Choosing my browsers

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Choosing my best browser combination
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3 min read
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Today we will choose the browser combo I am going to use

Why a combo and not one particular? - you might ask. The reason is: No browser is perfect, they are good in different tasks. Its not scary to use multiple.

Browser engines

First, you should know, there are 3 main browser engines:

Blink engine powers the most browsers:

Gecko is most known for Firefox and its forks:

WebKit powers Safari and thats pretty much it.

Browsers I have used

Here is a list of browsers I have used for some time in the past in chronological order:

Pros and cons

Google Chrome support just about everything, however I wouldn’t come back. Chrome is known for being the most tracking browser, it collects as much as possible data about you.

Brave offers more privacy, but it is filled with web3 stuff, which is really not my cup of tea.

Safari looks the best on Mac and it is really power efficient. However, it has failed me when showing inline pdfs. Safari is similar to Internet Explorer, it supports the least web features.

Ungoogled chromium is browser with the least build-in features. It both good and bad. You can still customize it, however I was lazy to do that. I believe thats the most private chromium based browser.

Firefox is my favorite - despite the different engine, I had no problems with it. Also, Mozilla offers syncing features. And it still does not track you, its FOSS!

Extensions

Browser’s support of extensions depend on it engine

Blink’s and Gecko’s extensions are built similarly, so almost all of extensions I have used were available on both.

Safari lacks extension support a lot. Some are ported, but became paid, others don’t exist at all!

Features

What features are must have is a browser? I personally do not need a lot, but here is a list:

Let’s eliminate some

Password

Most of browsers have a build-in password manager. They are all different some might be bad. At some point I decided to move to a full-fledged password manager, I chose BitWarden, It is also FOSS and cross-platform. After that, I disable all built-in password managers.

Overcomplicating

Firefox offers deep customization using css files, however I prefer not to do that because its easy to make your browser look bad. Also, its hard to maintain such config.

Conclusion

My main browser is Firefox

My second browser is Ungoogled Chromium