this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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589
Quick post about AI-free FireFox Based Browsers (Keep your Addons and avoid the Bloat) (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by ekZepp@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
113 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Just pick one - All the Fox functionality without bloatware

Librewolf - https://librewolf.net/

Waterfox - https://www.waterfox.com/

Zen Browser - https://zen-browser.app/

More browsers here - https://alternativeto.net/category/browsers/firefox-based/

You can also use this add to disable the ~~shitload~~ ai function in many search engines in one go

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-ai/

GitHub page - https://github.com/jruns/disable-ai

You can find all the links on Mastodon<

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[–] BonkTheAnnoyed@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Right now the hold up for me is session sharing and password syncing between mobile and Linux.

Passwords I have a clear path forward, with either offline mgr + manual sync, or self-hosted online. But I it's weirdly hard to walk away from session sharing.

Edit oh nice, waterfox does all this.

[–] enbiousenvy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 44 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was ignoring everything Waterfox back when I realize they were bought by an advertising company, System1, which also owns StartPage.

BUT, I recently read from Wikipedia that Waterfox has gone independent again since 2023.

[–] rustyricotta@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As someone who uses waterfox but hadn't heard any of this news, that was a rollercoaster. But consider me relieved.

[–] enbiousenvy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 day ago

I also just installed Waterfox for the first time after reading the Wikipedia page. I use it to replace Firefox to be used when I need webgl or webrtc/voice call. my main browser is still Librewolf

[–] LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (3 children)

As a heads up, Librewolf last I checked had issues with media involving DRM. Ergo, streaming services will throw a fit if you try using them on it. Not an issue if you don't use any of course, and there may be ways around it, but worth knowing that it doesn't work out of the box at least.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it's in settings > general

"screenshot of librewolf's play drm-controlled content setting"

[–] LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Easier of a solution than I had found when I tried... I remember looking it up basically being told it wasn't possible without a lot of fiddling. Strange. Good to know it's actually simple!

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 6 points 20 hours ago

Actually it should be even simpler because if it's disabled and the site attempts to use it, you'll see a prompt under the toolbar that says you may want to enable it.

what you said might be about watching streaming sites on linux in general. some of them only give you inferior quality streams, some of them outright refuse to cooperate.

[–] lena@gregtech.eu 3 points 20 hours ago

I refuse to use any services that make use of DRM on principle. They're defective by design.

[–] pixeltree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, you have to enable a setting. I think it links you to it when you run into it. Much more of a turn off to me is not being able to use my camera in it, so I have to use a different browser for video calls.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 3 points 20 hours ago

how, what's happening when you try? didn't you check the "never ask this permission" box for the camera permission on settings?

[–] TheNamlessGuy@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Why do so many people push changing browsers over using something like arkenfox? As far as I know, librewolf is essentially firefox with arkenfox preconfigured.

While I understand that setting up a config is probably beyond the scope of your average browser user, I rarely even see the alternative mentioned. Nor do I rarely see people mention the downsides of using a downstream branch - mostly security updates potentially being late.

If you use fennec on android, I think you can even just copy your config to your phone and have it working the same there.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 7 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

if you install arkenfox yourself, likely you'll never remember to update it. if you use librewolf or such, the maintainers will take care of it for you

If you use fennec on android, I think you can even just copy your config to your phone and have it working the same there.

and where do you copy it on your phone? I think it's not that simple but maybe I missed something

[–] TheNamlessGuy@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

if you install arkenfox yourself, likely you'll never remember to update it. if you use librewolf or such, the maintainers will take care of it for you

I'm sure there are plugins that either check for updates for you, or remind you to do so (even though that can defeat the purpose some, of course). If not I'll make one myself once I get around to setting arkenfox up. But yes, that's largely what I meant by "While I understand that setting up a config is probably beyond the scope of your average browser user".

and where do you copy it on your phone? I think it's not that simple but maybe I missed something

Not sure, but considering you can mess around in about:config I'd assume the user.js is located in userspace somewhere. I haven't looked into it much. If nothing else you can probably do it easily with a rooted phone.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 18 hours ago

all data of the firefox is located in /data/data/packgename, which is inaccessible without root permissions. a few android versions ago it was accessible through ADB, not anymore. I don't think it's possible anymore to install arkenfox on plain firefox android for most users.

even with a rooted phone its not that easy. granting termux root rights and running su, the per-package data folders are not visible, you have to switch to the correct mount namespace somehow. some file manager apps adapted to be able to do that

[–] djvinniev77@lemmy.ca 93 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Really hate how iOS has zero alternatives. Thanks apple for your stupid WebKit.

[–] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Could be worse, seriously. Safari is not a bad browser and WebKit is the only engine since years that can keep up with chromium. I get that it is annoying to have leas freedom on iOS, but I also appreciate the increased security[1] and quality of life that comes with it.

[1] yes, I am aware that open source software tends to be more secure, as it can be reviewed by all. However, Android by default is way less secure than iOS, unless you use GraphiteOS or similar.

[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago (8 children)

I also appreciate the increased security

This hasn't been true for a long, long time. Mac was only ever more secure than windows because not enough people used them to make them worthwhile attack vectors. Nowadays, iOS sees just as many vulnerabilities as every other popular OS.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

Nowadays, iOS sees just as many vulnerabilities as every other popular OS.

I'm no Apple fanboy but Apple security is more than the OS. Since they also produce all of the hardware, it means they can do things at the hardware level and either make available or restrict things to the OS that Windows cannot do because Microsoft doesn't control all the hardware makers.

I'm posting this in Asahi Linux on an M2 powered Macbook. Its been an interesting experience learning not only the benefits of this as a hardware platform, but also its limitations from the FOSS point of view.

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[–] Kevlar21@piefed.social 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Safari on iOS is especially tolerable since they allowed uBlock Origin Lite onto the App Store recently.

[–] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago

They whaaat? Finally!!

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 2 points 22 hours ago

Wipr 2 is so great though. Indie dev, perfect streamlined implementation.

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[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)

[–] hummingbird@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

Impressive how management can blindly ignore their own core pricipals.

[–] abfm90@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I use Fennec in Android and Librewolf in Linux.

Libre wolf needs a bit of tweaking at the begining but then works like charm.

[–] Mohamed@lemmy.ca 6 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Tweaking in what sense? Like just default search engines and such, or is it about:config settings?

I'm just curious.

[–] abfm90@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

I had a thing that deleted everything every time I closed the browser... Like it reset i. I activated history and a few other normal stuff... Nothing in about:config.

Also, in Gnome, I had to activate a permission to access user files in flatseal to work with gnome extensions

Nothing special.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 20 hours ago

I am not them but I always reenable history keeping and turn on a few more ublock lists that are already there disabled

[–] Aetherion@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Zen ♥️

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[–] Solenopsis@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Are there any plans to make a mobile browser?

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 6 points 23 hours ago

Waterfox is available for Android.

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