to Chrome, not even Chromium.
It depends. On the windows machine, i have 3 browsers. FF, Chrome and Brave. FF as my daily driver, Chrome for a region specific streaming service and Brave for sites that don’t play well with blocking add ons.
On my Linux machines, i ususally use 2 browsers. FF again as my daily driver and Chrome for the region specific streaming service.
That’s about it. FF on the one hand, decked out with add-ons and a Chrome/Brave with no blocking at all.