It’s been twenty-three years since the day Phoenix was released, the web browser that eventually became Firefox. I downloaded it on the first day and installed it on my trusty HP Omnibook 800 laptop, and until this year I’ve used it ever since. Yet after all this time, I’m ready to abandon it for another browser. In the previous article in this series I went into my concerns over the direction being taken by Mozilla with respect to their inclusion of AI features and my worries about privacy in Firefox, and I explained why a plurality of browser engines is important for the Web. Now it’s time to follow me on my search for a replacement, and you may be surprised by one aspect of my eventual choice.
Where Do I Go From Here?
Happily for my own purposes, there are a range of Firefox alternatives which fulfill my browser needs without AI cruft and while allowing me to be a little more at peace with my data security and privacy. There’s Chromium of course even if it’s still way too close to Google for my liking, and there are a host of open-source WebKit and Blink based browsers too numerous to name here.
In the Gecko world that should be an easier jump for a Firefox escapee there are also several choices, for example LibreWolf, and Waterfox. In terms of other browser engines there’s the extremely promising but still early in development Ladybird, and the more mature Servo, which though it is available as a no-frills browser, bills itself as an embedded browser engine. I have not considered some other projects that are either lightweight browser engines, or ones not under significant active development.
Over this summer and autumn then I have tried a huge number of different browsers. Every month or so I build the latest Ladybird and Servo; while I am hugely pleased to see progress they’re both still too buggy for my purposes. Servo is lightning-fast but sometimes likes to get stuck in mobile view, while Ladybird is really showing what it’s going to be but remains for now slow-as-treacle. These are ones to watch, and support.
I gave LibreWolf and Waterfox the most attention over the summer, both of which after the experience I’d describe as like Firefox but with mildly annoying bugs. The inability to video conference reliably is a show-stopper in my line of work, and since my eyesight is no longer what it once was I like my browsers to remember when I have zoomed in on a tab. Meanwhile Waterfox on Android is a great mobile browser, right up until it needs to open a link in another app, and fails. I’m used to the quirks of open-source software after 30+ years experimenting with Linux, but when it comes to productivity I can’t let my software disrupt the flow of Hackaday articles.
The Unexpected Choice
It might surprise you after all this open-source enthusiasm then, to see the browser I’ve ended up comfortable with. Vivaldi may be driven by the open-source Blink engine from Chromium and Chrome, but its proprietary front end doesn’t have an open-source licence.
It’s freeware, or free-as-in-beer, and I think the only such software I use. Why, I hear you ask? It’s an effort to produce a browser like Opera used to be in the old days, it’s European which is a significant consideration when it comes to data protection law, and it has (so far) maintained a commitment to privacy while not being evil in the Google motto sense.
It’s quick, I like its interface once the garish coloured default theme has been turned off, and above all, it Just Works. I have my browser back, and I can get on with writing. Should they turn evil I can dump them without a second thought, and hope by then Ladybird has matured enough to suit my needs.
It may not be a trend many of us particularly like, but here in 2025 there’s a sense that the browser has reduced our computers almost to the status of a terminal. It’s thus perhaps the most important piece of software on the device, and in that light I hope you can understand some of the concerns levelled in this series. If you’re reading this from Firefox HQ I’d implore you to follow my advice and go back to what made Firefox so great back in the day, but for the rest of you I’d like to canvass your views on my choice of a worthy replacement. As always, the comments are waiting.
I will try Waterfox, sounds interesting enough.
I find Brave pretty good. The built in adblocker is brilliant. I haven’t seen a single ad on YouTube and a lot of news websites since I switched.
Been on Waterfox for a good while now and quite happy with it.
I found Vivaldi interesting, but I don’t want to be on Chromium, and I’d miss Sidebery, the Firefox extension I use for tabs.
I don’t like that Vivaldi isn’t FOSS, but I get their reasoning. Most of their work is front-end, since it’s Chromium-based…which brings me back around to “I really don’t want to be on Chromium”.
I can’t imagine Mozilla has a (good) future though, so Ladybird and Servo sound interesting. I will follow those projects.
Unfortunately, Ladybird is run by some real asshats. There’s a reason they left/got pushed out of the SerenityOS project.
I really hope Servo succeeds, but I doubt it will ever secure enough funding for that.
For the time being, I would just switch to one of those Gecko‑based browsers.
“In the Gecko world that should be an easier jump for a Firefox escapee”
I don’t understand that. Why does anyone care which rendering engine they’re using? Why would you want continuity of rendering engine? What am i missing?
Interesting, I don’t understand why someone wouldn’t understand that.
I do care about rendering engine. To me, it’s self-explaining that diversity matters.
Otherwise, there might be a monopoly and no progress anymore (new concepts).
Because of the monoculture issue. If everyone is using the same engine, which comes from Google, they’re all playing second fiddle with Chrome. That means Google can call the tune and everyone else plays along, or tries and fails, which drives users towards Chrome instead.
Remember the triple-E?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace%2C_extend%2C_and_extinguish
Yes, but if you came along with an error message like “your site behaves poorly with my unusual browser”, what kind of response would you expect?
Each web service development takes effort. In terms of economy that’s “money” which has to be earned first. It’s nice and good and I love it when people try to not feed the dragons. But choosing a different browser because of its engine does not provide any economical or political change.
There is a change if you use a browser that does not phone home. The rendering engine choice itself has no effect on the big players. Not using chrome or safari and maybe also FF cuts of the data steal, and that’s what may make a difference.
Conclusion:
As a consumer I’m OK with using a privacy-optimized chromium whatever.
As a developer I switch between many browsers anyway.
because if their is only google chrome google would likely close the source to chromium and pretty much own the internet at that point even more than they already do
I also switched to Vivaldi a few months ago and have been generally happy with it. Adblockers work well as well as the plugins I need for daily work. I tried Opera but had problems with both of these. It has a large number of easily tunable settings. A lot of FF settings were hidden in its “registry editor”, and not easy to navigate and/or discover. For now, Vivaldi seems fine, I’ll stick with it for a while.
“I went into my concerns over the direction being taken by Mozilla with respect to their inclusion of AI features and my worries about privacy in Firefox”
You said as much here as you did there which is basically saying they existed with no details as to why or what they are.
Anyone knows how to import my profile from Firefox Portable to Waterfox Portable? I tried copying the data folder over but that doesn’t work.
You hardly touch on the multitude of reasons to use Vivaldi:
wonderful customisability out of the box
privacy features
no AI/crypto/flavour-of-the-month bullshit
non profit organisation with a good ethos and track record
Software as good as this gives me faith in society, it’s very close to perfection.
I’ve been using Vivaldi for a good 3 or 4 years now. Have had no issues whatsoever with it.
The team behind it are great and the community is awesome too, if there are any questions, the folks on the forum are pretty much always able to help.
I’ve been using Vivaldi from before Internet Explorer was replaced by Edge, so over 6 years now. I chose it as an alternative to IE which I never liked (being a web developer at the time) and Chrome which was/is a bloated PoS and too tied to Google. Vivaldi is quick and compatible and I’ve remained happy with it ever since. That’s on my PC. On my Mac I stick to Safari as I’m happy with its privacy features.
Long ago switched from Firefox to opera and most chrome forks, including Vivaldi and Brave, by the moment I stay on Brave as it provides everything except a non-chromium engine, particularly it’s crypto wallet (but I recommend disabled all other annoying crypto stuff) it’s safer (paired with supported hw wallet) , has pretty good ad blocking is fast and light on ram (Firefox it’s an huge heavy ram hog), I’ve tried Vivaldi but besides it’s relative cleanness and speed is not better than Brave, and they used to stand an anti-crypto stance enough to red flag the project (later they removed it from blogs), btw I’m not bad at Brendan Eich , I’m not challenged by his political POV, bu I really enjoy Brave (just disabled the annoying unwanted crypto stuff except it’s integrated wallet if you need it of course, but always rely on hw wallet, never type your seed at anything internet connected).
I’m so sorry on Firefox and Mozilla’s disastrous mismanagement.
I have been following Vivaldi since the first posts on their blog, as an attempt to resurrect Opera as it once was, but with Chromium engine. As I loved Opera back in the day, and Chromium was compatible with almost everything, I believed it would be a good product. I installed the first public release, a pre-beta release and it quickly replaced Firefox as my daily driver.
When they released the Android version, it instantly became my main browser too.
Firefox stopped working right when I clicked radio streams on Public Radio Fan with my phone I poked around and found the Naked Browser. This was a few years ago before the great Play Store deletion. Not only stripped down but fast as a streaker in a parade. It’s white text on black not a single icon or graphic do-dad, looks something like Hackaday as well as close to low vision accessible.
You have to APK it to your phone now, a rabbit hole I’ve yet to go down. I don’t like the current Firefox on my phone, desktop is OK. So another bunny house visit awaits me.
Yet another “this is the one!” browser? No thanks. I think I’ll stick to qutebrowser. Once you train yourself to use vim keybinds, nothing else will ever feel right again. If you’re up for it, give it a whack. Faster workflows with follow hinting and quick hits with console operations? Yes. I rarely ever use my trackball for browsing anymore.
Give DuckDuckgo a try. I loaded Vivaldi and went to a website that I know has adds. Behold – adds. DDG – no adds. Ghostery in Firefox and Opera gets rid of adds. I’ll keep trying Vivaldi for a little while.