this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024

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Privacy

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Replacement for Firefox? (fedia.io)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Norgur@fedia.io to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hey there,

I've been using Firefox for ages now, and I was completely satisfied with it... until very recently, that is. For space-saving reasons, I started to convert my media library to H265, since all devices in my network support it now. Or so I thought. One very noticeable omission is my desktop PC with Firefox. Now, if I watch something from my local media server, the server has to waste resources to convert to H264, which is a noticeable performance hit to all other things running on the server. The GPU in my Desktop PC (or the CPU for that matter) could have displayed H265 without even changing clock speed from idle. So I tried to use the native Plex App for Windows for that, but that one does not support RTX Super Resolution which was really nice when watching old DVD stuff.

From what I can see, to get both, I need a Chromium browser. Since I would rather not have two browsers open all the time: Is there any browser based on the latest Chromium Builds that is not a massive insult to one's privacy?

solution:

Firefo does support H265. It didn't for a very long time so most posts online talk about how it has no support and that it ain't planned. Yet, it has gotten support in the meantime.

change

media.wmf.hevc.enabled

To 1 in about:config, restart browser, done.

Thanks, mate

all 46 comments

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[–] GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml 93 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Firefox can display x265. Do you use the flatpak version? If so, create a bug report.

If not, search for enable x265 on firefox and install the codecs.

Whats the log in plex?

[–] Norgur@fedia.io 82 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Holy… why the fuck would this be disabled? And why the fuck didn't I find this information in the first place?!

To all wondering: change

media.wmf.hevc.enabled

To 1 in about:config, restart browser, done.

Thanks, mate

[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 58 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The reason is software patents and asinine licensing for HEVC. Thank the greedy fucks in suits for that.

[–] Norgur@fedia.io 17 points 7 months ago (2 children)

So it can be implemented but not enabled? Weird shit, man

[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 17 points 7 months ago

AFAIK, this is a Windows-specific option which requires the user to have purchased a license for the Windows HEVC decoder on the windows store.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 10 points 7 months ago

Could be that Firefox downloads the codec after you enable that. At least, I've heard of it being implemented like that in other software...

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 20 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Sounds like you had an XY problem

[–] Norgur@fedia.io 11 points 7 months ago

Well, I thought I had ruled out X as solution, so I didn't ask about it in the first place

[–] GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml 9 points 7 months ago

That's nice. Thanks for the link

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 7 months ago

Story of my life. Fortunately, now that I'm older, I often catch myself and provide the context. But not always.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

also, that's windows only

Supported for devices with hardware support (the range is the same as Edge) on Windows only. Enabled by default in Nightly and can be enabled via the media.wmf.hevc.enabled pref in about:config. 10-bit or higher colors are not supported.

https://caniuse.com/hevc

royalties are really great, innit?

[–] GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

On fedora you have to install the codecs yourself 😅

Iirc, Opensuse solves the issue by installing firefox after the OS was installed.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Long term you are probably better off converting to AV1 and sticking with Firefox, but I understand that your desktop GPU might not currently support AV1?

[–] Norgur@fedia.io 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My GPU does, but many other devices in my Network don't, so that would only shift the problem.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What devices are those?

[–] UckyBon@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Washing machine, microwave, robot vacuum, fridge…

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lightbulb, power outlets

[–] Norgur@fedia.io 6 points 7 months ago

My hair dryer mostly :P

[–] tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Have you considered converting to AV1 instead of H265?

I have a similar issue with my mac+chrome having to convert H265 -> H264 (even though it should be able to play it), but it has no trouble direct-playing AV1 for some reason.

[–] Norgur@fedia.io 5 points 7 months ago

My GPU does, but many other devices in my Network don't, so that would only shift the problem.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The only Chromium I know which isn't an insult to privacy is Vivaldi

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How is the ad blocker? I use Brave at work for debugging frontend code, but I don't really trust the org behind it. But I need something in the Chromium family to test our app, and the ad blocker is nice (main browser is Firefox).

If Vivaldi's ad blocker is as good as Brave's, I'll switch. I'll probably keep Chromium on my personal computers though (all Linux) because Vivaldi isn't open source. I use it very rarely since Firefox meets my needs, so it's less of an issue.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I use no other, the ad/trackerblocker in Vivaldi is full customizable, you can add the filterlists you want. In the adblock test I got between 90-100% (You must test the best filter combination, because too much can break some sites, adblocking is always a balance game). If you want more privacy, you can use the privacy extensions you want or use userscripts, which you can install directly as extension, if you don't want to use Tamper-,Greasy- or Violentmonkey to do this. It's a EU company (strict GDPR), no tracking, ads or third parties behind, own sync server e2ee.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Cool, I'm playing with it. One concern is that it's closed source.

I'm not going to use it as a main browser most likely though, I'm happy with Firefox, but I need something for when websites refuse to work w/ it.

[–] Norgur@fedia.io 3 points 7 months ago

Besides, you can always just throw uBlock on it and be done with the adblock stuff

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Its always good to have several browsers at hand. The perfect browser is the one which fits the needs of the user.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Eh, several seems like a bit much, but diversity in general is good. I use Firefox because it solves my needs, but I need a Chromium-based browser for random broken sites.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 months ago

Instead of FF I¡ve also Mullvad, apart Otter and SSuite Netsurf. so I've 4 different engines at hand, if needed. Blink, Gecko, Qt5 and WebView.

[+] TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Vivaldi is an ungoogled Chromium, there don't go any data to Google, except if you use the optional Google Save Search in the privacy settings. OpenSource, well, Vivaldi isn't strict OpenSource, because 5% of the script corresponding to the UI is proprietary, but full auditable and even accessible and moddeable by the user, in the forum they show how to do it (logically at own risk). There isn't any privacy issue or hidden things in it. User data in a Mozilla-Firefox Account is shared with Alphabet, googleanalytics and google-tagmanager, in Vivaldi nothing is shared with Google or other companies.

[+] TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You need an account if you use sync and don't want third party or self hosted solutions. I don't think that there is nothing vague or fishy in Vivaldi, it's all very transparent. Chromium (Blink) is used by the vast majory of browsers in the web and Vivaldy, apart of beeing the only EU browser is a very small cooperative in Norway. What do you think ocurres if Vivaldi release its nique UI as OpenSource, which compañies in less a second will use it for the own browser? Chrome and EDGE and killing with this definitively the competence and a free internet, include Vivaldi.

Google dominate the internet and battle against Vivaldi and others, or buy them, like Mozilla, since several years, first with discriminatory browsersniffing, blocking the access of several sites if it detected Vivaldi in the UA. Because of this, Vivaldi was disguised by the devs as Chrome against the own interests, later introducing several tracking APIs in the Chromium base, which the Vivaldi devs stripped out (except security updates) since years, before using it for Vivaldi (Because of this the Chromium base in Vivaldi is somewhat behind (~< a month) the official Chromium version. Later Google tried it with webpage APIs (FloC, idle API and others) also skipped by V devs. Mv3 also not affect Vivaldi with the inbuild blockers, no need to have the daily battle which Gorhill has to maintan uBO up to date. For YT I've enough with the Vivaldi trackerblocker and a userscript, to have YT 100% free of ads and nags since more than 8 month.

I have been using Vivaldi for 8 years and I have seen all of Google's tricks to eliminate Vivaldi as an uncomfortable competition, especially due to von Tetzchner's activism against Google's practices and web surveillance, which together with others and the Norwegian organization of consumers has driven this GDPR in the EU.

As a user I don't care about these 5% UI proprietary scripts, but I do care about the ethics and transparency of the company with the user and this is beyond any doubt

etc.

You can't buy trust with OpenSource, the trust must be gained by the author

[+] TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Do you trust OpenSource made by Facebook, MS or Google? Vivaldi don't, because of this use a lot of work to gut the Chromium code (100% FOSS) before using it. For an user it's irrelevant if part of the UI is proprietary, knowing that the script is clean of any hidden things. Anyone with knowledge of programming can check it and even modify it without problem, the only limitation: it cannot be used by other browsers or companies. Any advanced browser has parts which are not fully OpenSource because of a amount of very different licenses from the scripts of the different features which a browser offer, also Firefox , eg the translation tool of FF, which is from Lingvanex, the same as hosted by Vivaldi, which is proprietary soft. Maybe the definition of OpenSource need an update, currently it's a pretty grayzone.

For the rest https://vivaldi.com/source/

[–] dukethorion@lemmy.one 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What's wrong with ungoogled-chromium?

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No advanced tracking mitigation by default maybe?

[–] dukethorion@lemmy.one 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

OP wanted a Chromium browser that wasn't a massive privacy invasion. With Google stuff removed, it'll be good enough. Add uBO and ClearURLs.

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ungoogled Chromium doesn't have extension store support by default

[–] DaveedMee@beehaw.org 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

it tells u how to get extensions at the first start and its literally just 4 clicks to setup

[–] GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 months ago

Yes but 1. It's not the default 2. It kills some privacy stuff afaik

[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don't think that ungoogling chromium is to much use. For a start, take the points given by uBlock Origin's developer: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-best-on-Firefox

I'm sure there are more details where, where it's not that Firefox is better, but that chromium is worse. Chromium is not only tainted by embedded google services, but by many design decisions of google.

[–] Delusion6903@discuss.online 1 points 7 months ago

Librewolf is my go-to

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 7 months ago

I've had the same issue. I just use AV1 now. AV1 video + Opus audio in WebM container. Seems like a good combination.

Handbrake supports it too.

[–] HumanPerson@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

If it is local network stuff you could see if you can allow it just network connection but no internet. I'm not sure how you could do that though.

[–] PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

I quite like the Falkon Browser by KDE. Definately need to use Greesemonkey scripts to replace some simple extensions tho.