LibreWolf & Brave - Web Browsers in 2023

After introducing the current web browser landscape, I'll demonstrate two of my current favorites. LibreWolf is a no-nonsense Firefox fork with Mozilla telemetry and advertising removed; Brave is a feature-filled Chromium fork with enhanced privacy protections.
Try LibreWolf: librewolf.net/
Try Brave: brave.com/
Get a copy of my EasyList AdBlock filters and share your own here: nerdonthestreet.com/forum-top...
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[@cjs4247]

LibreWolf + SearX is the way to go imo

[@Iamx7]

SearX is bad search engine, I tried it

[@babygravy9383]

Why

[@Pandacier]

@@babygravy9383 bro watched too much of Eric Murphy

[@yrnhhngr]

searx over ddg? consider me intrigued

[@7William]

​@@yrnhhngragreed I tried searx and it sucked so I switched back to DuckDuckgo

[@campyhamper4175]

wow wow wow - best browser reviews I've seen. I'm grateful for the interesting background info behind a certain browser - you are a standup guy. Keep up the excellent work!

[@goldholder8131]

This video is so incredibly thought provoking and dense with information it's almost impossible to get through because after you make a complete point, my mind flies off into oblivion to contemplate it, so I have to go back to before I blanked out and re-listen.. xD

[@NerdOnTheStreet]

Absolutely. My motivations for making this video were nuanced, and it was a tough balance to try and strike for the intro (explaining every point thoroughly vs. keeping it easy to follow).

[@RTBRuhan]

Just want to apprecieate that you are working for a specific neach kind content. I am not sure but I belive I see your content from last 4 years but today I saw the subscriber count. I am very inspired that you are still making content even though you don't get much support I suppose. Best wishes for you brother 😊😊

[@David-XCsoaring]

Great video, very nicely presented and understandable. I am going to give them both a try.

[@Cerr0x]

thank you very much for this extended and very detailed review. great work

[@ChrisKobra]

Very informative, great video. Thanks for your work!

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

I like it that you showcased even features that you personally don't use.

[@leifkretschmercotanum7128]

Thank you for this helpful and informative Video. This is very helpful for me.

[@JD-td8kl]

Very informative video. I have used Brave for a long time, but I am now going to give Librewolf an honest turn. Seems like a great initiative!

[@kAt-mq3js]

Enjoyed the whole video, thanks.

[@AhLottaAntwan]

Thank you! This helped me decide which browser i wanted to switch to! I've been on Opera GX for the past year.

[@cugansteamid6252]

So which one you settled with 😂

[@AhLottaAntwan]

@@cugansteamid6252 I went with Brave. It’s pretty nice and I barely even think about it now

[@HaryanviKashmiri]

@@cugansteamid6252 bravewolf

[@huzaifashahid2264]

the problem im having with brave browser now is that it has stopped responding to my clicks and like its not responding at all ive tried clearing the cache, browsing history everything even reinstalled it but the lag and the unresponsiveness havent gone at all like basically the problem is that its not responding from my top right side only everything works fine idk why is this happening.... Im using macbook M1 air tho so any help here would be appreciated

[@Saitama-Senpai]

Thanks! So... these two are the best at the moment?

[@Wihf]

My only problem is the refresh rate. It does not match my refresh rate on my monitors (240hz and 144hz), it seems to be stuck at 60hz or 75hz. Is that only me? Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

[@Manly_face]

I hope LibreWolf will release on mobile

[@Pandacier]

it probably never will

[@samarnagar9699]

I think its time for a libre office suite video 😉

[@sajadmohassan]

Librewolf is the Starks while Brave is the Lannisters. Mindblown.

[@narcissismisadisease]

I had my ad/tracker stats turned off since 1st of May or so. Just looked and it shows 165000 ads/trackers blocked for a total of 2 hours 38 minutes in load time saved.

[@kryzerk9203]

The only problem I have with Librewolf over Brave is that Spotify seems very buggy on LibreWolf, and the devs cannot actually fix that but, where Brave works just fine.

[@ube2slow]

Great informative video. If you like privacy, these are two of the better ones imo. You mentioned Opera at the end, I would not use it. They were bought by a Chinese consortium in 2016 and are one of the worst as far as privacy policies are concerned. Nice job on the video sir.

[@ismascarade]

I'd rather go with LibreWolf (I'm actually downloading it as I'm writing this on macOS) than Brave because one isn't based out of Chromium. Even if it's a fork made for privacy, it still uses the same engine behind.

[@yrnhhngr]

this is the way. plus the containers thing alone is reason alone to ditch chromium altogether.

[@puteraikhsan4532]

How to do file server with backup server using ubuntu

[@Wilsonphenmooneter]

Using Chrome without blocker now seeking for another Replacement Good to know /downloading

[@leonardopires9344]

very good video

[@elddr2]

amazing video

[@steveblanchard7293]

Brave Tor is no longer an option - option is Brave VPN which starts as a free trial. Will try both and see how I get on!

[@NerdOnTheStreet]

I'm on vacation and away from most of my computers, but I just installed Brave 1.63.169 on the Windows 11 PC in front of me, and it does still have the "New private window with Tor" feature that I demonstrated in this video. The paid Brave VPN offering is just a different option aside from that.

[@al-swh-ct7ez]

By far the greatest browser review that I've ever watched. As a casual Brave user who complains a lot about the extra features there I decided to give a try to LibreWolf. On my iOS device Brave feels very bloated and poorly designed, I am curious to learn about your picks on mobile browsers as well. Thanks for the excellent work.

[@yrnhhngr]

theres no safe bets on mobile... just use whatever when you really really need it

[@unqSeth]

please tell me what browser, search engine and extensions you use in your private life, thanks in advance...

[@NerdOnTheStreet]

Pretty sure I answered all of that in the video. On my personal computers, I mostly use the Brave Browser, with Brave Search as my default search engine and DuckDuckGo as my fallback search engine. (I do use Firefox + Google on my work computer and Microsoft Edge + Bing on my school computer, so I regularly get exposed to a good variety.)

[@unqSeth]

extensions please...🙏@@NerdOnTheStreet

[@EgoChip]

I am a LibreWolf user. Mozilla are the lesser of the evils. Nobody condemns companies who donate to extreme far left groups, in fact it's praised. So why is it not acceptable to donate to the right? Screw double standards.

[@yrnhhngr]

right on. but mozilla is turning firefox into more telemetry now. even more reason to go librewolf now.

[@Alex-1776]

So the sync for librewolf just uses a normal Firefox account?

[@SteelAtomic]

yes but i believe u can setup ur own sync servers

[@yrnhhngr]

if you use sync, dont even bother with privacy stuff

[@Noyota2]

Isn't Midori on Linux a Safari spin?

[@zs7869]

??? How do you rectify the TIME (clock) that LibreWolf shows on various web sites (ebay, amazon etc.). It is never the correct one.

[@yrnhhngr]

you dont. thats a big fingerprinting thing.

[@007MegaRoll]

why windows defender blocks installation of librewolf?

[@yrnhhngr]

it doesnt

[@a_maxed_out_handle_of_30_chars]

thank you, very cool :)

[@thatscrazy4487]

This is one of the most complete reviews of Brave and still you forgot to mention the fingerprint protection and demonstrate it and also to show on mobile where to activate background play for videos which gives you basically KZbin premium for free. Anyway, great video. Thanks.

[@Zwiqes]

i tried it yesterday and atleast on iOS, when i open some apps, it caused youtube to switch to play and pause rapidly so it wasnt playing

[@thatscrazy4487]

Never owned a Apple product, but on Android I would long press on Brave icon the select Info then select Power Management and make the app Not Restricted in the background. Also in Brave when you activate the background play you have to relaunch the app.

[@jennymontague851]

Do either of these web site block adds, what about continuous adds on KZbin which is a pain. Suggestions.

[@NerdOnTheStreet]

Yes, as I talked about in the video, both of these browsers include ad blocking functionality. In the past, both Brave and uBlock Origin have had periods of time when KZbin ad blocking has either broken or caused usability issues (due to the constant tug of war with Google/KZbin trying to get around the ad blockers), but I think they're both working as expected right now.

[@Jools-CRPS]

Been using Brave since it came out. I personally think it is the best Web Browser out there. Not tried LibreWolf , but it looks interesting.. Thank you for the Video.

[@tactileslut]

I accepted an update to Brave on Android a few months ago which absolutely tanked the performance of the tab selector.

[@ZavedAlam-zr8ng]

Ungoogled chromium is better. try it

[@yrnhhngr]

brave is the biggest and most obvious honeypot software ever. someday someone will """discover""" google was running brave. oh woooow reaaaaaaaaally, the browser that uses chromium base from google???????????????

[@pantarei.]

I am sad that there is no privacy browser with material design.

[@Kackotopi]

[@mr.boniato6402]

The only thing preventing me from using Brave as the main browser is the PiP window. It does not have a mute button. I use PiP a lot and having a that mute button like Firefox and Librewolf is very convenient. I have left several posts on the Brave community as suggestion, but I gets completely ignored.

[@MarioShotgun]

right click on the video twice and you should be able to get pip

[@mr.boniato6402]

@@MarioShotgunYes, but it’s missing the mute button.

[@lambada1975]

LibreWolf rolling out security updates are not good on windows but on linux it is good.

[@WP7Nettwerk]

I'm using Firefox for years and I never had things what you described. Strange things. I tried some of firefox fork browsers Librewolf, Floorp, Icerawen Fenec etc. But always returned back to Firefox. Most of them made by small comunity and issues not always fixed.

[@yrnhhngr]

firefox heavily well configured is great, but its still lesser than librewolf. it has options you cant tick off in firefox without advanced configuring

[@churblefurbles]

Why not both!

[@yrnhhngr]

cause chromium is google code based

[@KomentarSaya]

thorium please

[@privacyhelp]

5:01 mozilla ceo also spreaded propaganda about jan6 and proud boys too

[@JanetDax]

windows is blocking LebreWolf download

[@yrnhhngr]

u serious? second comment saying this here

[@STORMIEDBD]

Brave search is great except for images search, which is terrible. For example, if i search for "anime" i only get like 20 images, terrible.

[@hadoken8688]

opera has got a great update this summer

[@NerdOnTheStreet]

I personally shy away from Opera just because it's not open-source, but it's been interesting to see them add differentiators like built-in VPN and ad blocking since the render engine switch and the emergence of Vivaldi as Opera's power-user successor of sorts. (And Opera GX, while not available for Linux, has just been funny to watch because of the whole "gaming" brand and aesthetic.) What are some of the new features you're enjoying from the summer update you're referring to?

[@2b2c1d2]

@@NerdOnTheStreet opera is also extremely sketchy in their practices, opera and opera gx, offering fake VPN services and keeping passwords

[@privacyhelp]

@2b2c1d2 isnt all browser has keeping password feature?

[@2b2c1d2]

@@privacyhelp ok, but operas passwords are stored

[@Visquint]

yeah and you shouldn't use it @@privacyhelp

[@approsetn]

Haven't looked at Libre yet but Brave quit supporting anything older than Windows 10. Leaves me out!

[@NoahHeadglitch]

Gotta get on linux, personally am thinking about switching after 10. Win 11 is not good from the brief times I've used it and 12 will just be straight spyware.

[@yrnhhngr]

its also a google product lol super privacy oriented man

[@joelg.47]

Libre in Filipino means free

[@kaAndres2]

Bro, "libre", in French, Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Bikol, Hiligaynon, Cebuano, and other languages, means FREE as in FREEDOM and FREE as in NO COST. That's why the "libre" word is being used in LINUX world quite extensively. Cheers.. 🙂

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

I think firefox as well as librewolf just lack some stunningly basic things. Like, why is my tab bar so thick? Like, it takes 2x more space than every other browser. Well, there's a hidden setting here that you can enable to make it a little thinner, but it'll still be thicker than every other browser. Hey, but firefox supports extensions, right? Of course there's great extension for a far better tab experience, that offers a tab tree view, etc, etc.. It's great, but unfortunately due to technical limitations you can't hide the original firefox's tab bar. Well actually you can with a custom css user script. But you have to allow custom user scripts first to use it.. It's just an endless circlejerk of dumb problems with dumb workarounds for problems that should not have been there to start with.

[@realjoecast]

Firefox with a few checkboxs and ublock is basicaly librewolf. Chrome with ublock and a few check boxes is basically brave. only think i found chromium engine better on is video takes less resources. Only 'real' reasons to use anything else is because you don't like the user interface or company. Also if you don't want to take a few minutes to configure it. I don't like Google so I don't use chrome. When i'm doing a lot of videos i'll just load up edge. Edge is pretty anti-privacy though, other wise firefox or TOR if i don't need to login to site(s). If you are a pure privacy nut. Load up Tails, about the best you can 'easily' do.

[@yrnhhngr]

youre 100% right but the future is not as black and white. firefox 126 just announced more telemetry, opt-out, and some of it not even configurable. i really hope librewolf branches out altogether here. also tails fucking sucks dude. librewolf is better and easier.

[@ericneilson1198]

I miss the old Opera 11.0 or was it 9.0

[@robnowe5464]

This video is too long for not having Titled Sections.

[@user-ed5zr8nv8r]

duck duck got caught handing out peoples data i thought ?

[@privacyhelp]

yes, they basically same sh*t like google

[@NerdOnTheStreet]

Some of what you've heard about DuckDuckGo probably applies to their browser, rather than their search engine. It's also almost certainly not "basically the same" as everything that Google does. Brave Search may be better for privacy and I believe it is better for politically-neutral search results, though (at the cost of far less relevant results for a lot of searches). Remember that DuckDuckGo is reliant on Bing under the hood, while Brave Search is fully independent. Some of what DuckDuckGo can or can't do is limited by their relationship with Microsoft.

[@sincerusca]

nerd in the bland home office?

[@NerdOnTheStreet]

I'd love to spruce it up a bit. If it bothers you, feel free to join the Nerd Club so I can afford a place that's not the size of a closet again.

[@dasfaultierdeslebens9134]

Brave (for me) is like Opera. Not very Privacy. It needs a fork !

[@gregcampwriter]

Brave has too much goofy junk included.

[@Reevos]

MAHzilla?