70 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
70 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
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Today I want to talk about my favorite web browser which I have been using for
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several months now and that is Chromium, specifically Ungoogled Chromium.
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Ungoogled Chromium is the best browser because it's fast, it respects your
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privacy, but also doesn't provide any extra bloat or anything, it's just a fast,
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privacy respecting web browser that does everything you need and nothing more.
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In a lot of ways it's the best web browser for minimalists, but also for normies
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because it requires no learning coming from Chrome or whatever.
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If you are on Arch, you can get it from the AUR, and I also have a package available
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in my arch repository, so if you're using speedie-aur you can
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just `pacman -S ungoogled-chromium`. When you start it for the first time, if
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you're coming from regular Chromium or maybe the horrible spyware that is
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Google Chrome, you're going to notice that it looks a bit more minimal. That's
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because most of the Google junk has been removed, so what you have is what you
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actually need out of a web browser. By default, no search engine is
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active/enabled though, but if you want one you can go to the settings like in regular
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Chromium and simply add one.
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The second thing you're likely going to notice pretty quickly about Ungoogled
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Chromium is by default it actually doesn't save cookies, so after you close
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your web browser you have to log in again. Now, I consider this a feature
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rather than a bug for security reasons, and while this isn't a security
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oriented web browser, most of its users are privacy enthusiasts, so I consider
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this a nice default. If you don't like this though, you can just change it in the
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settings. If you're setting up this browser for a normie, you may want to
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enable saving cookies, because in the society we live in normies would be very
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confused when their web browser doesn't keep them logged in.
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Ungoogled Chromium is **not** hardened by default though. For good security I
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would install ``JShelter``, `uBlock Origin`, `LocalCDN`, and a few other
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privacy oriented extensions. I would probably also install `Vimium`, which
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allows you to follow links using `f` and use general Vim-like keys to navigate
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the web, and of course a dark theme of some kind.
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The reason I find this browser is better than others is
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because it's based on the Chromium web engine making it extremely fast,
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but it also respects your privacy by removing all the Google junk. Chromium is
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a good browser outside of all that Google spyware, because Google knows what a
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good browser is. A good browser is fast, minimal and allows you to view websites
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and nothing more. Google has known this since the beginning, and that's why
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this is such a good web browser. Other web browsers often fail at this.
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I should note that due to all the Google junk being removed, you can't actually
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install extensions through the Chrome Web Store. However there's an extension
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you can install manually, which will allow extensions to be installed from the
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web store anyway, but you should RTFM for that. The extension is available
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[here](https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store), and was designed
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with ungoogled-chromium in mind. While you don't need it, it makes the process
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of "manually" installing extensions a whole lot easier. It even does updating
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for you, although it requires *some* user input.
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As if this web browser wasn't already excellent, The `--app` argument makes it
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even more useful. In fact it makes all Electron applications basically obsolete.
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If you do.. for example `chromium --app="https://speedie.site"` you'll pretty
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much have an app for my website as the name implies just like Electron would
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do, except it's using your existing web browser. This makes it slightly more
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appealing. It even changes the icon to the favicon for the site. I'm using this
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feature for Element (the Matrix client I use) and Discord. I combine this with
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my run launcher to have super awesome web apps.
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Overall, I highly recommend this browser. While it's not the most secure
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(you'd probably want GNU IceCat or LibreWolf for that), it's super fast,
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it's free as in freedom and it's minimal and clean. It provides sane
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defaults such as not storing cookies by default. It's a good web browser
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for both normies and people who know how to use technology, because I
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think both groups of people find its features appealing. If not, I guess
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the normie can continue using Chromium and you can use Ungoogled Chromium
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and get privacy from it. Thank you for reading, I highly recommend Ungoogled
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Chromium, and have a good day!
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