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Personal needs and viewing preferences vary wildly, so one should ideally test several major web browsers before making a decision. No one choice is going to be perfect for everyone.
Just use surf!
 
==What does /g/ use?==
 
* Chromium - Chrome <s>without</s> with less botnet
* A firefox fork:
** Waterfox - Firefox without the shitty design changes. Supports legacy add-ons
** Pale Moon - a much better firefox but with controversial furry developers. Supports legacy add-ons
** GNU IceCat - Firefox but by GNU. Very good for privacy.
* Brave - Chromium but directed by the same guy who directed the good versions of firefox. Also you can earn money.
* QuteBrowser - Minimalist browser with vim bindings. May have some issues using bloated badly designed websites.
 
==[[Freedom|Free]] web browsers==
 
===Mozilla Firefox and friends===
 
[[File:Firefox.png|80px|thumb|right|Good ole Firefox]]
[[File:Palemoon.png|80px|thumb|right|Best Firefox fork{{CN}}]]
 
'''[[Firefox|Mozilla Firefox]]''' is a free and open source web browser descended from the Netscape Communicator. It is known for its championing of the open web during Internet Explorer's reign of terror and its extensive customisability via add-ons and settings. Nowadays, Mozilla spends more effort on [https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/08/08/mozilla-information-trust-initiative-building-movement-fight-misinformation-online/ combatting fake news] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPgyTzqDJhM funding antifa] than maintaining the browser. Firefox's recent move to WebExtensions has deprecated many legacy add-ons, but remains more customizable than most other browsers.
 
Numerous forks and spin-offs of Firefox exist and are a common sight on /g/ and /tech/ given Firefox's perceived transition into a Chrome-imitating memory whore, for example [http://www.palemoon.org Pale Moon] and [http://www.waterfoxproject.org/ Waterfox]. The most "free" fork would be '''[[IceCat|GNU Icecat]]''', a fully free, libre, open-source (FLOSS) fork of Firefox without its built-in DRM support and Firefox Hello. Icecat comes with LibreJS, an add-on which blocks out any non-free javascript on webpages.
 
[https://www.seamonkey-project.org/ SeaMonkey] is a closely related descendant of Netscape Navigator - a more classic "internet suite" with mail and chat clients built-in. Based on Firefox ESR, SeaMonkey continues to support legacy add-ons.
 
===Chromium===
 
[[File:Software_Chromium.png|80px|thumb|right|Google, de-botneted (a lie)]]
 
'''[[Chromium]]''' is a free and open-source <strike>web browser</strike> botnet known for its extremely fast JavaScript execution and multiprocess security model. Upon release, Chromium was ahead of the competition by leaps and bounds in terms of raw performance. In the years that followed though, Firefox and Opera largely equalled and in some cases surpassed its performance advantage, although Chromium still tends to maintain a slight edge in UI responsiveness and JavaScript execution. While usually recommended for use, many users stay away from this browser as it has not been audited as much as Firefox has, and in protest of its (easy to disable) tracking features.
 
If you're thinking of switching to Chromium (Google's open source version of Chrome) instead, think again.
For some time, [https://archive.is/4VijY Chromium snuck in a binary blob for voice recognition whenever you started it up]. This has been [https://archive.is/2C86X removed] by the project maintainers, but it should raise some concern over what else could be lurking in the code.
 
The [https://brave.com/ Brave] browser is a privacy-focused open source browser based on Chromium created by [[Wikipedia:Brendan Eich|Brendan Eich]], punished Mozilla CEO.
 
[https://iridiumbrowser.de/download.html Iridium] is a FLOSS fork of Chromium stripped of as many botnet features as possible. It [https://archive.is/VQ2I9 used to phone home to Iridium's servers] for development purposes, but [https://github.com/iridium-browser/iridium-browser/issues/55 it no longer does that]. This is not where it ends, though. If you go to their homepage, and read what they have to say about the privacy of their browser, it reads: "Chromium (which Iridium is based on) is a very secure browser, yes. But '''it does call home to Google. And we did even more to enhance security to the maximum extent possible'''.". Smells like botnet.
 
*Last version to support Windows XP is 50, so if you're running it please use Firefox for your privacy and security, as it's continuously updated for now.
 
==<span style="color:#ff0000">Non-free</span> web browsers==
 
[[File:Inori-tan.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Superior waifu browser not available on Freedom™ systems]]
 
===Google Chrome===
 
'''[[Google Chrome]]''' is a [[botnet]] <strike>proprietary fork</strike> of the free and open source Chromium project. While effectively offering the same browsing experience as Chromium, it integrates Google's "Pepper" Flash plugin, a Foxit-based PDF reader and controversial user-tracking capabilities. If you value your privacy or reputation on /g/ and /tech/, it's best to avoid this one.
 
===Opera===
 
'''[[Opera]]''' is one of the oldest web browsers that is still under active development. Up to version 12.16, Opera was based on its in-house Presto layout engine and characterised by its customisability, innovation, broad out-of-the-box feature set (including a torrent client, email, IRC and FTP support) and respect for web standards. Several now ubiquitous features like tabbed browsing and speed dial made their débuts in Opera.
 
With the release of version 15, Opera development radically changed direction. Presto was discontinued in favour of Chromium's Blink layout engine and numerous features were excised, with the email client becoming a standalone program and GNU/Linux support and native 64-bit builds both being suspended (although the former has made a recent comeback). As a result, "Chropera" is often derided as a shadow of its former self, and a small minority of /g/ and /tech/ users fervently stick to the archaic old version.
 
{{note|It was bought by chinks a bit ago, treat carefully if you do want to use the newest Opera.}}
 
===Internet Explorer===
 
'''Internet Explorer''' is the default web browser in [[Microsoft]]'s Windows operating systems, and is based on Microsoft's Trident layout engine. Before version 9, Internet Explorer was infamous for its myriad security vulnerabilities, poor performance, disregard for most web standards and perversion of the few that it bothered to acknowledge. Since then, however, Microsoft has been actively developing Internet Explorer into a tolerable web browser, and has even discontinued the brand name to distance themselves from its notoriety.
 
===Edge===
 
Basically, it's Internet Explorer version 12. Has a new user interface somewhat optimized for tablets. Tons of new features were promised before Windows 10 was released, most were not implemented. Currently even Internet Explorer is better and has more features. It is the first browser to implement the very promising Chakra JavaScript engine.
 
===Safari===
 
'''Safari''' is the default web browser in [[Apple]]'s Mac OS X. It is based on Apple's Webkit layout engine, a KHTML fork. Compared to Chromium and Firefox, Safari has a slow development cycle and is lacking in features.
 
===Vivaldi===
 
[http://www.vivaldi.com/ Vivaldi] is made by the developers of classic Opera, who were apparently as frustrated with its change in direction as /g/ and /tech/, and attempts to bring back the feel and features of Opera 12.
 
==Obscure hipster browsers==
 
===Gecko===
 
*[http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/ K-Meleon] is a free and open-source Firefox-like browser for Windows. It uses the Gecko rendering engine just like Firefox, but sports a native Windows UI and is absurdly configurable. It also runs very, very well on Pentium M era hardware and below.
 
*[http://www.seamonkey-project.org/ SeaMonkey] is a continuation of the Mozilla suite. Unlike most modern web browsers, it is an Internet suite, complete with bundled programs for email, IRC, and web design. It is compatible with most Firefox add-ons.
 
===WebKit===
 
{{warning|Some WebKit ports are considered insecure and a security risk. Before using a WebKit browser, make sure that it is not using a WebKit port that is insecure. Read more [https://blogs.gnome.org/mcatanzaro/2016/02/01/on-webkit-security-updates/ here]}}
 
*[http://www.fenrir-inc.com/us/sleipnir/ Sleipnir] is a proprietary <s>Japanese</s> weeaboo Chromium fork with a superior, proprietary font rendering engine. However, it is only available on OS X and Windows.
 
*[http://midori-browser.org/ Midori] is a lightweight web browser with a GTK+ interface. It is a component of the XFCE Goodies package.
 
*[https://github.com/KDE/falkon Falkon] (formerly [http://www.qupzilla.com/ QupZilla]) is similar to rekonq by being lightweight and using Qt except it has more features.
 
*[http://otter-browser.org/ Otter Browser] is a project that aims to recreate and improve upon the features of classic Opera using the Qt5 toolkit. It is in development at the time of writing, and is thus unsuited for general use.
 
*[https://luakit.github.io/ Luakit], [http://www.uzbl.org/ Uzbl] and [http://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebrowser QuteBrowser] are all minimalistic browsers with a keyboard-driven, Vim-inspired interface. Most are based on archaic versions of WebKit.
 
*[http://surf.suckless.org/ Surf] is a browser developed according to the [http://suckless.org/philosophy Suckless philosophy], which means it's effectively a WebKit frontend.
 
*[https://textbrowser.github.io/dooble/ Dooble] is a web browser focused on security and privacy with many integrated features like support for advanced options and cookie management, Gopher support, a FTP browser, a file manager, a download manager, and many others.
 
===KHTML===
 
*[http://www.konqueror.org/ Konqueror] is a Web browser and file manager that was once a core component of the K desktop environment. Webkit and Blink are both descendants of its KHTML layout engine.
 
===Terminal===
 
*[http://links.twibright.com/ Links] is a text-based browser that can display images.
 
*[http://w3m.sourceforge.net/ w3m] is another text-based browser that can display images.
 
*[http://www.elinks.cz/ ELinks] is a text-based based web browser that runs from the terminal.
 
*[https://lynx.invisible-island.net/ Lynx] is the oldest web browser still under active development. It strips pages of images, doesn't use javascript, and is great for just reading what is needed, like an article. It also utilizes other system programs, should you need to open an image file, for instance.
 
==Common Plug-Ins==
 
*[https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html Adobe Flash Player] is required to play the flash video incorporated into many modern Web pages. It is infamous for being bloated, slow, and exploitable. While it is being phased out in favour of HTML 5 video, Flash is unfortunately still required in many cases. Flash should not be used on GNU/Linux systems, due to the fact that it is no longer being updated for that platform. This does not apply to Chrom* based browsers, which can use the pepperflashplayer.
 
::For a proper alternative to flash on browsers that don't support the Pepper Plugin API (PPAPI) like Firefox, look into [https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin freshplayerplugin], a  ppapi2npapi compatibility layer that allows you to use Chrome's pepperflashplayer.
 
*[https://mozilla.github.io/shumway/ Shumway] is an HTML5 technology experiment that explores building a faithful and efficient renderer for the SWF file format without native code assistance.
 
*[https://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/ The Silverlight Plug-In] is required to play Silverlight content. Silverlight was essentially Microsoft's answer to Flash, but it has failed to gain any significant market share. Like Flash, it is being phased out in favour of HTML5. Unlike Flash, it is not common enough to justify its use.
 
*[https://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp The Java and Java Deployment Toolkit Plug-Ins] are installed with the [http://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php?title=Questionable_software#Java_Runtime_Environment Java Runtime Environment]. While the Runtime Environment itself is often necessary for the use of desktop Java software, these plug-ins are extremely vulnerable and rarely used. They should be disabled in all cases.
 
==Recommended User Scripts==
 
===4chanX===
 
*[https://github.com/loadletter/4chan-x loadletter's 4chan X] is a maintained version of MayhemYDG's v2. It lacks the controversial changes made by MayhemYDG in v3. It is a shorter script, and the only maintained fork that supports Opera 12.
*[https://ccd0.github.io/4chan-x/ ccd0's 4chan X] is the continuation of Spittie's/Seaweed's 4chan X.
*<del>[https://github.com/aeosynth/4chan-x Aeosynth's 4Chan-X]</del> was the original version of 4chan X.
*[https://github.com/KevinParnell/OneeChan OneeChan] is a script for customizing the look of 4chan. Unlike Appchan X, it packaged no 4chan X features. Originally by Seaweedchan, its maintenance was continued by Spittie, then Nebukazar and now KevinParnell.
*[https://zixaphir.github.io/appchan-x/ Appchan X] is Zixaphir's fork of 4chan X. It combines the features of 4chan X with the rice of the Appchan and OneeChan style scripts. Since January 2015, development is not very active, but pull requests are still accepted. Unsure if it still works
 
===Other===
 
*[https://github.com/reek/anti-adblock-killer Anti-Adblock Killer] prevents various anti-adblock methods from being effective. For best results, it must be used in conjunction with its set of [http://jsbin.com/AhewOcox Adblock Plus filters].
*[https://github.com/bogachenko/fuckfuckadblock Fuck Fuckadblock] is a recent fork of Anti-Adblock Killer. Works with ublock origin.
*[http://userscripts-mirror.org/scripts/show/87750 4Chan Linkify] changes plain-text links on 4chan into hyper-links. It is redundant if either 4chan X or the official extension are used.
*[https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock uBlock Origin] is an adblocker that is very efficient on system resources. This is the original source, and works on Firefox and Chrome/Chromium.
*[https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix uMatrix] is to [https://noscript.net/ NoScript] and [https://www.requestpolicy.com/ RequestPolicy] what uBlock Origin is to Adblock Plus/Edge. Allows seamless blocking of local or cross-site scripts, images, cookies, and more in a slick, low-memory package.
 
[[Category:Browser]]
[[Category:Recommendations]]
[[Category:What does /g/ use?]]

Revision as of 10:59, 4 May 2020

Just use surf!

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