Just installed and gave the new DuckDuckGo browser on Windows a try. Honestly, very underwhelmed.
Sure, you get a browser, and it blocks ads and tracks. But there is almost no customisability. The settings are as barebones as it gets - no option to change search engine from DuckDuckGo, can’t change privacy settings. It just seem inferior to every mainstream browser out there. It also runs on the Blink engine from what I understand.
I do welcome a new privacy browser coming from a large privacy-oriented company, but from what I’ve seen, there’s a long, long way to go before this challenges Brave. Also have to give it the benefit of the doubt since it’s only in beta.
Flipped over to Windows to try it, for a beta product, I think it’s quite nice so far. I like the YouTube player in particular, to minimise distractions as well as preserve privacy.
The minimal customisation is similar to the mobile browsers afaik, so I don’t see this changing too much even in the full release, unfortunately.
I think DDG should focus on making it privacy preserving but also convenient to use for those less au fait with tech. If they implemented stuff like syncing between desktop and mobile clients, it may be something I recommend to people over Brave. Still don’t really trust them since the Microsoft tracker thing a while back, but this is overall a good product.
Agreed, for a beta product it’s not awful. As you say, if they provide some more convenience options it could be a competitor to Brave for non-techy folk.
I switched over my work laptop and phone to use DDG Browser yesterday to test how it works out and for my basic work related activities its been great so far. I guess syncing bookmarks would be a nice to have but since i only have a handful it’s not the biggest issue for me.
Obviously there are better options out there for those that are really privacy conscious but If they can get a bit more convenience like sync built-in i think this will be a great option for family/friends that only use their browser to read news and look at weather forecasts and such. So a simple browser with good (?) privacy features and not having settings and toggles up the wazoo built in will be a good fit for those.
It’s probably better than google chrome, but the issue with DDG is they’re not a particularly trustworthy company. They’ve allegedly had a few questionable deals with Microsoft, and their search engine (except for being based on bing which is shite) also ranks certain sites lower “to prevent misinformation”.
I wouldn’t trust them much as a company, and I don’t really see a reason to use this over Brave or Firefox.