Hi guys, looking for a little support here. At the moment, I use Mullvad Browser and the TOR Browser for private browsing, and anything I don’t want tied to my identity in general. I am in need of a good “accounts” browser which I can use for my work (I am a uni student fyi). While privacy isn’t too much of a concern for this browser, I want a browser that is hardened well/can be hardened to reduce tracking from sites I visit which I don’t connect any accounts too (like research articles etc.)
The main issue I have is honestly battery life, and also functionality. Edge seems to be the best in this respect. Opera is supposedly similar, but I want to avoid both. Tried Brave, Firefox, Librewolf (without clearing cookies btw), Waterfox, Ungoogled Chromium (hereon referred as UC) etc. but all of them seem to drain battery quite a bit, especially Brave despite enabling best efficiency settings. I posted a help request on the Brave Community forum but no response after around 2 days now. UC was a bit better, and Mozilla browsers were good too but none of them matched up to Edge .
I did try to ignore my mild paranoia about Big Tech, but it just kept bugging me that here I was using a browser that was still tracking everything I did on it. I have no choice but to use Windows as an OS, but I am hoping for some more freedom in a privacy-respecting functional browser.
If you need some additional info about my requirements, I need to be able to use tools like Blackboard etc.
I apologize for the long write-up, but I felt that this community would have a better understanding of my requirements and be able to assist me better. Please help me out if possible. Thanks
you still use librewolf brave and even regular Firefox just don’t Hardin Them too much And have tried falkon it’s a really good browser by the kde foundation
Everyone has some reasons to prefer one browser over another. Your overall experience helps, but you could help us help you by breaking down your questions into problems we can solve.
Let me start with the “Account” browser.
How are you comparing battery life between browsers and how important is this for “Account” use.
What functionality issues have you had with the browsers? Related to again Account use.
My real life use with Windows is testing on a laptop, and desktop which has Windows only software not related to a web browser, so battery life is not something I monitor.
My browser for account specific use is Brave Mobile on Android.
A good PDF viewer/editor (I have a free Adobe account but I use it minimally only for e-signatures mostly…I like the Firefox PDF viewer much more than Brave). Apart from that I just need a browser that can stream HD video perhaps, for lessons etc. Brave is sometimes laggy in this respect.
Kindly check my reply to @rollsicecream regarding functionality. For battery life I just monitor the battery percentage level on my laptop. My OS settings have been set to prioritise battery life. Same for GPU customisation.
I really like Firefox and it works superbly. If you know any extensions that are helpful for academic work it would really help. Sometimes I have come across one or 2 websites which suggest using Chromium, but I was able to use them nonetheless.
I use Brave on Android too, but on desktop I can’t seem to use it without draining a lot of battery.
What I essentially need is a suggestion on a Firefox (fork) to use and some recommended extensions and settings to maximise battery life and add useful features for education.
Ok, I understand better you need a specific browser for accounts for education purposes not a general account access browser.
This is real close to my “work” browser. I use Edge and a Microsoft account set up by the company. Never do I access these accounts with my personal devices. As well there is a good separation from my personal and professional life.
Ok I understand why you use Edge. I think I’m gonna try playing around with some Firefox forks and settings first, to see if I can maximise battery usage with privacy. I’m not too keen on Edge since I have only one PC so I’m going to check all my alternatives first.
Thank you all once again. Really appreciate the support.
Okay had a look at Otter Browser and I don’t think I can use Blackboard through it.
On the bright side, I found some tweaks for Firefox that can make it run faster and more efficiently. I disabled telemetry as well as the background update service. Hopefully this makes things better. Will be just doing some general testing today.
Thank you once again for all your support (this includes you too @Perk1ns ). I do intend on promoting privacy. I may not be able to use the best software given my other requirements, but I am honestly going all out on privacy within the scope of what I can do.
It’s sad that a lot of people don’t understand the value of privacy, especially when almost all software is similar in terms of experience today. A former teacher of mine, whom I often contact for tech support, also suggested that is use Firefox, so I’ve installed the ESR 115 release as it is more than enough.
Special shout out to @Henry for giving us Techlore and this forum space. Truly thankful for the support and privacy news I receive here. Keep going guys
Personally, I think Edge is perfectly fine. Long as you configure it in a way that fits your privacy and security needs, you can use it without worrying too much.
Using multiple browsers to find the right tool for the job is what is important.
When I use Edge and my Microsoft work account everything related does not cross over to another browser or personal computer. Edge is secure and what I do on that system is the companies business not related to my personal life. This line could easily get blurred with retirement, paychecks, benefits such as health plans all work related but those topics are connected to myself, so I do not connect the two. Separate browsers and email.
It takes some effort to manage and this is more complex as a student but I feel it is worth it. In fact more important if your young in life. When your a young adult in this world is the time you start your PII.
It is a lot easier to keep your PII out of the system than removing it.
I use a PO Box for work related physical mail. With health insurance, retirement, taxes… Paperless options are great but what gets published in the mail and shared at the doctors offices, etc is a mailing address not a physical address.
I mention this as a student I would never update my physical address related to my education unless it was very important to update. I would use a mailing service to isolate my physical address.
My employer does not know where I live and I have no reason to inform them as where I live now.
Well said. I am planning to slowly isolate my work/student life and my personal life more and more as time goes by. As of now, I don’t have the budget to use separate computers so I am working on browser compartmentalization as a primary measure. But yeah, there’s a lot more I can do and I don’t planning on avoiding it.
P.S. I really enjoy reading your insights on all the discussions on the Techlore community. Thank you for that
Well, you’ve tried almost every browser that comes to my mind. I have no idea about energy efficiency of any of them since i don’t use a Windows laptop, but nobody has ever mentioned Vivaldi browser. Maybe you could try it out and share you experience in terms of battery life.
Will try it out and share my experiences here. I’ve heard it’s fairly customisable so it may just suit my needs.
What is their reputation in terms of privacy? The reason I’m avoiding Edge, Chrome, Opera etc. is because I want to avoid data collection about my online activity regardless of what it is being used for (I want to avoid a profile about my education etc. being made).
Henry quite recently did an amazing interview with Vivaldi’s CEO and there they’ve discussed some privacy questions regarding the browser, timestamp included. Basically they’re fine and definitely not worse than other browsers in terms of privacy. Well, except for those that really focus on privacy like Brave or LibreWolf and Mullvad/Tor. Privacytests.org says that stock UC is a biiiiiiit better than stock Vivaldi but not much. I ran a PrivacyTests.org: open-source tests of web browser privacy script in my Vivaldi and it did better than most other stock browsers on Privacytests. I didn’t even try to get into the Chromium equivalent of Firefox’s about:config menu, just fiddled with some settings.
.
