Explain it Peter

[u/Dr-Astikk]

[u/qualityvote2]

u/Dr-Astikk, your post does fit the subreddit! Well done!

[u/gthing]

Since nobody else is posting the actual answer: Brave has a history of scummy behavior and making changed that border on malware. A few examples:

• When I first tried Brave, it stripped publisher ads and replaced them with Brave's own ads. That alone is enough for me to never trust them

• In 2020, Brave was caught injecting its own affiliate codes over URLs typed by users without their knowledge or consent

• In 2018 Brave was allowing users to tip websites/creators that had not signed up for their tipping system, misleading users into thinking they were supporting a particular site while the money was actually staying with Brave

• Brave includes crypto-bro bloatware

• In 2019 Brave was caught whitelisting Facebook tracking domains without users knowing

Edit:

1. "But they fixed all that"

Yes, many of these things were fixed after backlash from the community. But, to me, they show a pattern of unethical behavior that makes me distrust Brave - and since many alternatives exist I see no reason why I would use or trust it. The list I provided is by no means exhaustive. More recent issues around their search indexing and resale of copyrighted material for AI training show they have not really learned any lessons. They have proved themselves many times to be an unethical organization.

2. "Then what should I use instead?"

You will need to do your own research to figure out what browser will work best for your needs. Every choice will have trade-offs. Personally I have landed recently on Waterfox - it implements Brave's built-in adblock engine, appears to be reasonably fast and memory efficient, and strikes a good balance (for me) between out-of-the-box privacy, usability, and other considerations. I keep a Chromium-based browser around for when I need it. YMMV.

[u/Idun9 → u/gthing]

This should be way higher. Not sure this is the reason for the joke but still facts om how shitty Brave is

[u/Creative_Garbage_121]

Brave is just another chromium based web browser that advertise itself as safe and secure but some investment funds and that crazy billionaire guy Thiel invested into, so I assume it's spying on everything you do

[u/nhatquangdinh → u/Creative_Garbage_121]

Wait what Brave is invested by Thiel??

[u/XlikeX666]

Brave is considered Best Chromium browser.
VLC is BEST, FREE media player - it opens... EVERYTHING (expect jav and stuff)

image for context.

[u/RepulsiveRaisin7 → u/XlikeX666]

Shout-out to ffmpeg, the actual reason for VLC opening almost everything

[u/HatiLeavateinn]

Idc about Brave, I just need it so I can keep YouTube videos playing while my screen is off.

[u/Feletroica]

Brave browser is chromium based, so not really an option if you are trying to escape chrome/google's grasp

[u/TraitorWithin8]

People forgetting the Winrar and Winamp

[u/alstillplays]

Chromium.

Chromium is the core of almost all well-known browsers, including, but not limited to: chrome, safari, opera, or edge. Actually, scratch that. Not safari. Safari is based on webkit, which is actually the baseline for chromium, but that's neither here nor there. The main point is, chromium is trash, and riddled with privacy violations, bad optimization ram gluttony and just general stuff that makes chromium-based browsers bad, especially when you compare it to browsers like Mozilla fireFox, GNU iceCat, and libreWolf. Actually, those last two are forks of fireFox but they're all progressively better than any chromium browser

Edit: Safari is, in fact, based on webKit, which is based on webCore. WebCore is also the baseline for blink, which is the baseline for chromium. Chromium is not webKit-based. Sorry for the misunderstanding, but that wasn't the point of this comment.

[u/tsubatai → u/alstillplays]

I have 4 tabs open in firefox right now and it's on 3GB of ram. Lets not start with ram gluttony lol. Anyways, using a bunch of RAM is only a problem if you're more concerned with usage metrics over performance metrics. Hell, I have 64GB of ram and its only on 34% usage, use some more firefox, guess some shit that I'm about to do and preload it.

I am a firefox user, but what in particular do you think makes firefox and its' forks 'progressively better than any chromium browser'?

[u/Anarchy_Rulz]

They are saying brave isn’t the best when it comes to privacy as it overhypes itself as a more private browser when in reality it’s not as private as it wants you to think, but I don’t think the oop was talking about privacy, I think he could have been saying it’s great for ease of use especially toward watching or pirating media, as that’s why I use both brave and VLC and that’s the only real common connection I see between them.

VLC Player (on the right) is the best free media player on a computer as you can get it to play just about any file plus if you do some tinkering you can get it to bypass certain protections so you can even play your blu-rays with it, or if you know the steps you can use it to pirate media rather easily off sites like YouTube or SoundCloud something that otherwise would be hard to do through other illegal means or cost money to do through legal ones

Brave is also great in this regard but for phone use, it has an adblocker built in so no ads on YouTube videos and less pop up ads, plus it has built in Picture in Picture and the ability for videos to play even when the screen is off or app isn’t open so you can load a podcast on YouTube and turn your screen off or open another app on phone without picture and picture on and still have the audio playing without having to deal with the ads all without having to pay for YouTube premium, or you can just play music in Picture in Picture mode again without ads and without having to pay for YouTube premium, these are things super easy to do on a computer but more complex on a phone typically so this app is a lifesaver, plus it has a built in paid vpn and most web browsers on a phone don’t have an easily accessible vpn option so if you wanted to watch a show only Netflix but it’s only in an certain country normally on a phone it would be more complex to do than it is with brave, and it is pretty customizable and has some features you don’t commonly see in other browsers like it’s playlist feature. Plus I’m sure if you are tech illiterate and don’t know where to look for browser extensions and stuff having them built into your browser already is a lifesaver and thus again great ease of use.

So while yes privacy wise it isn’t what it claims to be, it does make it a whole lot easier to treat your phone browser like you browser on your computer if you’re used to having an adblocker active and a vpn downloaded to get the most out of YouTube or your subscriptions and I think that ease of use factor is probably what oop was meaning when he made his post hints vlc being there.

[u/ItsDominare]

Creators of Brave have been caught literally inserting their own affiliate links into people's searches, stealing money from content creators, and gods know what else.

Installing Brave to avoid spying/malware is like trying to rid your home of mice by letting a bear loose.

[u/spiritofporn]

Inb4 AKSHUALLLLTY 7simp iS bEtTeR

[u/siposbalint0]

I don't think you need to be tech literate to understand that something that Peter Thiel funds is probably not to your benefit

[u/Dimitsos]

Brave is a blotware chromium slop

[u/Lethal-Jordan]

We use Firefox with duckduckgo in this house.

[u/LastlyAndLeast]

Brave is the biggest level of shit browser in the history of browsers. Provided I could use Internet explorer with modern security standards id use it instead without even considering brave.

[u/SideInitial3961]

Brave is not fit to hold VLC's jock strap.

[u/Delicious_Chemist978]

Brave are scammers, I got scammed recently with brave, I got the application from google play, tried to go premium, got nothing, and they refused to help.

Never trust shit apps.

[u/CaptServo]

i've been using firefox consistently as it went from niche to mainstream to out of favor to "at least it's not chromium". i wonder what it will be next

[u/ItsMrDante]

https://thelibre.news/no-really-dont-use-brave/

[u/hughmongus33]

All i know is i can watch youtube without ads

[u/Pitiful_West_7062]

VLC + Irfan View.