Cromite a Bromite fork with ad blocking and privacy enhancements; take back your browser! - uazo/cromite
Since it looks like Firefox might not be a good option for the long haul due to some disappointing decisions from its management, I’m on the lookout for privacy-friendly alternatives. I came across Cromite, which is based on Chromium and has an ad blocker. Has anyone tried it? From what I’ve seen, the built-in ad blocker seems pretty basic and not very customizable. Still, I think any alternative we choose should be based on Chromium, especially if we don’t want to wait ages for Ladybird.
I use cromite, and it’s good, but the adblocker is unable to handle the more aggressive popups and ads, whereas firefox + uBO does fine.
Thus, cromite is my main browser and I use firefox for… other stuff. This setup is mainly because I’m too lazy to install Mull or another firefox based browser to be my main option.
I heard that Cromite is shady, and recommendations pro Brave instead.
I cant find the sources, this topic is really complicated, brave is shady too.
Which is crazy as Brave is so much more bloated.
Mulch is a based browser for regular Android, close behind Vanadium in features and release cadence, but without patches that break regular Android and only work on GrapheneOS.
Bromite used to be the only non-built-in browser recommended by GrapheneOS, and I’ve not seen anything bad posted since it became Cromite. Apparently Firefox on Android still doesn’t have site isolation so it’s still a toss-up between security and the ominous shadow of Google.
It didnt become Cromite. Bromite was abandoned and a single person or a couple regular maintainer forked it and created Cromite, embedding code from AdBlockPlus etc.
I recently shifted from Firefox based Browsers.
I’m currently testing cromite.
One issue is it’s ad blocker is not that perfect. It has easy list as it’s main blacklist.
I think it would be really nice if they add ublock origin , ad guard or other blocklist.
Though I added next dns as secure dns in the Browser . it has all the blocklist i need
People have been jumping ship for a decade, and it hasn’t helped. They’ll probably have to sink first, and by then it might be too late if someone else has filled the void.
I, for one, won’t be coming back if it comes to that.
I used both Cromite and Brave. Ended up using Brave (disabling all the crypto things) since it offers better handling in ad blocks and anti fingerprint.
Mozilla is adopting a ton of the things that were wrong with Brave. Recently, Brave criticized Mozilla’s PPA data collection for being too centralized, which implies to me that otherwise, there’s a lot of overlap between the two allegedly “private” systems. I don’t trust Brave telemetry, but it seems not even they can come up with many ways to differentiate themselves from Mozilla.
If they’re different somehow, I would love to know how.
In a way other than accrued trust or distrust, that is. At this point, I don’t think Mozilla is owed any inherent trust.
Did I ever talk about Mozilla? Who said Mozilla or stock Firefox was good? They’re ass.
Mozilla is ass and stock firefox is worse than stock chrome. I wouldn’t use Librewolf if it wasn’t for the monopoly and ublock origin support. Not because Librewolf is bad but because I know that Firefox’s security sucks and Gecko is slow indeed, but now not even privacy focused chromium browsers are an option because of manifest v3, great. At this point, I am hoping for Ladybird to be something to look forward to, because even the alternative to chromium is shit.
Brave is not any better. It should be obvious for anyone enough to understand how shady brave devs are, when they:
The ones that you refer to is for them to make money. Ok so why is that bad? Do you pay to use their browser? No. Are they funded by Google like Mozilla is? No. Does this tactic interfere with your browsing since you can disable these shit? No.
I’m not defending Brave at all but one should be criticizing objectively.
Ladybird is at least 2 years out from any production version. And they still have funding I think.
So comparing all browser I believe they least shit is Brave. Librewolf is fine too and in terms of speed it’s not that far behind and in real life no one will give a shit or even notice. It all comes down to usability in the browsing experience.
Justifying url injections for money?
Ads are one thing, but anyone that knew that their browser was “secretly” injecting stuff into the url would be creeped the hell out. I don’t see how this browser is private at all.
No argument from me there. I didn’t mean to come across this argumentative, I just wanted to point it out here because of the context of this post (someone looking to move away from Firefox). And because, to me, ad telemetry still is a black box.
I use it every day and I never had problems with it. It’s pretty OK.but I would like to have something more powerful like Unblock Origin which is available on Firefox for android but the performance is not that good and I didn’t like how it worked
It is an important hardening feature, but the browser isn’t completely insecure without it assuming it is up-to-date and that you aren’t on the receiving end of targeted/zero-day attacks. Furthermore (in Chromium) with isolated renderer processes there is still some inherent attack surface of the main process that can allow a single exploit, just like in Firefox.
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TL;DR: Yes.
I use Iceraven with UBO on my android devices.
Mull and Fennec are way more obvious android browsers to switch to if Firefox doesnt meet your privacy needs/concerns.
for now yes, but what I’m arguing is that they might not be in the long run
Lolno.
I use cromite, and it’s good, but the adblocker is unable to handle the more aggressive popups and ads, whereas firefox + uBO does fine.
Thus, cromite is my main browser and I use firefox for… other stuff. This setup is mainly because I’m too lazy to install Mull or another firefox based browser to be my main option.
I heard that Cromite is shady, and recommendations pro Brave instead.I cant find the sources, this topic is really complicated, brave is shady too.
Which is crazy as Brave is so much more bloated.
Mulch is a based browser for regular Android, close behind Vanadium in features and release cadence, but without patches that break regular Android and only work on GrapheneOS.
What have you heard about Cromite which makes it more shady than Brave!?
This is what they mean I think
https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/111966180001152300
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/10550-mull-hardened-firefox-security/61
Oh wow, not ideal
Honestly somewhere in GrapheneOS forums but I was not alble to find it.
Just that they embed code for their adblocking engine that is by ABP. Which may be fair, may be not.
GrapheneOS people recommend Brave, but no idea why, apart from the privacy advantages over Vanadium.
That logic makes absolutely no sense. Look into Google before you take issue with Mozilla.
i get where you are coming from but right now i am more mad at mozilla xD
Keep your eye on the prize. Google and Mozilla aren’t even in the same area code of shit. Firefox is the obvious answer.
Why?
No
Bromite used to be the only non-built-in browser recommended by GrapheneOS, and I’ve not seen anything bad posted since it became Cromite. Apparently Firefox on Android still doesn’t have site isolation so it’s still a toss-up between security and the ominous shadow of Google.
No content blocker = no security. (Not quite no, but it’s very critical.)
Fortunately I think they both have content blocking available. Also I set my private DNS to block ads in every app.
It didnt become Cromite. Bromite was abandoned and a
single person or a coupleregular maintainer forked it and created Cromite, embedding code from AdBlockPlus etc.The guy who forked it (uazo)was a regular maintainer of bromite
Well that is another pro Cromite.
I will remove the comment then, as I honestly couldnt find anything making it better than Chrome
Yeah I know, I think a project dying and continuing as a fork still counts though
You can add any filter list you want to it. You can also use GreaseMonkey user scripts.
I still prefer Mull, but I keep Cromite installed
I recently shifted from Firefox based Browsers. I’m currently testing cromite. One issue is it’s ad blocker is not that perfect. It has easy list as it’s main blacklist. I think it would be really nice if they add ublock origin , ad guard or other blocklist. Though I added next dns as secure dns in the Browser . it has all the blocklist i need
So i just found that you can add custom filters . i added stevenblack You guys can also try it https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts
FYI this increases your fingerprintability
How actually
Well, let’s see what happens first. If we’ll be able to disable all the junk, it’ll be okay.
I still wanna support diversity among browser engines.
i think it’s better to jump ship now so that they get scared and stop the enshitification early before it s too late
Yeah, I don’t think that’s possible. 😅
People have been jumping ship for a decade, and it hasn’t helped. They’ll probably have to sink first, and by then it might be too late if someone else has filled the void.
I, for one, won’t be coming back if it comes to that.
I used both Cromite and Brave. Ended up using Brave (disabling all the crypto things) since it offers better handling in ad blocks and anti fingerprint.
Brave is shady crypto infested spyware.
It’s turned off by default
If you are referring to the crypto side of things you can easily disable them. I don’t see any spyware TBH.
If you look up what they have done in the past, you’ll know.
Mozilla is adopting a ton of the things that were wrong with Brave. Recently, Brave criticized Mozilla’s PPA data collection for being too centralized, which implies to me that otherwise, there’s a lot of overlap between the two allegedly “private” systems. I don’t trust Brave telemetry, but it seems not even they can come up with many ways to differentiate themselves from Mozilla.
If they’re different somehow, I would love to know how.
In a way other than accrued trust or distrust, that is. At this point, I don’t think Mozilla is owed any inherent trust.
Did I ever talk about Mozilla? Who said Mozilla or stock Firefox was good? They’re ass. Mozilla is ass and stock firefox is worse than stock chrome. I wouldn’t use Librewolf if it wasn’t for the monopoly and ublock origin support. Not because Librewolf is bad but because I know that Firefox’s security sucks and Gecko is slow indeed, but now not even privacy focused chromium browsers are an option because of manifest v3, great. At this point, I am hoping for Ladybird to be something to look forward to, because even the alternative to chromium is shit.
Brave is not any better. It should be obvious for anyone enough to understand how shady brave devs are, when they:
The ones that you refer to is for them to make money. Ok so why is that bad? Do you pay to use their browser? No. Are they funded by Google like Mozilla is? No. Does this tactic interfere with your browsing since you can disable these shit? No.
I’m not defending Brave at all but one should be criticizing objectively.
Ladybird is at least 2 years out from any production version. And they still have funding I think.
So comparing all browser I believe they least shit is Brave. Librewolf is fine too and in terms of speed it’s not that far behind and in real life no one will give a shit or even notice. It all comes down to usability in the browsing experience.
Justifying url injections for money? Ads are one thing, but anyone that knew that their browser was “secretly” injecting stuff into the url would be creeped the hell out. I don’t see how this browser is private at all.
No argument from me there. I didn’t mean to come across this argumentative, I just wanted to point it out here because of the context of this post (someone looking to move away from Firefox). And because, to me, ad telemetry still is a black box.
All good.
I use it every day and I never had problems with it. It’s pretty OK.but I would like to have something more powerful like Unblock Origin which is available on Firefox for android but the performance is not that good and I didn’t like how it worked
Have u tried mull? Ive had no problems with it so far.
It has site isolation problem and it’s slow 😮💨 . it used to be my favourite
https://divestos.org/pages/browsers
Same here.