Do you prefer Firefox or Chromium as the default browser?

[BarryK]

The almost-released EasyOS 5.6 has Firefox as the builtin browser, replacing Chromium, see blog post:

https://bkhome.org/news/202311/easyos-k ... eased.html

But, as it says in the blog post, do we really care that Chromium is 27MB bigger? Shouldn't the choice be more about what each browser offers the user?

As Chromium is not "ungoogled", some users might have that objection.

Does Firefox offer anything that we might particularly like?

I recently encountered a problem with Chromium on YouTube. Chromium does not support DRM (Digital Rights Management) and some YouTube videos require it. Chromium does not support DRM; for that we need Chrome. FF does support DRM, so one tick for FF.

Any other thoughts?....

I need to make a decision before release 5.6.1.

Would like to post an example of a YouTube video that requires DRM. Encountered two of them in the last few days, can't find the URLs now.

[BarryK]

Ah, here is one that requires DRM:

I tested, won't play in Chromium, does play in FF.

[BarryK]

I was able to import bookmarks from Chromium to FF. In the blog post, explained that they run as different users, isolated from each other. However, in Chromium was able to export bookmarks as a html file.

That file has 600 permissions, so have to right-click on it and tick world-readable permissions. Then FF was able to import it.

So I guess that does make the transition Chromium to FF more palatable.

Ah ha, this looks good to automate the exporting:

https://github.com/bdesham/chrome-expor ... -bookmarks

[scsijon]

Firefox please. I do admit that i've always installed and used it together with Thunderbird (email) just about forever. These two I consider must-have's. I did have a go with seamonkey back when barry started with it, but found Firefox/ Eudoria more to my liking having come from CPM

[amethyst]

Hi Barry - Chromium does support DRM, I use it all the time and do lots of streaming. Make sure the Widevine component is installed. In settings it can usally be enabled (in Brave it's in the extensions section). I prefer Chromium (I use mikewalsh's portable Brave browser which has Widevine included) because it's lighter on resources for my old machines. I also have Firefox (which works fine) but use Brave all the time. BTW- The youtube video you posted does not play for me because of geoblock (I get a message that it can not be played in my country). As a side note - DRM only works with 64-bit browsers.

[nnriyer]

Nowa days, google chrome or chromium is default browser for most of the people. Most of the sites are designed to work with google chrome. However, I have noticed one issue on chrome environment i.e. my local tv news audio is not playing in chromium/google chrome https://www.asianetnews.com/live-audio-news whereas no issue in firefox. No idea why it is not playing audio in chrome browser. Other than this I don't find any issue in chrome/google browser.

Link for audio testing https://www.asianetnews.com/live-audio-news.

NB. any solutions or work around?

[ghoen]

My personal preference is firefox,
but as long it is available via the menu, then I am happy.
Greetings

[Rantanplan]

Hi @BarryK

I prefer Firefox.
To consulte bank accounts and to do other administrative procedures.

Greetings.

[pp4mnklinux]

Hi @BarryK :

I'm not yet using EasyOS (but I've got it in mind, jeje) so consider my answer from this point of view.

I wanna give u not 1, but the result of thousands of oppinions, those from users of SLANT (a community that help users to take decissions .

You can see the suggestions here.- https://www.slant.co/versus/5226/5230/~ ... s_chromium (with information about each valorated aspects) but just in case you are really busy, you can see the attached image.

As you can know... my favourite is slimjet, but then my choice is FF too.

Have a nice day u all.

-------- edited --------
1.-
Slimjet is a Chromium-based browser that is faster, more stable, and more customizable than other browsers. It has all the functionalities of a standard web browser such as Google Chrome. Slimjet claims to deliver faster file download and photo upload speeds compared to Chrome and Firefox. However, it is not recommended for machines with under 8GB memory or nerves sensitive to the memory usage of applications. It is a solid browser, but it’s not exactly lightweight and will end up consuming considerable resources after running for a while. So it's not recomended as default browser for every user, so don't consider intalling it in EasyOs by default

2.- Can this be another reason to choose FF? viewtopic.php?p=102659#p102659

[tammi806]

I've always used Firefox and Firefox ESR browsers.

I don't care for Chromium or Google Chrome browsers.

I have used Chromium browser and it seems to work okay.

Websites nowadays seem to be built with Google Chrome in mind.

Seems everywhere I go business computers are using Google Chrome.

It's your baby so I say use the browser that you think will work the best for Easy OS.

Thanks.

[Tahrbaby]

My preferred choice is Firefox as it suits all my requirements.
However,if it can still be available to download from the menu and the majority prefer Chromium,not a problem.

Thank you.

[loot]

Firefox, and specifically, Firefox ESR.

[TerryH]

Most recently I have mainly used Firefox. When EasyOS made Chromium the default browser I decided that in EasyOS I would use Chromiium. About 2 weeks ago I installed Firefox, as Chromium was misbehaving for me lately. I would vote for Firefox as the default browser included with EasyOS. Thank you.

[nomadic]

Definitely Firefox!

[sucuklu yumurta]

''The uploader has not made this video available in your country''
watch?v=3ELvwFLn-mk

Hi, I don't try to access links that give warnings like this. If it is not wanted to be watched in my geography, I will not watch it.
Regards.

[pp4mnklinux]

I completely agree with you (specialy when those are advertisements)

But when they they try to limit my access for other reasons (privacy, don't share information, avoid competitors....) directly start BROWSEC VPN ff plugin and FTA.

The free version is enough for me.... USA, SINGAPORE, NEDERLAND....

The reason.... "I know what I want, and I want it now..jajjaj"

[bugnaw333]

Firefox please.

[BarryK]

Thank you for the very interesting replies.

I think that an important consideration is to support the lone holdout against chrome-based browsers.

OK, the next EasyOS will have Firefox.

[PrivateLifePrivacy]

I personally prefer FireFox over Chromium. Even better a Librewolf flatpak + Flatseal + Flatsweep. Can you build in direct access to install apps from Flathub - or are there technical impediments or security issues around that?

Perhaps EasyOS could include ungoogled chromium in the EasyOS Flatpak repository.

Also, can you enable direct downloads of flatpaks from Flathub directly?

Love your work Barry, shame you can’t obtain Australian Govt funding to help you obtain a team of maintainers for your uniquely and innovative distro in our budding surveillance state that Australia has become.

One other thing - Your Tor Flatpak had an incorrect name/link in the repository (last time I looked).

Another thing, is it possible to install the Mullvad VPN software on your distributor? MX Linux enables that option (along with iVPN and Nord) in their repository. That helps them to have such wide user appeal on the basis of prioritising convenience for their user. I believe if you offer that option, it would attract a lot more regular users who aren’t so technically adept (for people like me) to maintain their Privacy and help fight the capitalist surveillance system.

Providing OpenSnitch to your app repository, would allow people to realise how accessible their computers are to malicious apps. I installed LittleSnitch on my Mac and was blown away at HOW many trackers were sending data back to these apps that are secretly spying - many regular users do not realise this! Really informed me what a PANTOMIME the whole Apple privacy thing is.

As Rob Braxman states on his YouTube channel (via Invidious), Apple is most likely deceptively incorporating client side scanning. Thankfully I’m not doing anything wrong, besides not holding the same (short-sighted) political views on the Donbass (which along with Crimea has a predominantly Russian speaking population). But this creeping surveillance occurring in our Western World, shows how we are sliding silently into a dystopian future. Hopefully you can help work against this trend…like Edward Snowden, who is a true modern day hero!

Also, I believe EasyOS uses JWM window manager. Will they be upgrading to use the Wayland protocol anytime soon, the way xfce and cinnamon are planning to, or will this continue to use X11?

I understand however, that you do not have that many resources, so this may not be possible.

Love how EasyOS is one of the few distro’s that continues to NOT using systemd and that you are trying upgrade the security of your Puppy Linux framework.
Thank you so much L

[Clarity]

... do we really care that Chromium is 27MB bigger? Shouldn't the choice be more about what each browser offers the user? ...

Agree (100%) especially in light of today's run-able 'image' deliverable and this product's direction. 'Ease of use' is now the most pertinent desires.

[BarryK]

@PrivateLifePrivacy
So many questions!

Regarding Wayland, I will never transition to it.

Partly the reason is that EasyOS is a "sunset project" that I'm working on until I ride off over the horizon on my trike.

Xorg does everything I want and is reasonably secure the way I have it setup.

JWM is based on Xorg and will never move to Wayland either.

[josepinto]

Thank you for the very interesting replies.

I think that an important consideration is to support the lone holdout against chrome-based browsers.

OK, the next EasyOS will have Firefox.

Second that. We must support Firefox existence.

[mikewalsh]

Thank you for the very interesting replies.

I think that an important consideration is to support the lone holdout against chrome-based browsers.

OK, the next EasyOS will have Firefox.

Second that. We must support Firefox existence.

Well; yes.....I agree. And this despite being a Chrome "afficionado" since 2008.

However, Chromium-based browsers are so popular for two very simple reasons. One, the internet has become conditioned to "expect" them - in much the same way that Internet Exploder once ruled the roost! - and two, Google (via the Chromium Project) has made building/modifying their source code extremely easy, going so far as to provide an entire suite of tools specifically for that very purpose.

Mozilla, on the other hand, have only just got their act together in recent years; for a long time, the browser lagged a long way behind in terms of features and security.....more due to the constant in-fighting and back-stabbing that was an everyday part of life between the members of the dev team in the Mozilla camp. It's only in the last couple of years that I can finally say I no longer care which one I use; I switched when I did all those years ago over issues like horrendous memory leaks and continuous, random crashing.....Chrome was smooth, lightweight and oh! SO stable.

At long last Firefox is the browser it could have been a good many years ago. But the past is the past, and ya cannae change it.....I'm as likely to use FF all day long as I am Chrome or the other "clones", rather than using FF purely as a 'back-up' browser. It's improved out of all recognition to its former self.

Choice is GOOD.

Mike.

[pp4mnklinux]

Don't use chrome if your only reason is "looks like chrome"

Go FireFox, install https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/trick-web ... nt-chrome/ and fuck them all.... jajjajja.

You'll write the rules.- We are here... We are Linux

[BarryK]

Most recently I have mainly used Firefox. When EasyOS made Chromium the default browser I decided that in EasyOS I would use Chromiium. About 2 weeks ago I installed Firefox, as Chromium was misbehaving for me lately. I would vote for Firefox as the default browser included with EasyOS. Thank you.

@TerryH
What problems were you having with Chromium?

Well, Easy 5.6.1 got released, with FF builtin, but not good news, see:

viewtopic.php?t=9911

The problems occur when hardware acceleration is enabled; window flicker causing loss of keyboard focus and menu locking up.
On my Lenovo PC anyway. If it was an nvidia gpu, perhaps I would understand, but this PC has a plain-vanilla intel gpu.

I would like to have the gpu acceleration, which works fine for me in Chromium.

[TerryH]

Most recently I have mainly used Firefox. When EasyOS made Chromium the default browser I decided that in EasyOS I would use Chromiium. About 2 weeks ago I installed Firefox, as Chromium was misbehaving for me lately. I would vote for Firefox as the default browser included with EasyOS. Thank you.

@TerryH
What problems were you having with Chromium?

I was having page rendering issues. I have just updated to 5.6.2 (I skipped 5.6.1 as suggested), the rendering issues seem to have so far been resolved in the current release. All pages are showing correctly.

Pages were renderred better in a container than non-container version. In the images shown the screen shot with the 2 windows are both my homepage a personalized start.me page. The better rendered page is in a container, it is still not correct as the titles and some icons are not shown. Sometimes a container was displaying correctly. Even directly entering a URL, is not displayed correctly The second image is what I was seeing when going to your homepage.

[Flash]

I prefer FF for Gmail but it started flickering and skipping so badly while composing emails and scrolling down through Google News that I switched to Chromium. I tried a few things, I don't remember them all but among them I think I reinstalled FF. It still skipped. But then it suddenly quit skipping. Now it flickers just a bit every now and then, but keeps its place on the page when it does that. I didn't change anything that I can think of, after reinstalling FF.

[BarryK]

Most recently I have mainly used Firefox. When EasyOS made Chromium the default browser I decided that in EasyOS I would use Chromiium. About 2 weeks ago I installed Firefox, as Chromium was misbehaving for me lately. I would vote for Firefox as the default browser included with EasyOS. Thank you.

@TerryH
What problems were you having with Chromium?

I was having page rendering issues. I have just updated to 5.6.2 (I skipped 5.6.1 as suggested), the rendering issues seem to have so far been resolved in the current release. All pages are showing correctly.

Chromium has GPU hardware acceleration enabled. If you experience any rendering issues in the future, perhaps that is the cause. It can be turned off in the Settings.

[BarryK]

I prefer FF for Gmail but it started flickering and skipping so badly while composing emails and scrolling down through Google News that I switched to Chromium. I tried a few things, I don't remember them all but among them I think I reinstalled FF. It still skipped. But then it suddenly quit skipping. Now it flickers just a bit every now and then, but keeps its place on the page when it does that. I didn't change anything that I can think of, after reinstalling FF.

Yeah, that does seem like the hardware acceleration problem. Turn it off in the Settings and hopefully the flickering will go away.

[BarryK]

As TerryH mentioned above, Easy 5.6.2 has returned to Chromium builtin. Announcement here:

viewtopic.php?p=103191#p103191

And as I mentioned in the blog announcement, it is still very easy to run Firefox if that is your preferred browser -- there is a menu entry in the "Internet" category, to download the latest FF, and can also update to the latest. Or Vivaldi.