New browsers....

[GabeU]

@MarkJFine 

You're pretty knowledgeable about this kind of stuff.  If you've read about them or just aware of them, what do you think of the "Brave" Browser and the new Microsoft Edge, which is now Chromium based.  

I downloaded and tried both of them, but I didn't see a whole lot of difference.  Though Brave is supposed to be good, I'm not very familiar with it, so I don't now whether I should trust it like I do Chrome, even though it's Chromium based as well.  

I do trust Edge, though my Kaspersky extension doesn't yet work with it (or Brave) like it does in Chrome.  All of my other Chrome extensions work perfectly with it.  

Just wanted to get your opinion, if you have one.

If anyone else has tried either one, or both, what do you think?  

[maratsade]

I've used both the new Edge and Brave. I still prefer Firefox and Chrome. 

[GabeU]

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@maratsade wrote:

I've used both the new Edge and Brave. I still prefer Firefox and Chrome. 

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I pretty much use Chrome as my primary and Firefox as my secondary.  Sometimes I've got to help my stepfather with things on the net, like ordering something, but using his account with the website, and I use Firefox for that.  Everything I do for me is done with Chrome.

[MarkJFine]

From a user's persepctive, it's good to have choices.

From a web security perspective, it's a nightmare. Hackers have taken the approach of using valid browser strings in an attempt to pass themselves off as valid users. Except the scripts they use them are often old, and therefore the browser version is also old. So I've taken the bold approach of blocking versions of Chrome, Firefox, etc. that are a few versions old (sidenote: Google has apparently halted Firefox, now up to v72 to get past v69 on Android phones in order to play favorites with Chrome... #evil).

Honestly, I think it's a security approach that eventually will catch on as more and more sites get hacked to become botnet and spam servers. So depending upon how Brave and Edge can keep up... it will either kill the internet by making it a cesspool of bots, or kill Brave or Edge as my security approach catches on.

As for Kaspersky... How's it feel to providing intel to the Kremlin? lol... I stopped using that long ago.

[maratsade]

It seems like there's no security anywhere and that the intertubes are crawling with spies and hackers, no matter what one does or uses.  Is the only way  to win not to play?  What browser and security suite would you recommend, Mark?

[MarkJFine]

Either Firefox or Chrome are fine for every day use. Some browsers provide pseudo-vpn privacy (like Opera), but it would just slow you down because you're basically going through the browser's gateway server. Not real sure of the privacy you're getting when a third party (i.e., the browser's gateway) can track you just fine.

[GabeU]

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@MarkJFine wrote:

As for Kaspersky... How's it feel to providing intel to the Kremlin? lol... I stopped using that long ago.

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Eh, I'm not buying into the whole "Kaspersky is spying on you for Russia" claims.  I've read about what they've been accused of, and some of it may very well be true, but it doesn't concern me when it comes to my home internet.  

With that said, when another company creates a decent cloud based AV service that's easy on resources, doesn't cost an arm and a leg and has a good reputation, I'll consider changing to it.  I had used Webroot AV for many years, but it recently started causing terrible lagging issues with Windows 10 on my Inspiron laptop and my new Ryzen build (the Ryzen build from the start), so I had to go another way.  Windows Defender isn't good enough, so I went with Kaspersky.  I won't use AVG or Avast, as they're both far too resource hungry and use a lot more data, and I stay completely away from Norton due to having had nothing but bad experiences with them, save for the Power Eraser.