I always use and recommend hardened Firefox + Ublock. As a search engine, I use Qwant, which is based in the EU and uses its own search engine whenever possible rather than Google, Bing, etc. And there is another reason not to recommend using Brave. Among its investors is Peter Thiel, the most controversial figure in the investment world. Search for Peter Thiel's controversial statements in your favourite search engine and you will see for yourself.

Brave is the browser version of Honey. It blocks 3rd party ads and inserts its own, taking the money. Either block the ads or don’t but this is shitty.

This is pretty nihilist to say, but we probably need to stop using what we're calling the internet today.

The web is not the innocent platform it once was in the 90s and early 00s. Privacy is practically nonexistent and the workarounds like disabling javascript break so much of it that what's left is hardly usable.

There's no worthwhile alternatives imo. There's no major competing internetworks or 'web browsing' alternatives outside of modern html/css/js... and there really should be.

The internet evolved towards money making and nobody really stopped and made offshoots that are just cool fun things without the endless goal of capital.

Honestly what do people have against Firefox that can't be fixed with plugins? It's the only decent browser that isn't chrome based, and I think that deserves support. And with plugins and sync it's a great experience.

An extra reason: Eich is a homophobic asshole and an anti-masker

I never used it specifically because of it being run by Brenden Eich. I have no intention of knowingly throwing my towel in and helping to enrich someone who's thrown his money around to strip people of the right to marry who they want because he finds it icky.

I'm sure there's other bad shit from him but after that I just treat him and anything he does as pure toxin.

If that sounds harsh, well, I don't give a fuck.

I am pretty set with Firefox in Android and desktop to be honest.

I cringe a little when users praise Brave as being the best ad-less YouTube solution (especially android users since we have revanced here!), no bro, there is no way using the web version of YT is better than revanced, or any other apps on mobile.

I remember Brave was popular among MAGA-type people during Trump's first term. I suspect it's likely the same.

The logo has a striking resemblance to one I remember seeing on a big pro-Trump community. It's described here https://www.vox.com/2019/8/29/20838289/trump-fascist-lion-head-bull-testicles-video-twitter basically the logo is associated with Mussolini.

In addition if you check the Wikipedia article you'll notice this:

In August 2016, the company had received at least US$7 million in angel investments from venture capital firms, including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Propel Venture Partners, Pantera Capital, Foundation Capital and the Digital Currency Group.[13]

Moreover some right-wing type people expressed their "solidarity" with Brendan Eich for his anti LGBT stance so they used Brave.

After decades of being a Google fanboy and using nothing but Chrome, my bf proudly told me he'd installed Brave after he got tired of his favorite websites being nothing but ads. I wouldn't use it personally for the reasons you mention, but I think it's a positive step for some people.

I won’t use a chromium based browser at all, especially Brave.

I'm too ready to ladybird browser to be ready in a few years.

https://www.spacebar.news/stop-using-brave-browser/ :)

I would recommend Ecosia as a search engine, Waterfox as a browser, and Lumo as an AI chatbot if you're fixed on using AI.

Waterfox is Firefox with all privacy settings on. Simple enough.

Ecosia is a German-based search engine company that uses profits for replanting trees and reforestation. They use several resources for search results, so understand it's not 100% based on pushing full privacy. I just figure they're doing good with their money.

Lumo is the Proton-based AI that's Mistral at the heart (French-based ai company focused on privacy) with some other tools under proton's belt too.

Combined, I think this gives everyone/anyone a potent level of security/privacy with out-of-the-box use and no special tweaks or settings required.

You could go one step further and use 9.9.9.9 for DNS either at the browser level or gateway level for the whole home!

Don't forget that they used to add referral parameters to links you clicked so they got a kickback from you clicking things from anywhere even if they didn't make that link for you.

I'm quite happy with the Mullvad browser.

Desktop = Librewolf, Mullvad and hardened firefox browsers. Strictly separating uses. Mobile (Android) = Cromite, Brave, Firefox and Tor. Again, separating uses.

I don't like Brave or the amount of bloat. Sadly what is missing from basically all Chromium forks is even basic browser anti-fingerprinting. The only other real example I can think of is Cromite, which is what i recommend people use instead of Brave.

I dislike any browser which blocks content (such as ads) by default. It may sound silly, but Imo, that's not what a browser should be doing. It's job is to act as an HTTP client, render HTML and do caching, storage and all the management which goes with it and offer any tools to tinker with it.
The meaning of the content displayed should be of no concern to the browser as it is subjective.
I will install an addon to deal with unwanted content as I see fit. Firefox is getting kinda bloated with all the things which come with it (pocket, accounts, default bookmarks...), but I can live with that.

I'm just glad people are finally starting to mention LibreWolf as the first go-to.

If it's viable for you, slightly modified Mulvad browser + Searxing for search.

Mullvad browser is a variant of the Tor browser, but rather than being used to connect to Tor, it's built on the stripped away version of Firefox that Tor builds. This means no 'phoning home' telemetry to Mozilla or Google. The only default connection Mullvad browser uses -- and this might be why I would suggest modifying it -- is the DNS gets routed through Mullvad. Nothing wrong with that, as they have some solid adblocking DNS servers. But: having a choice for that is good. The default should not be assumed.

Searxing uses a number of search indexes that have been consistently effective when compared to commercial search engines, and it's open source and deployable on, say, a home server. There used to be some public instances available. Searxing is good.

Were setting up a Searxing service for yourself somewhere not as viable, and you want to try a service that you pay for (rather than them using your data as 'payment'), I would recommend something like Kagi. They offer an interesting feature to their service, and this is why I suggest them: they have a privacy tokenized search, which valdidates but obsfucates you as a user when you make a search request. I think it is smartly engineered, and I can appreciate it for what it is.

For privacy and security purposes, alike, I would avoid Zen and Floorp. They do not get security updates as often.

Helium has poor anti-fingerprinting.

Firefox derivatives don't support google meet well.

any better ideas?

I personally don't use or like it. But nowadays I see it installed to people's phone. Which is thousand times better than chrome.
People around me are too Brain washed to understand " install a Firefox based Browser and install Ublock origin "