I like Librewolf a lot, and do use it sometimes on desktop, but they do not offer a mobile version, and there have been a few web pages I have found it was not compatible with.

Yeah, software support tends to be pretty bad for their devices, with few updates, and they are often bad with posting kernel source for their devices, so hard to get custom roms or flash alternative OS’s on them too. But if you want a phone that has a battery that can last 3 days straight - they are indeed available for purchase

Unihertz and Oukitel both make “rugged” phone models with giant batteries - aimed at weekend campers with giant hands. And Fairphone and Volla both have phones that still allow for easy battery swapping.

Geddit also works well as an open source, no-account needed, Reddit browser - https://f-droid.org/packages/geddit.buzl.uk/

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It’s not completely over if folks help with porting more Fossil models over to Asteroid OS - https://asteroidos.org

This is the result of the default install of Fennec - it needs the user to install an extension to get ad and tracker blocking like you have

Here you can see that Fennec tried to “phone home” to Mozilla when I launched it

So that’s the second test a browser needs to pass for me - no embedded tracker libraries. Fennec fails on that.

Embedded trackers Brave: 0 Fennec: 3

Not quite for me - Fennec (at least the build from F-droid) does not randomize fingerprint, AppManager and TrackerControl both show it has embedded trackers sending telemetry to Mozilla, and Fennec is not available on desktop. Librewolf is hardened Firefox on desktop, and is very good though, and has the trackers going back to Mozilla removed, but it does not randomize fingerprint.

I am guessing you are using uBlock Origin or similar with Fenec, as I just get “partial protection” in the EFF test unless that extension is installed.

I am using SparkOS on this device. My usual daily driver running Android 14 uses degoogled BlissROM and gets the same results, but I just borked it testing the latest alpha version for the maintainer.

The EFF is very good at what they do, and I’ve found it to be reliable, based on auditing traffic with tools like TrackerControl and AppManager as well. There is also resources noting test results such as https://privacytests.org

This is what I get on a degoogled Android 13 custom ROM. What OS/device are you using? Did you opt out of sending stats to Brave when you installed?

This article is FUD for the most part:

• replacing ads - nope, by default you don’t see any replacement ads, rather you see the least amount of ads on any chromium based option out there (e.g. Brave is the only browser I’ve found that still blocks the vast majority of ads on YouTube videos). You need to opt in to see replacement ads
• affilate links - yeah, that was some bs that happened 4 years ago, they were called out on it, and they promptly removed them, and these things have never appeared again.

Regarding the crypto stuff - that is by default off, again you need to opt in to it. Now, there is basic usage stats that are sent back to Brave that are on by default, but these can be turned off easily in the settings.

If there is any real objection that can be made to Brave it’s that the CEO has contributed cash to anti-gay-marriage campaigns in the past (which is why he has fired from Mozilla) and that he has expressed some reactionary political views in social media. I can understand people boycotting Brave for that.

Meanwhile, Brave is the only browser I’ve found that completely passes the EFF’s test at coveryoutracks.eff.org - and in other pricacy and security audits it performs always at “best in class” levels.

Show me another browser that can fully pass the EFF’s and other privacy tests, and I will switch.

Vivaldi has some closed source components to it, so that makes it a “pass” for a lot of us that are more privacy focused. But in performance and features Vivaldi is certainly a good chromium based browser - it’s just not one I choose for myself.

Well, that’s nice that you’ve never had problems. But issues I’ve seen over the years, range from not having certain functions working after the flash (generally needed specific firmware upgrades prior to the flash), not having the device recognized by the PC without additional steps, needing specific custom recoveries, bootloops, being stuck on splash screen, needing extra steps to unlock the bootloader (e.g. Xiaomi), not being able to easily downgrade Android version (sometimes needed as a first step prior to installing alternate OS’s like Ubunu Touch), even soft bricking. Plus, in learning how to flash custom ROM’s in the first place, guess who provided me with the info on how to do it.

Nearly every time I’ve needed to learn how to get around an issue in flashing a custom ROM onto an Android device, it’s been South Asian YouTubers’ tutorials that saved the day.