You should try Librewolf and Helium.

They are a bit untransparent to me with how direct match (inserts affiliate links) and whitelisting of “partner sites” are enabled by default without consent.

Use Librewolf as your main browser with Helium for Google Meet.

Install uBlock Origin and disable any others then the ad blocker problem will be solved.

As for other things, look for backups. If DDG shuts down, search up alternatives. If piefed.social shuts down, find another instance, and do on.

The problem with the internet is not the internet itself, but the big tech platforms.

By using sites like Mastodon and Lemmy, using a browser with uBlock Origin installed, and disabling Web & App activity, personalised ads, etc on your phone, you are taking a stand, and routing around the bad stuff exactly as intended.

I recommend looking at Helium and Cromite as alternatives.

As for Firefox, I don’t like it too, and I’ve wrote a similar post about it on this sub but it got downvoted by -66 points.

Have you tried Cromite?

You should try a normal distro like Mint or Zorin.

Arch and its forks aren’t stable distros and they’re best for experimentation rather than daily use.

This is not TikTok. You can say paedophiles.

You can already do that. Just skip the WiFi step in the setup then plug your own box into the HDMI port.

Google TV, WebOS and Tizen models let you do this, only Roku and Fire TV don’t AFAIK.

You can set up Google TV, WebOS and Tizen TVs without WiFi and just use the HDMI ports.

Onn / Thomson sticks seem to be the best available option.

They use the Google TV OS but you can turn off the tracking (Advertising ID / Usage Data / Personal Results) and enable apps only mode to disable Google’s crap and have a clean UI with just your apps.

You can turn off resistFingerprinting in the settings then disable the URL tracking protection and URL shortener filter lists in uBlock Origin to fix it. I think Librewolf’s default settings are too cautious as Mullvad Browser serves the maximum privacy niche.

Because they used to be a good group but they no longer are.

Librewolf is in-between Firefox and Mullvad so you should try that.

They make money from non-tech savvy people who are recommended Firefox as the pro-consumer alternative but leave it on default settings which are just as bad as Chrome.

Exactly. I have heard a teacher at my college say he’s switched to Firefox to get away from Chrome, however he is clearly not in the know as he has Adblock Plus installed in Chrome on his work machine instead of uBlock Origin.

I don’t understand the downvotes. In the current market of the Chromium and Firefox duopoly the only real options we have are forks that remove the greedy features. Ladybird is not ready yet.

You currently have no other choice but to use Librewolf, Helium, or one of the other Firefox or Chromium forks if you want to minimise support for Mozilla and Google.

I agree, but for now, Librewolf is the best option we have.

Ladybird isn’t very usable yet, and Librewolf removes the features that produce profit for Mozilla so you are not directly supporting them.

The alternative is Chromium based browsers, and Helium is a good Chromium equivalent to Librewolf if you prefer the Chrome engine, but it uses a greedy company’s engine just like Librewolf, so the indirect support is identical.

It’s copying Notepad++.