[HN Gopher] Bromite: A Privacy-Enhanced Chromium Fork for Android
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       Bromite: A Privacy-Enhanced Chromium Fork for Android
        
       Author : xook
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2021-02-14 19:47 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bromite.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bromite.org)
        
       | guerrilla wrote:
       | Why would I want to use this over Kiwi with uBlock Origin and
       | whatnot?
        
         | kingo55 wrote:
         | It's a plain chromium fork with open source code. There's no
         | funny business about changing how a browser should work, like
         | putting the address bar at the bottom. And the ad blocker in it
         | is native - No need for additional extensions.
        
           | StavrosK wrote:
           | > There's no funny business about changing how a browser
           | should work, like putting the address bar at the bottom.
           | 
           | Damn those pesky innovations! Browser bars should be at the
           | top, where they've been since before phones, where it's much
           | easier to reach the bottom than the top!
        
           | SecurityLagoon wrote:
           | As mentioned this is configurable on Firefox but besides that
           | it also makes it so much nicer for one handed usage. Reaching
           | right up the top of the screen is really awkward one handed.
        
           | Mediterraneo10 wrote:
           | The location of the address bar in Firefox for Android is
           | configurable.
        
         | betwixthewires wrote:
         | I use both. I use Kiwi with a range of extensions to block JS
         | and trackers and all that, but I also use bromite for when I
         | need to run something like a web app, it is easier than
         | fiddling with extensions sometimes. Also I get some rendering
         | issues in kiwi from time to time even with all extensions
         | turned off.
         | 
         | Bromite has some great privacy centric features baked in, and
         | google cruft removed. I'm not sure kiwi does. If bromite had
         | extension support it would be perfect.
        
       | feanaro wrote:
       | I'm curious on some thoughts regarding how this compares with
       | Firefox for Android. I'm a happy user of it. Firefox Sync is
       | particularly nice as it allows me to sync my tabs between the
       | desktop and my phone. I feel like syncing through Mozilla is a
       | distinct advantage than going through Google for privacy reasons.
       | 
       | Taking this into account, are there any advantages of Bromite?
       | Why would someone prefer it over Firefox?
        
         | riedel wrote:
         | It provides a webview. Would love to have a Firefox one.
        
         | CameronNemo wrote:
         | Compatibility, better performance
         | 
         | Disclaimer: happy Firefox on android user
        
         | brmgb wrote:
         | I used Bromite for a while and went back to Firefox with
         | Ublock. From my experience, the privacy enhancement breaks
         | enough websites to negatively counter balance the compatibility
         | benefit of being Chrome based. Of course, you might view things
         | differently if you actually value said enhancements.
        
       | qwerty456127 wrote:
       | Now as we have a free Chromium build on Mobile, can we also have
       | extensions support? AFAIK original Chrome has extensions support
       | built-in but disabled at build time. Yandex has built a fork with
       | extensions enabled but it seems even less trustworthy than Google
       | itself.
        
       | unknown_abyss wrote:
       | I was very impressed with its anti fingerprinting measures. Also
       | the always incognito function is excellent.
        
       | relieferator wrote:
       | If you use this on android it won't pull your bookmarks out of
       | chrome. To get your bookmarks, go to a PC, export your bookmarks
       | (nearly impossible to export on android) and then drop into
       | online storage like Drive. Then go back to your andriod > Drive >
       | download bookmarks.html file, open Bromite > bookmarks > Import >
       | point to downloaded .html file
        
       | DlSGUSTING wrote:
       | Is this any better than Vanadium?
        
       | aussieguy1234 wrote:
       | Personally I use Firefox with Ghostery on Android. I'll use this
       | for YouTube instead of the official client and it works pretty
       | well. Videos are much better without every 5 mins of video
       | serving up an ad.
        
       | proszkinasenne2 wrote:
       | Anything based on Chromium is vulnerable to all specialised
       | fingerprinting techniques such as this one
       | https://niespodd.github.io/persistent-tracking-shader-cache/ and
       | many others that I listed here
       | https://github.com/niespodd/browser-fingerprinting
       | 
       | Some parts of Chromium seem to be intentionally exposing
       | fingerprinting surfaces and, because its changing quickly with
       | new features and addons, keeping up with patches like Bromite
       | does is incredibly challenging task
        
       | betwixthewires wrote:
       | Bromite needs extension support and it becomes the perfect
       | browser for Android. Unfortunately the maintainer does not want
       | that on his plate, and is willing to pull extension support so
       | long as someone else maintains that part of the project.
       | Understandable of course.
       | 
       | Kiwi Browser is open source and does have extension support, so
       | the heavy lifting is done. It would be nice if someone picked
       | this problem up and maintained it.
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-14 23:00 UTC)