fwiw there are a handful of changes marked with //BRACE and //MULL
like disabling JIT
it matches the same as what is in Mull
5 Likes
Just saw the comments in the file now. My bad for missing it. But this does raise a couple of questions for me:
If user runs Brace after they have already configured arkenfox, would this override it?
If yes, are the changes made under //brace and //mull comment not detectable/significant enough to break fingerprinting pattern? Because ultimately the idea of Mullvad and Arkenfox seems to be to make every user look exactly the same (and there is discussion on limiting the number of settings available to the end user). Also some of the changes like sanitize on shutdown being disabled by default seem to stray too far away from what MB and arkenfox intends to be.
What are your thoughts on adding a disclaimer for users who might have already configured arkenfox (and wish to retain it) but also want to use Brace to warn them that it will override their existing user js?
Thanks for the help again!
Tor/Mullvad Browser, yes.
Arkenfox, no, it is just a template.
Mull, yes, with other Mull users of similar enough devices.
Brace, yes, with other Brace users.
Brace doesnât intend to be 1:1 with arkenfox, again arkenfox is intended as a template and meant to be customized as appropriate.
Brace is meant to provide some level of desktop equivalent of DivestOS/Mull but on Fedora & Arch.
Brace adds its Firefox changes to the system path so the user path will still take precedence. But users shouldnât be using anything extra.
You should still be using Tor/Mullvad browser in addition to braced Firefox/Mull where appropriate.
As far as numbers game:
- Brace probably has <100 users.
- Mull on the other hand has 10s of thousands. Hard to measure without any telemetry, but here are download counts solely from F-Droid.org, no mirrors or DivestOS.org.
(other F-Droid app stats are here F-Droid Stats - DivestOS Mobile)
Last edit: While I use/prefer Braced Firefox, Iâm not necessarily recommending others do.
Mullvad Browser is a really good choice for those who want privacy hardened Firefox.
Iâd likely drop Mull if they brought it to Android and it was FOSS.
9 Likes
Makes sense. Thanks the clarification.
Fingerprinting resistance does rely on crowds though. Donât you think making divergence from templates used by MB or default arkenfox (depending on if you want private browsing mode or not), braced Firefox would actually stand out a bit?
I was thinking along the lines that itâs better to make default brace preferences similar to other larger projects to provide a large enough crowd?
Of course, this is less technical, and more âwhy not do thisâ from me. Fingerprint resistance is finicky asf, and probably nothing less than Tor browser at safest can actually grant some semblance of it.
Are these unique downloads or just a aggregate count of hits on server? If itâs the latter, wouldnât the actual number be substantially lower, since a lot of users whoâd use Mull would also be users who experiment and move around a lot, and thus do more hits on the server each time they switch back? So the actual crowd to hide in would probably be in thousands, maybe even hundreds once you divide by device (since no letterboxing to prevent diversity)
Those are apk downloads from F-Droid.org, each peak largely corresponds with a new release.
And again that is only from F-Droid.org, not their other twenty mirror servers or the seven DivestOS.org repo mirrors.
I donât see why users would uninstall/reinstall repeatedly.
I have no intent changing them from what they are currently, you can even see my reasons why next to the changes. Theyâve been stable across Brace/Mull for a few years now.
Disabling the JIT is extremely valuable and even for Tor/Mullvad users I recommend using Safer at the very minimum.
Like Brace & Mull are probably the only Firefox variants currently enabling Kyber support, that is fingerprintable, but it is also beneficial enough to justify the change.
Ultimately Brace & Mull do not intend to be a replacement for complete solutions like Tor Browser.
2 Likes
Ah, got it. Thanks again for all the hand holding, I am not really a Firefox power user, more chromium 
Must just be me then 
Brace does also provide changes to Chromium here fwiw: brace/brace/etc/chromium/policies/managed/brace.json at master - divested/brace - Codeberg.org
1 Like
I prefer to not diverge from my current settings, but thanks for heads up!
Could you break this down a little bit more. I was looking at brace the other day, trying to understand the difference between:
- ~/firefox/distribution/policies.json
- ~/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences/*.js
Desktop: Mullvad browser, nothing else unless the site breaks with FireFox.
Android: unfortunately, Brave. Canât find a better one. But I seriously donât expect much from android browsers, since all phones are basically horrible for privacy.
iOS: Safari
Brave as this just covers most of my needs. Chrome for business side of things.
I appreciate your reply!
Itâd be great if you could mention the browsers you use since Firefox and Chrome are the only players in town at this point.
I was looking at a browser that is built from the bottom up and itâs only being released in 2025 and that doesnât even include a Windows releaseâŚ
One BIG thing nobody has mentioned:
Google itself uses beta versions of Linux for its OWN servers. This is where I got the idea of beta versions of web browsers being more secure.
Google has multiple teams of security experts that are working full time. Regular users donât have that.
3 Likes
I use Mullvad for general browsing.
I use Firefox without extensions for sites that I logon with. One profile for each website.
I use Brave for whatever sites that are broken in Mullvad.
For mobile I go by Vanadium for logged in sites and Brave for general browsing.
Also I will look into Mull because @SkewedZeppelin is an interesting guy and I appreciate his work.
3 Likes
I appreciate your reply!
Itâd be great if you could mention the browsers you use since Firefox and Chrome are the only two options I can see, other than of course the Chromium forks and Firefox forks.
This probably deserves another thread, but is this still the most reliable source?
Does PrivacyGuides recommend this:
Arenât the users again divided among security levels (Standard, safer and safest)?
May be due to firefox sync issues.
being provided as a simple boolean toggle for process services by the OS
Iâd just like to clarify setting this is far from simple, the services need to be explicitly developed with it in mind, and Mozilla did not do that from the start.
It is still absolutely bullshit that Mozilla has not cared to push forward Fission or isolatedProcess on Android for six years now.
8 Likes
cromite (its multi platform rn), becaue:
- chromium based.
- indie
- Independently maintained chromium based browser, better than brave? ungoogled chromium ainât multi platform, edge canât run on ARM linux.
Yes, programs have to be designed with sandboxing in mind. Itâs amazing that Android already had isolatedProcess for web content in Android 4.1. (2012!) and ridiculous that Mozilla didnât get it done to develop a proper sandbox on by far the most used OS in the world for 12 years.
7 Likes