this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
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For a time it was Fennic for addon support but now that Firefox mobile has addons are there better alternatives? Those of you on android, what's your go to?

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Mull (from the DivestOS developers)

But nowadays I'm using a Chromium based browser on my phone because Firefox on Android doesn't support process isolation

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (3 children)

+1 for Mull.

And yeah, on Android unfortunately you gotta choose between privacy (Firefox/Mull) or security (Chromium).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

Another for Mull and Cromite, here. I don't really use Mull unless I'm looking for absolute compatibility with things like web games.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Mull is reasonably secure for most of the people. Only very high targets need that kind of security

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago

Why not both, with Brave? I know their are kinda hated for making changes without warning the user, but it seems to be the closest thing to a fairly private and secure browser... Plus they have a whole team behind it, not just some guy in his basement (nothing against guys in their basements btw, it's just harder to be on top of security issues when you're one).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It would be great to hear the implication of that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Here you can find a good explanation on that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It would still need an Android system/kernel exploit to further escape the system sandbox. It is an important hardening feature, but the browser isn't completely insecure without it

So what? You can go back to firefox for that reasoning unless you are a very very high target

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Did you read the sentence before that? A malicious website could read data from other websites(opened in different tabs), and also passwords stored in the browser, etc... There is no additional system exploit needed for that

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yes. It doesn't apply to me. I am no very high target.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

What @[email protected] mentioned does not require a targetted attack.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah, they need to fix that

[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I use Firefox cause it's easier to get people to switch to something that's already in every app store.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Based convenience enjoyer

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (2 children)

IMO, standard Firefox is pretty OK, so I'd rather use that than some weird derivative that has more chances of security issues, breakage, or development halt.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Yup. So many of these "alternative" browsers have very questionable security practices. At the very minimum they don't have a staffed team to respond to zero-day exploits. But often they also make large changes without too much consideration for security or disable security features when they get in the way of features. I hate saying "use on of the big boys" but for most users their browser is likely their largest attack surface by an order of magnitude, it's job is literally to download an execute untrusted code and the API surface is huge. It takes real resources and careful development to develop and maintain a browser, and there are very few organizations that I would trust to do this.

So unless you have a strong reason I would highly recommend sticking to one of the major browsers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

same, haven't strayed from standard firefox since it does what i want just fine.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Firefox with noscript and ublock addons since years

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Mull, but use the DivestOS repository. F-droid also builds it but too much delayed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Mull would be perfect except for the annoyingly slow refresh rate enabled by the fingerprint resistance. It needs to just report a low refresh rate while actually using a higher one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Stupid as it is my biggest complaint is that none of them seem to have amoled dark mode. Been using and enjoying fennec but I really want my perfect blacks back.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

People kinda stopped implementing full black once they realized that battery savings between dark gray and black is negligible

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It’s still a measurable difference & it looks nicer having the pixels fully off. No need to dismiss the parent’s preference. Personally, I find the dark gray arguments pretty weak.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

It is measurable difference, but it's only 0.3% more of battery life compared to dark gray. This is very good article about this: https://www.xda-developers.com/amoled-black-vs-gray-dark-mode/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I’ve read that article several times before (and have written about the topic), but on a global screen usage scale 0.3% is still not 0% so you could argue that if saving power is the goal of using a dark theme on OLED devices, then maximum black would be a most ethical design choice. I will take my 0.3% battery + an aesthetic I like better any day.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You can take a look at FFUpdater on F-Droid. There you can see different browsers for android and information about the features they have.

I'm useing mull.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I'll use mull again when I can scroll without the screen looking like a strobe light

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I haven't used my tablet in months, but I will always recommend Mull.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Vanadium is not based on Firefox. Not to mention that it doesn't let you use add-ons, and OP clearly wants them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Vanadium and Mull.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Maybe try waterfox? It just arrived on Android. I don’t know if there is an f-droid version.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

iceraven

it has a lot of the regular firefox plugins available for installation from the menu. And also some privacy enhancements.