this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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libre

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Welcome to libre

A comm dedicated to the fight for free software with an anti-capitalist perspective.

The struggle for libre computing cannot be disentangled from other forms of socialist reform. One must be willing to reject proprietary software as fiercely as they would reject capitalism. Luckily, we are not alone.

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Resources

  1. Free Software, Free Society provides an excellent primer in the origins and theory around free software and the GNU Project, the pioneers of the Free Software Movement.
  2. Switch to GNU/Linux! If you're still using Windows in $CURRENT_YEAR, flock to Linux Mint!; Apple Silicon users will want to check out Asahi Linux.

Rules

  1. Be on topic: Posts should be about free software and other hacktivst struggles. Topics about general tech news should be in the technology comm or programming comm. That doesn't mean all posts have to be serious though, memes are welcome!
  2. Avoid using misleading terms/speading misinformation: Here's a great article about what those words are. In short, try to avoid parroting common Techbro lingo and topics.
  3. Avoid being confrontational: People are in different stages of liberating their computing, focus on informing rather than accusing. Debatebro nonsense is not tolerated.
  4. All site-wide rules still apply

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[–] tombruzzo@hexbear.net 19 points 3 days ago

Librewolf.

Everything here people have said about Brave, and it's chromium based

[–] mathemachristian@hexbear.net 16 points 3 days ago

Brave CEO is a chud donating to stuff like banning gay marriage. And the browser had some scandals in the past. I use librewolf myself but others would know more about browsers.

[–] trompete@hexbear.net 17 points 3 days ago

Brave is proprietary, and they have some sort of ad scheme to make money. Also the head of that operation is a known homophobe.

Mozilla are bought and paid for, controlled opposition. And everybody working there has about the same worldview as your average Facebook employee.

LibreWolf is just a couple of tweaks to Firefox to improve the situation a little bit. So let's say there is no good option.

[–] Aradino@hexbear.net 12 points 3 days ago
[–] KnilAdlez@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago

The guy who made brave is a bigot, iirc

[–] lurkerlady@hexbear.net 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Mullvad browser 💅

I daily drive it. Run it close to stock as possible, save passwords with keepassxc. Use protonvpn or mullvadvpn with it. Can easily circumvent bans on Reddit and so on. Can't be fingerprinted. It's in the same class as Tor browser

[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago (2 children)

lifelong firefox user here. any downsides at all to switching to LibreWolf? seems like something i should do

[–] tombruzzo@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It still feels like Firefox. Extensions and everything still work, but it's a bit more privacy focused.

Import everything across and give it a go, I think it will feel the same

LibreWolf is kinda strict about some privacy related settings and won't let you change them.

For example, on Linux it won't let websites follow light and dark mode because it is another piece of data that can be used to fingerprint you. You can still change it using about:config.

Other than that, it is just better Firefox.

[–] Meltyheartlove@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

Mullvad browser on pc and ironfox on android. Librewolf is good too. Brave CEO is scum.

[–] RION@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Both, librewolf as daily driver and Brave when you need chromium (which does still happen these days). Privacyguides.org has good configurations for Brave. They recommend regular Firefox over Librewolf but it's not a whole lot different

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Why not just use Chromium?

[–] RION@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Manifest V2 support and superior anti-tracking features

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ah, okay. I might have to download Brave myself then.

Just to check, we're both talking about unChromium?

[–] RION@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The versions you can get at that link, yeah. Not sure what's meant by "un"chromium—i know there's ungoogled chromium but that's not well maintained iirc

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

Ah, yeah, Ungoogled Chromium is what I meant!

Okay, good to know. Thank you!

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

What needs chromium? I have never encountered such a site.

[–] hankthetankie@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Testing websites so they work correctly , also nice with lighthouse in the console . But that's about what I use it for

[–] RION@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

Weird things like the CLEAR verification for LinkedIn, from memory. It won't explicitly say "this needs chromium!" But it'll refuse to work properly

[–] SockOlm@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago

Librewolf is awesome also the Brave CEO is a chud

[–] GenderIsOpSec@hexbear.net 7 points 3 days ago
[–] hankthetankie@hexbear.net 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)
[–] Robert_Kennedy_Jr@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I've been using Zen but the most recent update broke uBlock somehow and I was shocked at how many bullshit ads are shoved into absolutely everything, like 1337x torrents automatically downloads an installer for Opera when you click on a link.

[–] Edie@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago

Tor Browser

[–] Bruja@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

Zen is derived from Firefox and someone here recommended it and it’s been nice. Heavily modified UI which differs from mainstream browsers which may or not be for you.

FireDragon used to be a LibreWolf derivative, now incorporates LW stuff into Floorp with additional tweaks. Found it to be a better experience than LW but YMMV.

Probably have 8 or so browsers installed to play with but those two get regular usage.

Nobara has recently switched to a modified Brave for ease of use. Personally will never use it, but passing this along for those who fall under certain use cases.

Brave has a couple conditions where it works better than Firefox-based or other Chrome-based browsers. Having VRR (variable refresh rate) enabled currently causes crashes when scrolling live video in Firefox-based browsers. Having Hardware Acceleration enabled currently breaks Google Meets in Chromium other than Brave unless you use the flatpak version.

If using Brave it is recommended to set the following options to disable stuff like crypto and AI (default Nobara settings):

  • “BraveRewardsDisabled”: true,
  • “BraveWalletDisabled”: true,
  • “BraveVPNDisabled”: 1,
  • “BraveAIChatEnabled”: false,
  • “TorDisabled”: true,
  • “DnsOverHttpsMode”: “automatic”

So until those bugs are fixed upstream, if you use VRR or Google Meets, Brave with the tweaks can offer a better experience. As others recommend, avoid altogether if those do not apply.