I know Librewolf is not in the recommended list, but it is based on Firefox, so I’m just wondering why it might not be on the list? Just out of curiosity, what are the concerns? Firefox looks like a pain in the ass to configure (although not nearly as much as installing windows)
I saw it recommended on another website (although I’m doubting trustworthiness of said website after seeing some other dubious recommendations) and I did start using it before I discovered this website, and I liked some of the extensions that were available but clearly I don’t know what I’m doing.
Please bare with me, I’m just learning about this privacy stuff and reading all the wiki and knowledge base but it is a lot!!! I’ve been reading for 5 days and I’m so tired. I want to get all my install files ready before I setup my new laptop. I have questions about that, but I will post as a separate question. I might have already fucked up by watching youtube through the browser, but I didn’t log in so hopefully no personal data. I’m hoping whatever I’ve mucked with can be mostly blown away when I reinstall windows. I have not yet logged into google or meta and I don’t plan to outside of VM and/or VPN.
I don’t think there is any “bad” concern for why it is not recommended here. There are many excellent tools that are not officially recommended but that doesn’t mean they are not good or there is anything wrong with them. PG has their criteria they have set and if something that doesn’t fit, they don’t recommend it. Librewolf is an excellent browser alternative you can use but it is not meant for everyday browsing needs if you ask me, only for select use cases or purposes (whatever they may be).
Not really. Keep things simple enough. You only have to do it once unless you plan on using many browser profiles for different use cases and different settings in each. But even then it would be a one time effort for the most part. I usually want most if not all browser and webpage elements to work so I don’t go too far in configuring my FF. Change some of the settings within for how you want the browser to behave and use uBO + Password Manager. That’s pretty much the simplest and likely the best option for your everyday browsing needs. I would however enable more filter lists and whatnot within uBO.
Privacy journey is a marathon. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Take it easy. Read, understand, try things, ask questions, learn. This is a process. You can only expedite it so much and there is always more to learn.
There is a lot of info on this forum too. So, you can always search for things to learn more about it.
This is not a big deal. If you set up your browser to forget each browsing session, you’re fine. Websites can fingerprint you as they always can but they won’t be able to continue attributing your browsing activities to make a profile/shadow profile on you so you’re fine. It’s not a big deal. Watching YT directly is still the easiest way to go about it. If you still dislike it, you can use Freetube app.
I used Librewolf for a while, and it’s excellent at what it was designed for. That said, it makes a lot of web browsing a pain in the ass. In my experience, it absolutely breaks a lot of websites that I frequently visit. If you’re lazy, you will have to log in manually to everything every time you open the browser. Unless you flag specific websites as exempt… but that defeats the purpose of Librewolf. I’d say it’s best suited for someone who needs extreme privacy or for niche web needs. I would not recommend using it as a daily driver. LibreWolf is ideal for privacy-focused power users who prioritize data protection over convenience.
I use Librewolf and it’s pretty good, but it’s not for everything.
I use plain FF with containers for anything that needs a persistent login or sites that are touchy and where I don’t mind the site being connected to my real name.
Most everything else I put in Librewolf. Rarely log in to anything other than literally this forum because it doesn’t freak out about canvas data. Plenty of sites will break or act weird, so it’s hit or miss. Your best strategy might be to have a few browsers on hand so if a site doesn’t work on one, you try another. It sounds like a pain, but once you give it a try a few times, you get into the habit and it’s second nature.
PG recommends Firefox + arkenfox, which is DIY Librewolf. Librewolf is basically pre-packaged Arkenfox, but with slower updates, which makes Arkenfox a better choice to recommend. The concern is because Librewolf is slower with updates, it makes the browser less secure than Arkenfox.
Many privacy advocates swear by Librewolf from what I’ve seen, but once you know how to configure Firefox, you don’t need any other Firefox forks. I switched back to Firefox after using Zen for a few months for this reason.
If you don’t know how to set-up arkenfox, then Librewolf seems like a solid choice (I haven’t used it much myself). Mullvad is a better choice for anti-fingerprinting and I personally use it daily along with Firefox. Librewolf might be a better choice if you’re only looking for one browser as a daily driver, but based on the comments, it seems like you would need another browser anyway if sites keeps breaking with Librewolf.
There was a long discussion held on whether LibreWolf should be recommended. I haven’t read through most of it but I’m sure you’d find answers somewhere in there. I listed some issues I have with LibreWolf on an unrelated discussion:
If Arkenfox seems too complicated, LibreWolf probably isn’t a good option for you anyways. I think the current Privacy Guides recommendations of using minimally configured Brave or Firefox are the best options for most people. For situations where you want to be extra private, use the Tor Browser.
In case you haven’t already, I’d recommend you really read through the threat modeling page before anything else. I don’t know your situation but to me it sounds like you might be worrying too much about things which aren’t very impactful. There are different schools of thought when it comes to this sort of thing so you’ll find contradicting recommendations depending on what you’re reading.
If you don’t expect to be put in danger or highly targeted, you can spend a lot less time worrying about doing everything perfectly. I’ll try to save you some time by saying nothing is perfect, there are trade-offs with everything and you’ll have to decide what makes sense for your situation. For most people that only needs to consist of following basic recommendations made by resources like Privacy Guides and leaving it at that.
Ah yes, I did see the criteria, I was just curious. Seems like the main reasons people have shared in the comments are inconvenience, breaking on websites, and issues with updates. I guess most of the sites I have been using so far are of the geek variety and not experienced any breakage.
I think I was just tired last night and each of the recommended browser choices seemed more than just an install, leading to multiple rabbit holes, so thanks for clearing some stuff up. I will take a closer look at Firefox and Arkenfox today. This is just an experiment to see if I can lock my shit down and develop safer online practices.
Thanks good to know! I will take a closer look at Firefox and Arkenfox today. I think I was just really tired last night. After pouring over the documentation for windows install and hardening, it just tipped me over. I feel a bit more ready to tackle it now that I’ve had some sleep. Thank you for your suggestion!
That makes sense now thanks for clearing that up! I have been practicing on the over cautious side just as an experiement but I will probably seek something a little more convenient once I set things up for myself.
Thanks I appreciate your suggestions. I did look at the threat modeling. I’m not necessarily worried, this just an experiment because I have a new laptop and opportunity to test out some new habits. I have a tendency to take things waaay too far, this just happens to be another rabbit hole I find myself down.
As someone who uses Librewolf as my primary browser, I can see why they don’t recommend it. Since like people said, it’s slow on updates & certain sites break in it. However I’d still recommend trying it out to see if you like it.