Alt-Tech Spotlight: Brave

In the modern world with the internet, pretty much everyone uses a web browser. It’s become one of the biggest pieces of software on everyone’s computer. Because of this, it’s easy to see that whatever we choose will be important for our online experience.

I’ve gone through quite a few over the years always trying to find the best for me. I started with Firefox, then moved onto Waterfox when the prior didn’t have 64-bit support. I moved over to Chrome for a few months as it was the most popular browser, still is as of writing this. Finally Pale Moon became my go to due to privacy concerns. Nowadays I have multiple browsers for different web browsing needs, but my main one has been Brave.

I started using Brave over a year ago, when they started supporting Chrome extensions. Before, I found that it was fairly limiting with the lack of extensions, especially for using ad blockers, though the browser comes with its own solution.

With the desire of people for software alternative, web browsers are absolutely at the top of that list. For the record, I consider the mainstream options to be Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. But looking at the numbers, it’s pretty much Chrome.

So with Brave generally being considered a pretty big alternative these days, and being a user for the last year. I wanted to take a closer look to see if for anyone reading this, that Brave should be their browser of choice.

Performance

The browser isn’t slow by any metric. Not a surprise given that it uses the Chromium engine, the same that powers Chrome. Loading it up takes no time at all, probably 3 seconds at most when I start my computer up, then much quicker after that.

Pretty much most website work with this browser and I very rarely have to switch over to my backups. Unsurprising since this is based on Chromium, which is the most used backend for internet users. It’s an expectation these days that if you’re an owner to a site, that it works with it. This is a plus from a usability standpoint, but there is a pitfall that I’ll get to later.

Playing videos has been pretty pain free for me as well. Note, that my internet speed is usually 20 Megabits per second. However using a site like YouTube or Bitchute, I never need to buffer even at 4K settings.

User Experience

There’s not much a web browser needs to do to make me happy. I prefer simple over trying to give the user too many options and settings to tweak upfront. At the same time, I’d like the advance features to be accessible to those that want it.

Brave (Or rather Chromium) does a solid job at this, keeping the interface clean and simple to not overwhelm the user. Yet at the same time, there are tools and settings to give it some personal touches. The default options are probably ok for people that are coming from Chrome and like its defaults. But chance are that for most people reading this are going to want to change a lot of the settings as the defaults are not what I would recommend. Thankfully it’s easy to access settings and change things with minimal things being only changed in the “flags” section.

Other than that, there’s not much else I think needs to be added. If you know what Chrome is, then the transition to Brave should be relatively simple.

Extras

There’s three major things that should be discussed about Brave if you’re considering this to replace your current web browser. The first is their “BAT” project. For those that don’t know, this is their attempt at a cryptocurrency that they hope can pave the way to funding content creators and allow people to not be blasted with ads. There’s a lot about it that I’d recommend one check out on if that’s something they can get behind. [1]

For me, I have it active. However it never feels like there’s much in it. There’s needs to be more adoption for it, otherwise it’s rather useless for a way for creators to get funding. There’s also the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of it’s implementation, as I can’t set it to auto-contribute the website I want to have set up.

The second is the “Brave Shields”. Basically their ad blocker solution, but it also comes with fingerprint protection, converting HTTP to HTTPS, cookie blocking, and script blocking. It can be configured on a per-site basis as well. It sounds like a good thing, and in practice I’ve generally had no problems with it on while browsing. Though it’s not perfect as some ads seems to be able to get through, so getting a second adblocker is a good idea.

Finally, there’s the problem with privacy. I think this is a big deal breaker for most people reading, but Brave is fairly mediocre about keeping your information private. I recommend checking this site for specific details [2]. Though I can add that this is why I tweaked my settings as much as I did. Unlike other projects based on Chromium, Brave makes no mention, nor any attempt, to remove itself from Google.

It’s BAT program is another point of weakness, as part of it includes allowing “acceptable” ads. Something that was a bit of some controversy with the popular Ad Block Plus extension. You can’t even turn off the auto-updates, meaning that the browser will always check every time you start it up.

So in summery, I think the Brave web browser is a solid alternative to Chrome. If you don’t care about the privacy concerns and the BAT program is interesting to you, then I’d say give it a shot. However, I think that most people should look elsewhere for a browser that can fit their needs better if they are on the lookout for alternatives. And people that I think this browser targets the best, are already pretty content with Chrome.

Sources:
1: https://brave.com/brave-rewards/ | https://archive.fo/ffJ6h
2: https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html | https://archive.fo/nv52h