Do you trust Brave company and their products: Browser, Search, VPN, etc..?

Popular tech (a la pop sci or pop psych). Brave uses the right techy sounding buzzwords to appeal to the pseudo power user.

At the time I switched, the built-in blocker worked on a site I regularly used while Firefox+ublock did not (I think it would just prevent things from working or cause infinite ad-loops). If I wasn't looking for an alternative adblocker, would probably have never bothered switching. There's also the "get pocket change from using our browser" thing. Some may have been speculating on the value of BATs?

I switched back to Firefox, but the one issue I'm having is the gesture add-ons. They just don't work near as well as the ones in Chrome ☹️

This is honestly the first valid drawback I've seen in this thread about Firefox. Personally, I have to disable most gesture-based features on my device due to my big clumsy hands and perhaps a bit of an inherited neurological problem, but I understand that most users are not like me.

I'd encourage you to share your needs with the Firefox community. I've seen some amazing features and add-ons born out of someone simply stepping forward and pointing out how useful a certain feature would be.

I would have choses firefox if it had the support for tab grouping, something chromium browsers do really well and something I need for my workflow.

Chromium based browsers tend to have less issues. I have to use some government websites that have features that won’t work on firefox

Which government web sites don't work? I'd like to report them on Bugzilla.
- Portuguese IRS and Social Security websites. It’s been years since I tried to access them through firefox though
  
  Your information is probably no longer accurate then. Firefox has undergone many significant updates even within the past year, and it's very likely those tools are now fully functional, as I'd suspect at some point they'd have been reported on Bugzilla.
  
  I have to access many US government web sites regularly, including the US IRS web site, and I never have a problem.
  
  Back when I was studying computer engineering I was also an avid fan of firefox and I also kept hearing and parroting those lines. Eventually I gave up and stuck with chromium based browsers. (Also because of other reasons, like some extensions only being available for chrome, html games support, etc)
  
  US and portuguese governments are in different leagues. I would assume that yours has better funding and spends more on their virtual infrastructure. I doubt they are comparable, but it is possible that they fixed those issues that I had meanwhile
  
  It's probably been fixed. I'm not just "parroting those lines" -- I'm suggesting that if you find it's still not functioning on Firefox, the thing to do is to report the issue. (I had previously said Bugzilla, but they get reported to Web Compat now.) I will mention that our IRS is not known for its efficiency and being up to date lol.
  
  Which extensions are missing on Firefox?
  
  I can see that you’re enthusiast and care about firefox, it’s thanks to people like you that these tools get better. But me, for lack of better words, can’t bring myself to care that much about any piece of software that ain’t related to my job, nevermind reporting issues. I’ll use whatever gives me less trouble in my personal time, if in the future things change for chromium, I’ll come back to firefox.
  
  When I get home I’ll check my extensions and pass you the ones that don’t exist for firefox. Right now the only one I remember isn’t really an extension, it’s the text to speech function of Edge, that uses their AI voices.
  
  Thanks for agreeing to look into this. It's very frustrating when there are so many users claiming certain add-ons are missing in Firefox without ever being able to provide specific examples. It's the same thing I see when people mention web sites breaking on Firefox, but no one can ever provide links so someone who is interested in fixing things can help.
  
  And I do understand not feeling led to devote time and energy to troubleshooting. That's one reason I'd like to understand what you're looking for. I enjoy spending time in shared spaces with some very active add-on developers as well as communities like the Mozilla forums, so I'd be happy to share anything people feel is missing on your behalf.
  
  Also, I do understand finding certain features convenient that Microsoft and Google can provide, but I'm also aware that some of these features come at the cost of our personal data and privacy, which is also a line one has to draw for oneself. I even know people who won't join Lemmy due to concerns, so I understand this is a personal choice. It's just nice to know we have such choices and that they are not forced on us.
  
  Cheers.
  
  That used to be true, and I keep Chrome and Edge installed just in case, but honestly I haven’t had to use a different browser in years.
  
  Any web page problems that I found turned out not to be Firefox related.
  
  But if you like Chrome, there’s nothing wrong with that either.
  
  To be clear, I don’t like Chrome itself, I use Edge and sometimes Brave.
  
  Depending on how the whole DRM and adblock thing goes, I might come back to firefox.
  
  Portuguese here. Haven't had to use anything but Firefox on the IRS and Social Security websites. What are you having trouble accessing?
  
  From what I remember, autoridade tributaria had some buttons or links that wouldn’t do anything on firefox. I remember suspecting it was javascript, but then noticed that Chrome didn’t have issues.
  
  Seg social and fundo ambiental had odd behaviors but I can’t remember exactly what they were.
  
  I remember having to use Internet Explorer to do some actions on the autoridade tributária website, like simulating and submitting IRS (even had to download an external application) but that was like 10-12 years ago. More recently, I had to do some stuff with regards to opening and closing my activity (I was on recibos verdes for a while) and did it all through Firefox. Haven't had to do much else beyond this.
  
  As for seg. social, I just tried to log in and it said my password expired and I had to create a new one. But when I filled in the password fields and tried to click on the button to submit it, it didn't work. In any browser. Because there was no fucking link associated with the button. So the button did nothing. I had to manually click on the "recover my password" link so I could a create a new one.
  
  When I logged in, I just clicked on a few things, even simulated my retirement pension and everything worked. It's not much of a test, I know, but it's something.
  
  Never entered fundo ambiental so I have no idea if it works or not.

why don't you read mozilla's privacy policy and compare it brave's

Because chromium-based browsers are better in some regards (extensions, good folder support on android). Habit also matter 🙂

That's in your head. I cannot think of anything Firefox won't do for me. And if I came across something I needed chromium for, I would open it that one time. My privacy is worth that tiniest bit of effort.

As an independent computer consultant full time, I operate heavily through my browser for a good 60% of my work.
- The ability to send tabs to my phone or desktop at will is enough for me. Firefox always.
- For me, there are a few plugins that don't exist on Firefox, which I need. The plugin environment isn't nearly as robust or kept up-to-date as chromium-based browsers.
  
  Which plugins are they?
  
  Mainly Dragon Medical One
  
  Fair enough. That's a fairly niche case, but I could see myself using a chromium browser if I had to use this tool at work, but then switching back to Firefox for everything else.
  
  I still wouldn't use Brave, though, and it would be even better if more developers started supporting Firefox instead.
  
  I agree. I guess I could just use Firefox on mobile and home but use Brave for work.
  
  I’d be interested to hear which plugins you are referring to as my experience with Firefox has been much the opposite. I often find the plug-in selection lacking when required to use a Chromium based browser.
  
  Mainly Dragon Medical One
- Tabs folders on Android is a big reason to use Brave instead of Firefox. Tab management is way better. Not some habit. Straight facts. But Firefox has different benefits. F.E. multiple search engines to use in search bar.
  
  Tab folders became such a nuisance for me on Chrome Mobile I started using Firefox. I keep only 5-6 tabs open at a time, webpages opening in the same tab group thing was just too confusing for my very lean tab management mind. Now my 5 tabs really had "9 tabs".
  
  Firefox tab management is way simpler. It can be good for some people. But sometimes I miss good tab management support in Firefox.
  
  I really like Vivaldi's tab management on Android myself. It's more desktop like.
  
  Yup. Good to know you are happy 😃🤘
  
  @FarLine99 @orbituary that's just Google Chrome tab management. You can get the same thing from Cromite, and it's not even owned by an ad company!
  
  Yup. Cromite is also a very good option. Good to see legacy of Bromite is not lost.
Chromium browsers could one day be forced to adopt Google Chrome’s updates to maintain their licenses. This could mean that Chrome’s war against ad-block could spread even to Brave. That gives Google too much control over the internet for any one company.
- It definetly can happen. Using Firefox is very important this days. Definetly. So do I. Giving all control about WEB to Google is too bad idea. But it is reality we see.
extensions

you mean how Brave doesn't let you install any on mobile, while Firefox does?
- Firefox Android extension support is a killer feature. Use it extensively. I was talking about some extensions that are not available on desktop Firefox compared to chromium browsers.
  
  Being able to use Ublock Origin on my Android was a game changer. I can't see using any other browser on mobile.
  
  Can I ask which extensions on chromium browsers that you use that aren't on Firefox. For me, I've found every extension I ever needed on Firefox.
  
  For me, everything is OK. But I heard people that needed very specific extensions for work/hobby/productivity that are not available in Firefox. So Brave will be just better on desktop then 🙂
good folder support on android

Can you expand on this? What do you mean by "folder support"? I use Firefox on Android (Fennec branch), and I guess I'm not sure what I'm missing.
- Folders for browser tabs. And all in all, working with tabs is more convenient in Chromium browsers.
  
  I've never had a problem on Firefox. What is the complaint people have about browser tabs in Firefox? The only complaints I've seen have been strictly cosmetic.
  
  I do agree it would be nice to have more folders for my mobile bookmarks. It's actually one thing that perplexes me. Seems like such a basic thing. It definitely would not make me switch browsers, though, especially not to Brave.
  
  Edit: Perhaps ironically, I just remembered the thing that made me switch from Chrome on Android once and for all was their insistence on displaying browser tabs as cards. At the time, I had heard many of the same myths and half-truths about Firefox that are being shared in this thread (slow, buggy, won't recognize certificates). Happily, I discovered none of these things were accurate, and in fact if anything it ran faster and more efficiently on my device. It was at that point that I also started becoming more concerned about my privacy, and I subsequently learned that I was already using the best browser where privacy is concerned -- I just had to adjust a few settings and switch to a different branch. Funny how "better browser tabs" is hailed as a reason to use a chromium-based browser, when I found the better browser tabs in Firefox all along!
it works out of the box. For no tech-savy people, is all in one
- Are you suggesting Firefox doesn't work out of the box?
  
  No, I mean thst Firefox does not have privacy enchainment tools enabled/installed out of the box. You have to do it manually.
- Also a big reason to use it.