What web browser are you using, and why?

[Azther]

1 hour ago, Mr. Fox said:

What theme are you using for Windowblinds? I have tried it off and on for years, including very recently, and I can never get it to look proper. It has never functioned to my satisfaction because there is always something in the UI that is messed up for me and I have always regretted purchasing it.

 

However, that actually looks pretty decent, I must say. Please share and I will give it a go again to see if I like it. I'd really like to love Windowsblinds if I can, because I feel the exact opposite of love for any version of Windows after 1809. I am the kind of person that would identify one theme that I like and use it for more than a decade with no desire to even try another one because I place more value on consistency and predictability than anything else.

 

I do not like the Stardock Start menu. I think it is too functionally limited and doesn't produce as aesthetically pleasing results as StartIsBack does.

ive actually switched from startisback to open shell, which is what u see above. startisback was conflicting with windowsblinds and causing excessive blur on the taskbar. as for the theme its this one:

BetterAero7X by fytuf on DeviantArt

 

and the skin for open shell if u wanna give it a go is this one here:

http://www.classicshell.net/forum/download/file.php?id=5713&sid=d549c3cbde9b9aa4d2db7c1ed24f4f4e

 

youre gonna want to slide all the transparency sliders in windows blinds to the left to achieve what  ive done, along with glass and opacity set to 0 in open shell. like so:

 

 

 

 

and i couldnt agree more, i prefer 7s theme over anything win10 has. Vista also had a nice theme along with features that i wish win10 had by default like dreamscene, which ive added back into LTSC with wallpaper engine

 

[Mr. Fox]

The Micro$oft Monkeys always get rid of the things they have done best, leaving us with nothing to give them credit for except their mistakes and failures. They are nearly as unlovable as the dullards at crApple at this point.

[Hertzian56]

Still just use a mix for different purposes, when I travel I use opera with it's free built in vpn when I'm using hotel or public wifi but not otherwise bc there's no way to have it delete all cookies/data upon exit like waterfox/firefox/palemoon. Love the extensions of firefox and variants.

[Papusan]

I switched from Google to DuckDuckGo: 5 surprising takeaways pcworld.com

DuckDuckGo sets itself apart from Google by promising not to track your data. It may just be the privacy-conscious search engine you've been looking for. But what's it really like to use?

[Aaron44126]

6 hours ago, Papusan said:

I switched from Google to DuckDuckGo

 

I've been using DuckDuckGo as my default for a while now.  For a lot of stuff, it's fine.  For very specific technical searches (...software developer here...), I find that Google just does a better job.  (The article makes a similar point.)  Also, DuckDuckGo doesn't seem to take double quotes for exact terms as seriously as Google does.  So, I'm bouncing between the two pretty often...

 

Can't get away from Google Maps (on both desktop and phone).  Nothing else compares.

[Aaron44126]

Another thing on browsers...

 

Google is transitioning Chrome to their "manifest v3" system for extensions and will eventually be phasing out "manifest v2".  This is causing some "controversy" as manifest v3 extensions will significantly limit the ability of ad/content-blocking extensions to do their job.  This change will eventually trickle down to other Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, etc.).

https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/intro/

 

Manifest v2 will be phased out in 2023.

https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/mv3/mv2-sunset/

 

I use uBlock Origin and it looks like it will be impacted.  https://www.ghacks.net/2019/01/22/chrome-extension-manifest-v3-could-end-ublock-origin-for-chrome/  (This is an older article; maybe there have been developments since then.  I couldn't quickly find anything of note.)

 

Firefox has committed to keep supporting the "old way" of content blocking.  https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/10/23131029/mozilla-ad-blocking-firefox-google-chrome-privacy-manifest-v3-web-request

 

I saw this note indicating that Brave intends to continue supporting v2 extensions.  They'll have to stand up their own extensions "store", as the Chrome Web Store and Microsoft Store will both be pulling v2 extensions eventually.  (...Not sure if this will remain feasible long-term as the Chromium engine itself continues to change over time, making it harder for other projects to continue to shoehorn in v2 support.)  https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/20059

[i.bakar]

i use brave browser, its more secured , very light and support wallets for crypto if you r into that 

the speed of the browser is not as fast as chrome but i like to keep my distance from google data gathering . like inking and typing for windows is off 

[Ishayin]

On 6/2/2022 at 12:44 AM, Hertzian56 said:

Still just use a mix for different purposes, when I travel I use opera with it's free built in vpn when I'm using hotel or public wifi but not otherwise bc there's no way to have it delete all cookies/data upon exit like waterfox/firefox/palemoon. Love the extensions of firefox and variants.

 

For deleting all but whitelisted cookies on close I use the "Vanilla Cookie Manager" extension, though there are probably many similar alternatives available.

[Ishayin]

On 6/9/2022 at 11:03 PM, Aaron44126 said:

 

I've been using DuckDuckGo as my default for a while now.  For a lot of stuff, it's fine.  For very specific technical searches (...software developer here...), I find that Google just does a better job.  (The article makes a similar point.)  Also, DuckDuckGo doesn't seem to take double quotes for exact terms as seriously as Google does.  So, I'm bouncing between the two pretty often...

 

Can't get away from Google Maps (on both desktop and phone).  Nothing else compares.

 

I use Startpage as my standard searcher which gives Google's results but without the Google tracking (and also a nicer UI and range of settings available). But if you want a truly different angle on things you probably need to use a competitor with their own independent crawler:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_search_engines 

E.g. I was trying out both Mojeek and Gigablast recently, and they do seem to be useful for certain kinds of searches at least. Though I'm still inclined to stick with Startpage for default casual usage.

 

Regarding Google Maps – it really depends on how you use it. I agree it has some particular features which are hard to replicate elsewhere, but I really hate it's map rendering style. It is overly abstracted to a series of points, with no sense given of the real geography (except via satellite view). It is also overly orientated around urbanite car drivers. Walking and cycling routes, and the entirety of the natural landscape, are completely missing from it. So on desktop I tend to use both it and Open Street Map in parallel. Google mainly just for its search and satellite, and OSM for actually understanding geography and seeing the fine details.

On phone I rely completely on Maps.me for navigation (based on OSM, but with nicer rendering IMO and also works fully offline). The only time I ever use Google Maps on phone is if I'm travelling without a laptop and wish to look up reviews for restaurants. Google have also made the app slower and slower over the years to the point it is barely usable on my phone.

[Aaron44126]

46 minutes ago, Ishatix said:

On phone I rely completely on Maps.me for navigation (based on OSM, but with nicer rendering IMO and also works fully offline).

 

One thing I like about using Google Maps for navigation is its use of traffic data to select the appropriate route based on current conditions.  Does Maps.me/OSM have any/decent traffic integration?

[Ishayin]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:36 AM, Aaron44126 said:

 

One thing I like about using Google Maps for navigation is its use of traffic data to select the appropriate route based on current conditions.  Does Maps.me/OSM have any/decent traffic integration?

 

Yes, that is a particular benefit you reap from the Google spyware network 😄 ...but apparently you can get traffic info on Maps.me too now: 

https://mapsme.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007174554-Map-layers-guides-traffic-info-subway-map-and-terrain-layer

Though I have no idea where that info comes from or if / how intelligent it is at adjusting route in response. It also requires a data connection which kinda ruins the whole point of using an offline map provider in the first place in my view.

I don't own a car myself, but I did use Maps.me for car navigation during a trip with my sister last year and it worked fine, giving the same or better route suggestions as Google (when compared at our AirBnB). They both suffer the same issue of not really knowing what the quality of the roads in question are like, which is more significant than traffic in much of the world. Though I guess if you are in the US, the traffic question is likely the more important factor.

[Ishayin]

I also came across this useful post recently on alternative search engines with their own indices:
https://seirdy.one/posts/2021/03/10/search-engines-with-own-indexes/

 

As well as this article regarding the difficulty alternative crawlers have in competing against Google and Bing:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90759792/with-google-dominating-search-the-internet-needs-crawl-neutrality

 

Quote

For the most part, websites only allow Google and Bing’s crawlers unfettered access while discriminating against other crawlers like Neeva’s. These sites either disallow everything else in their robots.txt files, or (more commonly) don’t say anything in robots.txt, but return errors instead of content to other crawlers. The intent may be to filter out malicious actors, but the consequence is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And you can’t serve up search results if you can’t crawl the web.

 

[Katja]

Currently dailying Firefox under Linux since I can't seem to find a Waterfox repo on Fedora (very lazy) and Librewolf to access Book of Faces to contact some family/friends from secondary school. It works enough.

[Ishayin]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:36 AM, Aaron44126 said:

 

One thing I like about using Google Maps for navigation is its use of traffic data to select the appropriate route based on current conditions.  Does Maps.me/OSM have any/decent traffic integration?

 

Apologies for continuing off topic here, but I need to change my recommendation from maps.me to Organic Maps:
https://organicmaps.app/

 

It is basically an actively developed open source upgrade to Maps.me, and after testing it for a while now I have found it to bring a number of improvements.

 

Also, for car navigation I came across Waze, which uses crowd sourced traffic/road info:
https://www.waze.com/

 

And then coincidentally another friend happened to mention it to me today:

Quote

I have to say, for driving Waze is brilliant - as it has the traffic, diversions, hazards on the road etc
It did save us quite a bit of time when I came back from Devon with some friends a few months ago - we would have been stuck for hours on the M25 otherwise!

 

[Aaron44126]

34 minutes ago, Ishatix said:

Also, for car navigation I came across Waze, which uses crowd sourced traffic/road info:

https://www.waze.com/

 

Waze is owned by Google so it doesn't really feel like I'm getting off of Google Maps if I switch to it.  😕

[Ishayin]

21 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Waze is owned by Google so it doesn't really feel like I'm getting off of Google Maps if I switch to it.  😕

 

Ohhh, thank you for pointing that out! Ughhh...

[Papusan]

Microsoft Edge Is Now More Bloated Than Google Chrome howtogeek.com 

People love to rag on Google Chrome for being a bloated browser that eats up your computer’s resources. Well, Microsoft Edge has become even worse. It started out with good intentions, but Microsoft can’t help itself. They didn't need long time to destroy own browser.

[Etern4l]

Brave and Edge (both 64 bit) started crashing with "out of memory" on very large pages with plenty of system memory available, reverted to Firefox - so far so good.

[Papusan]

Bad news bro @Mr. Fox @Ashtrix+++ 

 

Google Chrome Users Running Windows 7 Or 8.1 Will Soon Need To Find A Fresher OS

Chrome is the most popular browser on the planet and we reckon there's a fair number of people surfing the web with it inside Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. Well, bad news for them—barring a last-minute reprieve, Google plans to sunset its Chrome browser on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 with its version 110  release that's due out in a few months.

 

If you're affected by this, then heads up that Google is tentatively planning to roll out its version 110 release of Chrome on February 7, 2023. That will be the last official update to Chrome that you'll see on your platform. To continue receiving future releases with new features and security patches, you'll need to update your platform to Windows 10 or Windows 11.

 

"Older versions of Chrome will continue to work, but there will be no further updates released for users on these operating systems. If you are currently on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, we encourage you to move to a supported Windows version before that date to ensure you continue to receive the latest security updates and Chrome features," Google explains in a recently posted support document.

[cylix]

Old user of Firefox, for me still the best browser!

[Ashtrix]

35 minutes ago, Papusan said:

Bad news bro @Mr. Fox @Ashtrix+++ 

 

Google Chrome Users Running Windows 7 Or 8.1 Will Soon Need To Find A Fresher OS

Chrome is the most popular browser on the planet and we reckon there's a fair number of people surfing the web with it inside Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. Well, bad news for them—barring a last-minute reprieve, Google plans to sunset its Chrome browser on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 with its version 110  release that's due out in a few months.

 

If you're affected by this, then heads up that Google is tentatively planning to roll out its version 110 release of Chrome on February 7, 2023. That will be the last official update to Chrome that you'll see on your platform. To continue receiving future releases with new features and security patches, you'll need to update your platform to Windows 10 or Windows 11.

 

"Older versions of Chrome will continue to work, but there will be no further updates released for users on these operating systems. If you are currently on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, we encourage you to move to a supported Windows version before that date to ensure you continue to receive the latest security updates and Chrome features," Google explains in a recently posted support document.

 

I think Firefox will follow suite eventually. It is kinda expected from these companies.

Because Microtrash has nowadays enforces new AAA games to have latest Windows 10 1909+, and in the future they will enforce Windows 11..,. shame how they kill their best OS ever made.

 

On the otherside, old news - Abbodi from MDL mentioned this back in time at deskmodder.de, last time you posted it. Not sure if M$ will update their ESU in the future or not. I'm worried if they push Windows 11 hard they might axe Win7 ESU policy entirely, at the moment it is still Jan 2023. Since Google alr announced, I think MS may kill the OS. I hope for a miracle... a small ray of hope to see the Windows 7 ESU extension upto 2026.

 

[Mr. Fox]

1 hour ago, Papusan said:

Older versions of Chrome will continue to work

Good enough for me.  I'd much prefer to stick with a predictable product over one that is constantly changing, sometimes in ways that I do not appreciate. I can always change to another product if and when I have identified a need or an opportunity to use something better. Until then, don't mess with it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[saturnotaku]

On 8/21/2022 at 5:02 PM, Papusan said:

Microsoft Edge Is Now More Bloated Than Google Chrome howtogeek.com 

People love to rag on Google Chrome for being a bloated browser that eats up your computer’s resources. Well, Microsoft Edge has become even worse. It started out with good intentions, but Microsoft can’t help itself. They didn't need long time to destroy own browser.

 

Every version of Edge has gotten progressively worse so I'm back to Chrome for now.

 

[Azther]

On 10/26/2022 at 7:41 PM, Papusan said:

Bad news bro @Mr. Fox @Ashtrix+++ 

 

Google Chrome Users Running Windows 7 Or 8.1 Will Soon Need To Find A Fresher OS

Chrome is the most popular browser on the planet and we reckon there's a fair number of people surfing the web with it inside Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. Well, bad news for them—barring a last-minute reprieve, Google plans to sunset its Chrome browser on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 with its version 110  release that's due out in a few months.

 

If you're affected by this, then heads up that Google is tentatively planning to roll out its version 110 release of Chrome on February 7, 2023. That will be the last official update to Chrome that you'll see on your platform. To continue receiving future releases with new features and security patches, you'll need to update your platform to Windows 10 or Windows 11.

 

"Older versions of Chrome will continue to work, but there will be no further updates released for users on these operating systems. If you are currently on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, we encourage you to move to a supported Windows version before that date to ensure you continue to receive the latest security updates and Chrome features," Google explains in a recently posted support document.

im sure the windows 7 extended kernel thats being worked on will take care of this issue, if not theres alternatives like palemoon, waterfox etc

 

win7 ext kernel for those interested: GitHub - vxiiduu/VxKex: Windows 7 API Extensions

Edited October 31, 2022 by Azther
Added win7 extended kernel link

[cucubits]

Chrome and Firefox.

 

Chrome on my work laptop and Firefox on the personal one. No particular reason for one over the other.

I do have a problem with no apparent solution... whatever I do, I end up having way to many open tabs which I don't use and don't want to close either. At one point I was over 100 😲