Why do Linux distros tend to prefer firefox?

The Water Cooler
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1

I actually wonder is there any reason to distributions using firefox by default over anything else?

Make no mistake back in the day it made a heck of a lot more sense with Chrome being a google project. But these days there are many chromium forks, that are far more private. Some of them arguably better by default than firefox(not to mention the soft firefox forks that tend to be better than firefox in that regard).

Is it a practical reason or an ideological reason?

Also what browser do you use?

  • Firefox
  • Google Chrome
  • Brave
  • Chromium(Other)
  • Firefox(Other)
  • Webkit based
0 voters
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Currently none of those forks have serious not-for-profit organizations behind them. They are either run by a few volunteers or by businesses. Firefox is tradtionally the only large browser developer without a direct for-profit incentive, Chromium is open sourced but is intrinsically tied to Google:

The open-source Chromium source code includes calls to Google APIs. There are twenty-one Google APIs that provide a variety of functionality, most notably Google Sync. Sync offers the ability to synchronize bookmarks, preferences, extensions, and other browser settings with Chromium and Google Chrome running on other computers and devices.

To access Google APIs and enable features like Google Sync in Chromium, developers need to obtain API keys from Google.

3

If Firefox wasn’t an option, I’m not even sure which browser would work best.

Non starters include Chrome, Edge, and Opera (the company is shady, for example they’ve had apps on the Play Store with worse APR than payday loans).

  • Chromium: probably the safest choice, but it lacks features that are expected from browsers, such as syncing account data
  • Vivaldi: chromium-based. An interesting option since Vivaldi is private, hosts a fediverse server, has no external investors. But two big problems with it: it’s targeted towards power uses and is partially proprietary
  • Brave: chromium-based. Good default privacy and is open source. But the crypto, nfts, BAT token, and CEO may lead to division within distros whether to use it
  • Gnome Web: webkit-based, but unfortunately has many performance issues that need to be addressed. The tab design may be confusing or bothersome compared to traditional browsers. Not a good fit for non-Gnome desktops.
  • KDE Falkon: chromium-based, but has performance issues
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5

QuteBrowser is a good option, but it has some performance issues, specially to reproduce streams

6

I’m thinking it’s just an easy choice that makes sense :stuck_out_tongue:

Firefox is FOSS, probably has ideal licensing that allows it to be pre-packaged into distros, and works.

Linux being popular for privacy would probably have raised questions for distros shipping Chromium or something else out-the-box.

  • I like the idea of Ladybird browser, but I’m waiting for Android and Windows pre-builts (I like consistency so same browser every platform; Firefox offers that)
  • I liked GNOME Web/Epiphany, but don’t see a point to it over Firefox.
  • Brave I’m certain is only popular by deception and crypto coin bros on X. I really don’t get the idea how a browser based on “privacy” is giving crypto on browser usage and playing in-agreement with advertisers at the same time. Chromium is less-games :stuck_out_tongue:
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