Zorin OS 17.3 replaced the default Browser from Firefox(Old) to Brave(New).
Zorin OS 17.3 is Here
In light of Mozilla’s recent policy changes, we no longer feel assured that Firefox aligns with our commitment to protect your privacy. This prompted us to revisit the choice of default web browser in Zorin OS 17.3.
While FF's evil quotient has been on the rise, Brave definitely isn't a better option. If anything, librewolf is the way to go.
As a Librewolf user I wouldn't make it default for casual users this kind of distro is aiming for. Sure enabling logins to use it as a main browser is piss easy, but that's still more work than the average person wants to put into setting up their system.
Waterfox would be the better choice since it's just default Firefox in every way besides Mozilla's spyware.
Agreed, I wouldn't recommend Librewolf for casual users. I understand why Librewolf makes those decisions, and I'm glad that it exists, but you definitely run into some quirks when using it. I'm thinking about switching from Librewolf to Waterfox myself.
there’s Zen also. that also has normie defaults, however the drastically changed UI/Uxmight not be for everyone.
Ugh. Why can't designers recognize they don't need to do things different just for the sake of being different?
I guess it's what makes them bad designers.
Doesn't Librewolf log you out of every site when you close it, by default? I don't think that's a good default
What's wrong with Brave?
It's the browser I've chosen to use after getting fed up w/ Gecko's terrible web compatibility these days (coming from Librewolf).
What's wrong with it? How is it evil?
The thing I dislike about Brave is that Brave intends to be an advertising company. Brave's original idea for revenue was that the browser itself should be the ad platform. Brave doesn't block ads because it has a pro-user manifesto; it blocks ads because it dislikes competition.
That's why it makes no sense for people to abandon Firefox for Brave. I understand the backlash against Mozilla's recent ad-focused shift, but Brave invented that idea. So leaving Firefox for Brave is not an improvement.
It's the browser I've chosen to use after getting fed up w/ Gecko's terrible web compatibility these days (coming from Librewolf).
I'm curious about what those compatibility issues are. It's been years since I've noticed any problems -- and back when I was seeing problems, it was mainly because Google could afford to implement new standards faster than Mozilla could, not because Mozilla was doing anything wrong. Could it have been because of Librewolf? Librewolf has a ton of privacy-focused settings that can sometimes make pages behave in strange ways. (It doesn't use your real time zone, it ignores dark mode, it lies about which OS you're on, and it constantly clears your cookies to name a few.)
And on a meta-note: I dislike Brave, but I don't think the parent here is a comment that needs to be downvoted. We can just explain why Brave is a bad idea.
Asides from the kinda-shady crypto stuff and the other things that've already been mentioned, just philosophically it should be kinda evident that over-concentration on one corporate controlled rendering engine isn't a good thing. Google wants the internet to be a walled garden with themselves as the sole decision makers so they can stuff ads down your throat.
Gecko's web compat is bad largely because of this over-concentration.
How is brave the lesser of those two evils?
Crypto scam browser is never a better evil...
Based on absolutely nothing, I feel like it isn't..
It isn't.
Brave sucks Google balls.
Chromium is more secure, so if you add privacy tweaks, it is arguably better: https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.html#jit-hardening
(Btw I use Firefox)
“Mozilla has a bit been shady lately, so we are making the difficult decision to change our default browser to something significantly more shady. We are confident our users will feel safer knowing their data is in even worse hands than before"
That's a clown makeup moment for Zorin OS
I'm actually not familiar with this distro. But if I installed a Linux distro, and it had brave installed. I would immediately switch.
Brave is a fairly recent outlier, and while it isn't quite proprietary, it stinks a fair bit of something capitalist/crypto.
They should've picked LibreWolf which ships with uBlock Origin. Brave is a disappointing choice because it supports multi-level marketing pyramid schemes which says enough about their moral compass.
--
✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.
I kinda dislike the default LibreWolf settings. Unsure if they changed it, but I remember that you have no history except you change it in the settings.
A Windows refugee wants a history. Addituonally, many pages just dont work.
My University also does capture a picture and reads it from the Canvas or something, which LibreWolf blocks. It doesnt show again if something is okay or wrong. I just got a Mail that I need to reupload it and go by myself to pickup my University-Card.
I wasnt the only one as Informatics has many Linux users and some Librewolf users.
Brave marketing has gone crazy to convince people it's less dodgy than Firefox. Come on!
Yeah. Viral marketing is real but people never seem to be able to identify it.
Every time someone says anything positive about Brave I assume they're part of the Crypto scheme, or love Brave's CEO.
Blech. I'd downvote this because I disagree with their decision, but I'm glad you brought this to our attention.
Firefox is bad, Brave is evil. Why did they decide switching is a good idea?
That's gonna be a no from me, dawg
"we replaced the browser with ad ware, that we even admit we had to ship settings to minimise its malware effect"
🤡
Boo
Brave hates gays
The distro sucks anyway. They ship really fucking old packages, even more so than Debian or other stable distros.
Why are you guys so obsessed with the latest packages? A lot of new stuff doesn't work on older PCs which is also Linux's target market.
Not all of us use older PC's. I really don't care what other people use but I like being on the latest version of whatever software I'm using. Also, I used endeavourOS on a Thinkpad T-420 and didn't have any issues with running the latest software on that laptop from 2012. I'm not saying you haven't had issues but it isn't exactly black or white. Older PC's are not Linux's target market. Everything is Linux's target market. Linux will run on everything from a Pentium II laptop to a $50,000,000 super computer.
one of the worst distros ever so I guess this is pretty obvious choice and telling to some.
Define worst? It does what it says, it's an easy stable distro for windows refugees. Slow updates doesn't make something bad
I feel like if they were gonna go chromium, they should have gone with Vivaldi. It may not be open source but it's not doing a crypto scam. Waterfox would have also been a good choice, probably better because it's Gecko.
I don't know the details, but I hope they will at least remove the VPN and crypto wallet integrations from the default installed version.
Not sure why they don't just ship Firefox with extensions like uBlock pre-installed
Edit: it looks like they're heavily tweaking Brave regardless. I doubt this move was for technical reasons
Probably someone's pet project
Or, you know, a marketing company that develops a browser maybe bought an ad
Brave is a series scam company. There are only two reasons anyone would support them: They were scammed, or they joined in the scam.
Or like, they want a built-in ad blocker and Tor support in a privacy respecting browser, as explained in the article
A bad move. But again i hate that many distros have a default browser and they don't let you choose.
Wow, never recommending zorin to anyone again. Switching from gecko to chromium is a dumb move.
Recent firefox policy change is controversial, but how brave is better?
"We don't like the proposed new Coke recipe, so we're switching to drinking raw undiluted sewage instead".
the everyday linux distro that is famous for asking people for money for their pro version, cause they know most of the userbase is coming from windows and doesnt know that everything is free?
talk about bad taste
Maybe this was not supposed to have been posted until April fool's day. Silly Zorin was too early for the joke.
Y not gnome web
I have ff installed but uses librewolf for most uses. Should I be worried if ff is in my system? Somebody please explain.
I think we're pretty far from that being a problem
Thank you. Was out of the loop with ff for a while.
No
Well, Brave is -regardless of the companies decisions- still a damn good browser with many build in essentials (TOR, IPFS, Bittorrent...), so, while I PERSONALLY don't use this anymore (currently I use an heavily patched suckless surf and Dillo) I don't see much wrong in including this in a distribution especially catering to users switching from windows.
Yes I can't get through the day without IPFS, good take
I hope to see more distros do this. Strongly considering buying a Pro license just to support them for doing the right thing. Screw Mozilla.
I dunno that I’d consider Brave to be “the right thing” but more variety/competition is best!
