New Anti Tracking browser from Ex Mozilla co-founder

This topic was created by Known Hero .

[Known Hero]

New Anti Tracking browser from Ex Mozilla co-founder

Well worth taking a look at,

https://www.brave.com/

First impressions equate to silly fast browsing and good ad blocking. If it's able to keep bloat out this will easily be my browser of choice.

also interestingly they are planning to add micro-payments for sites that block ads, but done off a donation system.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

What's under the hood, so to speak? Chrome?

[Known Hero]

Feels more like firefox, which doesnt suprise me much, due to icons & layout used.

But first impressions are blistingrly fast speed, The ad blocking is a bit hit an miss at the moment, but i suppose that is to be expected in such a new product. Would of loved a way to import settings from another browser to make trying it out much easier.

In regards to the coding side, i am afraid I am not qualified to comment. But happily accept your statment as an informed guide. The tracking protection I have no idea how good it is, as i never worried to much about being tracked on the web (no downvotes plz I just dont care) But the incessant ads plastering my screen I find highly irratating.

Obviously only time will tell. but did think you chaps would appreciate the concept behind it.

[Anonymous Coward]

What's under the hood, so to speak? Chrome?

Chromium to be exact. It is a nodejs browser, like Vivaldi btw. It uses the electron framework, a nodejs wrapper on top of chromium. Brave is a weird beast. A huge amount of javascript translated to C++ and compiled into a monster binary, yet faster than Chromium. The latter has lots of hidden bloat as seen in its "flags" mystery page.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Thanks for the info!

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Just installed it, will be trying it out a bit over the weekend.

Initial reaction: looking good. Very fast install. Nice, ordered, uncluttered GUI.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Smeggin' hell, this thing is FAST.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Doesn't seem to be a memory hog either - but appears as five different tasks in the task-manager?

[Known Hero]

think you might want to add ATM, to all your comments though, remember how fast FF used to be !!!

Kinda wish there was a import manager and spellchek though, spelcheck would be nice !

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

*putting on jake mask & voice*

"That was the joke, PFY!"

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Maybe he is busy doing, I don't know, something only jake would do.

[Known Hero]

Did pop it in twiice to ensure it was intentional,

[Known Hero]

I wuold never do that !!! I'm too honest.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Anyway, back to Brave: I've downloaded the Android version too and will give it a try on the old tablet.

SWIONTCA has tried it too and is quite smitten with it.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

One small gripe though: Brave just doesn't get that I'm one of those users that like to have the task bar* on the top of the screen, not on the bottom as by default. I just like it better that way. And I expect programs to check for that and adjust the size and position of their windows accordingly. I mean, it's not like it can't be done...

*Yes. Yes, I run Windows**... But I can explain it!!!

^{**Or "Fenster" by "WinzigWeich", as I like to call it}.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Looks like Brave has made some enemies: Publishers call Brave's privacy-centric browser "illegal"; Brave responds

Dear publishers, the main reason for blocking ads is that too many of them are excreting malware. Fix that and we can talk.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm.

I agree with you on the main reason for blocking ads - it is nonsense for them to say that it is illegal.

Having said that, I'm not so sure about the latest accusation from the publishers. They claim that Brave substitutes their ads with its own and profits by it. They are therefore accusing Brave of making money from the publishers' content.

Not quite the same thing as 'ad-blocking is illegal', and I'm inclined to think the publishers might have a case.

[darryle]

The icon is somewhat resemble to Firefox. However, I like to see it by myself if it is really fast.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

???

I'm looking at both icons right now - Brave's is a male lion's head, Firefox's is a curled up red panda. (No not a fox. Red Panda. Look it up. Really cute. Also, they do like to curl up when they take a nap up in a tree.)

[Known Hero]

Here is a interview which goes a little more in depth, https://opensource.com/business/16/2/brave-browser-interview.