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1. kykeon+(OP)[view] [source] 2023-07-21 19:51:16
I am not a hopeful romantic, but the EU has been investing on vendor neutral web-browsers like Nyxt [0] and the UR Browser [1] through the Horizon Europe program. I doubt that legislators (at least in the EU) will view this as a positive development, assuming EU legislators know what they are doing. On the other hand, lobbying by big tech is still very much a threat.

[0] https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/

[1] https://www.ur-browser.com/

replies(2): >>maxloh+JE1 >>goku12+5X1
2. maxloh+JE1[view] [source] 2023-07-22 10:43:19
>>kykeon+(OP)
The first one is close-sourced. Why should I choose it over a open-core alternative (Chrome).
replies(2): >>jmerco+2J1 >>goku12+DY1
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3. jmerco+2J1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-22 11:38:58
>>maxloh+JE1
Nyxt is not close sourced :-)
4. goku12+5X1[view] [source] 2023-07-22 13:56:13
>>kykeon+(OP)
The big problem with many of the alternative browsers like the ones you mentioned is that they are powered by the Blink engine (it's one of the 2 options for nyxt). The overwhelming market-share of Blink and the institutional monopoly on its development is the biggest driver for introduction of anti-features like these. WEI for example, is being prototyped in it [1]. These anti-features make it into every browser that uses Blink. While some browsers like UR-browser and Brave disable many of these features, they still lend credibility to the blink engine.

We need to promote alternative web engines like Servo and libweb and browsers based on them. Many of these engines need a major push to be competent enough for daily use. Gecko is also fine - but building a new browser with it is said to be hard.

[1] https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/refs/he...

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5. goku12+DY1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-07-22 14:07:21
>>maxloh+JE1
I assume you are referring to the UR-browser. Despite being closed source, it seems to have better privacy policy compared to Chromium. By using chromium or many of its derivatives, you are automatically lending credibility and subjecting yourself to anti-user features like these. Chromium is one of those software that I consider as open source, but not free/libre. It absolutely doesn't respect users' interests. The usual argument of "but it's open source, modify it" isn't practical either, because the code base is too massive and complicated.

Despite all that, I would recommend only FOSS browsers with good privacy policy - because they exist.

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