Browsers Are Weird
tylersticka.com
tylersticka.com
https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium
> Brave is run by a homophobic, anti-vax crypto clown. I won’t dignify it here with a link.
Brave is a decent browser, I don't understand why would you care who created it. Attacking author's persona and not the technology itself really reeks of bias
Some people can separate creation from creator, and some people feel it's the fruit of a poisonous tree. I'm personally not sure I'm convinced which is the better view. Since it's their personal blog … I think they're entitled to express that view, there? They still listed that browser, and it's inherently Googleable…
Regardless, "bias" doesn't seem to me to be the right word here. (To describe the blogger, given that their remarks appear based on observed evidence, not prejudice.)
Title says 'browsers are weird'.
Edge is for unopinionated Windows users.
Author writes and thinks in labels. Focuses on emotiions and dramas instead of using science and engineering to compare.
It may be a private blog, but it does not appear to be that interesting in merit.
Author engages in identity politics [1] which can be described as an exercise in labelling everything, attaching value statements - positive and negative - to those labels and thereby reducing every possible question to a simple calculation.
[1] a utopian socialist variant of 'scientific socialism' in which economic values have been replaced by social ones. Like its counterpart any attempt at implementing these ideas in the real world end up in failure since the inhabitants of the real world do not behave according to how the models predict they should - neither Homo Sovieticus nor Homo Arcopluvius exist in the real world.
I already use Chromium rather than Chrome (with FF as my main browser).
What are the real world effects of using Ungoogled Chromium rather than Chromium? Am I going to run into problems with DRM or signing in to website? Or installing extensions?
Signing in to websites will work fine since it doesn't depend on Google.
Regarding DRM: I never really used anything that required it so I don't know, but you can go to Issues on the GitHub page and search for "Widevine", "DRM" etc
Edit: Here's the FAQ https://ungoogled-software.github.io/ungoogled-chromium-wiki...
The question of separating the artist from the person is not new. Let's try anyway. Not speaking for Brave / Eich, but more generally (because I want my point to be general, not specific to Brave / Eich and I don't want this specific instance to weaken my more general point).
Say you support cause C. Say someone S makes useful product P. You know S hurts cause C (or pushes shitty thing !C), personally. And you know product P brings income to S (since it's their business), making S more powerful. You may think using P hurts cause C, thus you may want to avoid P. Or you may want to avoid P to make a point, symbolically. If only to discourage other people to act the same way.
Let's take Picasso for instance. He was an asshole [1]. He was atrocious with one or several of his friends. He broke the lives of many people including his numerous partners and raped them. Should you separate the artist from the person? You may already be convinced this is enough to want to avoid promoting Picasso or his art so you don't glorify the horrible stuff he could get away with, so future artists are not encouraged in such bad behavior for instance. Or you may not, thinking that the art exists now, and somewhat stands for itself. Turns out you actually can't really separate: looking closer, a big part of the art is related to his rapes anyway. Art does not live in a vacuum and is indeed connected to its artist: it's a reflection of the artist's life.
There might be something in how Product P works or is done that still could indirectly hurt cause C, in addition to bringing money to person S which may itself hurt C. In a way, it may be a matter of voting with one's wallet.
This stuff may or may not apply to Brave, I tried to justify why you might (want to) care where some product comes from more generally.
Of course there are many products where someone working on it is an asshole in their personal life and you just don't know about it. You might even have someone helping cause C working on product P. Now, if S notoriously hurts C, maybe there are people for C avoiding working for S (on P) and this can create a weird culture around P. Things can be a bit complicated.
Moreover, in a way, unlike your average person you may not know about, Eich chose to be public about some of the stuff he gets criticism for and so far never backtracked on this to my knowledge (because he could have). This also puts it to the next level for some.
[1] I can't vouch for any specific English source, but looking up "Picasso asshole" seems to yield numerous results. French speakers may like this video from "C'est une autre histoire": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsuLpUTs50c
I mean Brendan Eich is pretty bad, but their kerfuffle with Tom Scott[0] is what scared me off for good. I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending software that manipulates the likeness of a third-party to promote a product.
Ladybird https://ladybird.dev/
Ladybird and Serenity OS are both weirdly heartwarming projects. If you want to catch up on it I think the Changelog podcast was a good starter.
Mullvad Browser https://mullvad.net/en/browser: developed in collaboration between Mullvad VPN and the Tor Project, based on Tor Browser but meant to be used with a VPN instead of the Tor network.
You can use WebKit on Linux via GNOME Web (WebKitGTK), it's maintained by Igalia. Though that won't get you cross-device syncing, which is the main reason people want support on alternate hardware.
Who also invented JavaScript so I assume that the blog author has nothing to do with JS. Nope, there's a whole bunch of it running on their site.
Using Javascript does not.
This distinction is important to many.
And their business model is based on replacing other ads with their ads. Privacy is just a troy horse for expansion, given that their other “””features””” are not really such.
I don't know Brave, I don't know anything about its author (nor do I care to).
But this strikes me as unserious.. It's an article about the browser, Hitlers eviller clone could be building it for all I care, is the browser and the way the browser behaves good ?
I'm going to say this is a fact: The quality of someones work is separate from the quality of their values.
You can be the bestest, nicest, warmest, most just and fair person in the world, but if what you build is crap, I don't give a f*ck about it, except I want it (not you) to die and go away.
Barack Obama ran for president on the platform that marriage was between a man and a woman. Is he homophobic?
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has spoken out against vaccine-related policies. Is he anti-vax?
I come to Hacker News to avoid this kind of divisive rhetoric. I'm disappointed to see this on the front page.
No, his administration ratified nationwide gay marriage. He's a straight person too, that doesn't stop him from empathizing with the gay community and promoting marriage equality.
> Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has spoken out against vaccine-related policies. Is he anti-vax?
Vaccine-related policies are not vaccines. So you could say he's anti-vaccine politics I guess. I've never heard of the guy before though, so I can't really say for sure where he lies.
> I come to Hacker News to avoid this kind of divisive rhetoric.
I'm sorry to hear that you're disappointed by the curation of a user-moderated forum.
I'm allowed to be disappointed in the community's choices in what to promote to the front page.
If you want to use web browser created by someone who financially supported the gatekeeping of marriage, go right ahead.