web browser auditions

brent

I had to dump a great browser dedicated to work because it suddenly couldn't attach files. So I auditioned.

I have projects at two places. Each corporation has a company website and web portal/software I must use. Each place has a website where I have an email account. For each email account I need to attach files. I need one browser to handle this. My last browser could not.

Criteria: render company websites and attach files in email.
Could not do attachments due to sandboxed:
flatpak Mullvad---a badass browser--I kept this one.
flatpak Floorp
flatpak Netsurf
Could not render/load company websites completely:
flatpak Midori
repo Epiphany
flatpak Eolie
sandboxed browsers that COULD handle attachments:
flatpak Microsoft Edge
flatpak Libre Wolf
flatpak Ungoogled-Chromium
[ignored in flatpak and repo: chrome, yandex, tor, waterfox, falkon, chromium]

Of the flatpaks that worked I actually LOVED Edge. Snappy, lively, good looking. But it's too much. I already use Ungoogled for other things. And Libre Wolf looks like, well, you know, a slate gray post-War apartment building..Libre Wolf also insists you don't change to dark theme.
Firefox is my true web browser; I do not conduct commerce on it.

So..back to the repo.
that leaves Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi.
I had a year with Brave once. It's still too much for me. Opera and Vivaldi are way too much, too flashy, and too busy for me. But at least you could get rid of all their stupid sidebars and panels and advertisters and after 20 minutes have them resemble basic browsers. Slightly less so with Brave.

So after stripping out/disabling all the nonsense in each broswer (about a 60 minute project for me) they both exceeded my expectations. I have them both dialed in.
Vivaldi-snapshot won.
But I'm about to switch to Opera🙂.
My defualt view is set to 110% (in Vivaldi settings) and some company pages I bumped to 120%. Vivaldi zeroes out at 100 every time I start it and occasionally forgets between tabs. Truly mediocre and annoying. I don't have 'erase histoy and cookies' set or anything that would purge this particular setting. THat little slider thing on the bottom is useless with no memory. Like I said, mediocre but not a dealbreaker and no browser is perfect (except ungoogled🙂).
Opera is dialed in and ready to go if I can't figure this out.
Once your tear the shiny guts out these are decent browsers.
That concludes my five day adventure.
("all I wanted was a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me")

WetGeek

brent Like I said, mediocre but not a dealbreaker and no browser is perfect

As you might already know, I use Vivaldi on all my devices -- including the Windows machine that streams to my TV -- and I was really surprised to learn that setting its magnification was on a per-site basis. I set it to 130% for this forum, and if it ever changes by itself, I've never noticed. It helps me to avoid typos, as it makes it easier to read the text which is otherwise very small on this HD laptop screen.

If it ever resets itself, I'm pretty sure it doesn't do that within a session, and using hibernation, my sessions last a very long time. It's so easy to reset it with that little slider, I've never thought of it as a problem.

I've wondered for a long time why you seemed so determined not to try Vivaldi. I'm happy you've finally given it a chance.

riffer

sheesh eolie. I don't think that thing has been maintained for years. Pretty though.

brent

WetGeek I always liked Vivaldi, but like Opera, Viv, Edge, Brave, Chrome etc---I just don't need all that it offers. These are cutting edge browsers. Vivaldi has over 30 settings for tabs, then mails, accounts, calendars, syncs, infinite customization. opera: ex.games, lucid mode, personal news, video popouts, pinboard, crypto wallet, cashback, myflow and I don't know what it all is or what it does so these browsers go beyond my needs.

That said, once you dial the giant apparatus back, Vivaldi is a great browser. Of all I tried this is perfectly suited for making me money (my job). It navigates all terrain I need it to, and I feel this browser is built for work. PS---yeah not remembering page size is small potatoes because during a session of hours I never resize. It's just goes back to 100% on startup and that is a pretty miniscule thing for me to whine about.

stalebrim

could've just used lynx all the time

brent

stalebrim once is enough🙂

Brucehankins

brent I think of Vivaldi as the tinkerers browser. It has everything and can do almost anything, like Plasma, there's a setting for that. I'm not a fan of the UX/UI and it's far too much tinkering for me.
I stan Opera. While you might not need the sidebar and all the features, the workspaces feature in the sidebar is a must have for me now. I have workspaces set up for work, school, gaming, and general browsing. It helps keep all my tabs separate and organized, I don't have to worry about multiple instances or tab groups/stacks/containers, and it's much more visually appealing to me than Vivaldi.
That said, since I work at an O365 company, I use Opera for all my stuff and Edge for work only stuff.

brent

Brucehankins opera and viv are tied for my #3 right now. These are good browsers for workloads and easy on the eyes. I thought Opera was the cat's meow in the 2000's when it was peak. everyone stole speed dial idea but they did it best. Returning to it is interesting. Its big and feature-rich now. Thanks for telling me how you dial it in for optimum effect, that helps. The VPN is enabled (default) in the settings. Do you use it?

Brucehankins

brent Opera browser VPN isn't truly a VPN, only works in the browser itself and not at a system level l, and you're allowed to use 3 generalized locations on the free tier. They do not log anything and there are no data caps, but I can't verify or dispute the claims on data collection.
That said, I do use it from time to time, mostly for the feeling of extra privacy or security if I'm using my laptop on hotel or cafe WiFi. I haven't noticed any issues outside the normal things you'd typically find with any VPN service. But again, it doesn't in any way handle any traffic outside the browser.
Another thing, two extensions I enjoy on almost every browser, that you may know of or want to check out are UBlock Origin and Ghostery. Great for some added privacy and security, and Ghostery is open-source.

brent

Nobody asked but Mullvad is awesome. This is what a secure FF should look like, even without the VPN they want you to buy. You are allowed to use about:config but most all other stuff they stripped out of settings. The have a vision of what privacy looks like and they execute it. You don't get to run free in Settings. It's bold. It's permanently in Private Mode. It's kinda neato to test surf with it. Haven't done more than that.

If you want something so insanely secure it disables and breaks every website give GNUIcecat a spin...this kind of single-minded dedication that supersedes it breaking everything right OOTB is very respectable in a punk rock kind of way. You have to use their immense (7? 8?) amount of addons including java disablers, script stoppers, etc etc. THe more addons the better, right! The browser that stops you from browsing but no tracking at all! (that sells itself.😉.)

Axios

brent And I am getting a itchy finger to break out mac and test safari on some things
Read some interesting things about it and finger printing.
Like I need something else to do...

brent

Axios safari? interesting.

Patrice

Hi brent,
Have you tried basilisk https://www.basilisk-browser.org/ ?
Maybe not what you are searching anyway.

brent

Patrice tried that once. it was an interesting FF fork. didn't dislike it at all.