[sf-lug] Brave browser

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Tony Godshall (togo at of.net):

> It's lighter than chromium, has the Google stuff removed, has integrated
> ad-blocking and anti-fingerprinting, and their own opt-in cryptocoin
> advertising system added. I'd trust it more if a major distro blessed it or
> I was building it from source, but for my clients, it works better than
> Chrome or Chromium.

Not intending to object, in the following.  Here FWIW is what I said
about Brave Browser when I was asked about it in May 2019.  (I believe
you, Tony, saw this exchange, but some others here probably didn't.)


> What do you think of Brave?

So, as I'm sure you know, it's a modified version of Chromium sponsored
by a new-ish Brendan Eich company (Brave Software, Inc.), with a novel
business model:  You agree to see a set of 'replacement' adverts the
company has a business deal with, and in return the firm maintains
blocking features that prevent you from needing to see most other
adverts (ones from firms the company lacks a business model with).
Essentially, you agree to let Brave Software be an advertising middleman
deciding what ads you'll be obliged to see, with you getting fewer total
ads out of the deal, and Brave Software getting a cut from the favoured
advertisers.

Many commenters have found that business arrangement to be a bit skeevy,
and others (to my amusement) have acted outraged that a firm would have
the audacity to substitute a set of ads you don't especially want to see
for a different set you also didn't especially want to see.

Me, I don't have strong feelings about _that_, but object to Brave
Software getting detailed information about what I choose to do on the
Web.  Also, IMO, it's in the long term more satisfactory to be in charge
of one's own advert-blocking, although admittedly it's quite a bit of
work.

FWIW, Chromium itself turns out to have a number of disturbing things
built into it, where Google arrogates to itself the right to launch
strange processes from the browser to conduct experiments and collect
information, e.g., suddenly you look at the process list and wonder what
the Gehenna all this stuff is, and why your system is chewing up CPU and
RAM running all this stuff.

I note this community rebuild, which removes the junk:
https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium

  ungoogled-chromium

  A lightweight approach to removing Google web service dependency

  ungoogled-chromium is Google Chromium, sans dependency on Google web
  services. It also features some tweaks to enhance privacy, control, and
  transparency (almost all of which require manual activation or
  enabling).

  ungoogled-chromium retains the default Chromium experience as closely as
  possible. Unlike other Chromium forks that have their own visions of a
  web browser, ungoogled-chromium is essentially a drop-in replacement for
  Chromium.

I should probably add that to the menagerie.