this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@beehaw.org 160 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't trust homophobes or cryptobros, especially not those with a history of selling users out like Brendan Eich

[–] ours@lemmy.film 32 points 1 year ago

Especially when there is Firefox and Firefox-based, privacy-focused alternative with great add-blocking and privacy extensions.

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[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 121 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Very strongly worded, but yes.

Brave have had a history of controversy since their inception. Every time something happens, the CEO went on a marketing campaign across social media and drummed up enough new users to drown it out. However the attitude of the business is clear: it would take a very small sack of money for Brave to sell out its users.

If you're going to use a Chromium web browser, there are non-commercial open source projects that don't have a history of shady shit. However Firefox forks are better.

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[–] charonn0@startrek.website 90 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why was appointing Eich as CEO so controversial? It's because he donated $1,000 in support of California's Proposition 8 in 2008, which was a proposed amendment to California's state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

Which is all the reason I need.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 27 points 1 year ago

If he had changed his tune since then and done something to offset that, I might be willing to cut him some slack.

But, instead, he seems to have doubled down...

[–] foo@programming.dev 21 points 1 year ago

They had me at invented JavaScript

[–] people_are_cute@lemmy.sdf.org 62 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

Not a single solid reason given in this unhinged rent except a mention of that affiliate link fiasco, which even they themselves agree was a major fuckup.

All BAT and crypto stuff are completely opt-in and it barely takes a few clicks to set the browser to never let you see that side of it again. As for Brendan's political affiliations, most users couldn't care less. He might as well be a ~~furry~~ flat-earther but if the product is good, it is good. Stop acting like you're sure all the things you use throughout the day aren't made by people with doubtful leanings.

I personally don't use Brave on desktop, Firefox is good enough; but it is the best option on Android currently since Bromite is almost always a Chromium version behind whatever is current.

Edit: Just learnt that I was wrong in my perception of what "furry" meant. Reading the replies objecting to that reference made me dig a bit deeper and realise that it's just a type of fandom, and not some sex-deviant cult that pop media made me believe. Sorry for the wrong example.

[–] wifienyabledcat@beehaw.org 113 points 1 year ago (2 children)

mf really conflated being a homophobe to being a furry 💀

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[–] davehtaylor@beehaw.org 73 points 1 year ago

As for Brendan’s political affiliations, most users couldn’t care less. He might as well be a furry but if the product is good, it is good. Stop acting like you’re sure all the things you use throughout the day aren’t made by people with doubtful leanings.

  1. People do care about Eich's beliefs, or this discussion wouldn't even be happening.

  2. There's nothing wrong with being a furry, and trying to compare it as though it's equivalent or worse than being a shitbag bigot is bullshit.

  3. If you know that the people who run a company are bigots and you continue to use their products and services, you are giving your explicit approval to who they are and what they do. "if the product is good, it is good" absolutely fucking not. Goods and services don't exist in a vacuum.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 67 points 1 year ago

Not a single solid reason given in this unhinged rent except a mention of that affiliate link fiasco, which even they themselves agree was a major fuckup.

That's pretty dismissive of a feature that could only have been added intentionally. It's not like there was some accidental glitch that was adding affiliate suffixes on the end of links.

What we have here is a business poking and prodding and seeing what they can get away with. You've said that there's only one thing they did that's truly out of line, while glossing over the fact that most of what they do is borderline. Their intent is clear.

[–] borlax@lemmy.borlax.com 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Imagine comparing furries to homophobes lol. Sit down you goofball.

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[–] Alto@kbin.social 33 points 1 year ago

If directly funding homophobic policies isn't a good enough reason for you, you need to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself why that is

[–] sarsaparilyptus@beehaw.org 25 points 1 year ago

Not a single solid reason given

Well not to you, but that doesn't mean much considering you think spyware is fine as long as it's opt-in (and that being a furry is equivalent in severity to being homophobic, wtf). The fact that you think this article is bad is basically a ringing endorsement.

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[–] drcouzelis@lemmy.zip 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To anyone reading this article, only the first quarter of it is about the beliefs and political stance of the developers. The rest of the article after that goes into more technical reasons.

[–] IHeartBadCode@kbin.social 35 points 1 year ago (6 children)

All I needed to read was in the first paragraph.

Brave Software, the company behind the browser of the same name, was founded by Brendan Eich. He's best known as the creator of JavaScript from his days at Netscape Communications

I mean, JS is his baby that's all there needs to be said about the person's motivations.

[–] ericflo@lemmy.ml 57 points 1 year ago (10 children)

I love Brave, use it daily, and this article didn't convince me at all. Vaguely motioning at the founder's ancient political donations or the optional crypto features, doesn't make a strong case.

[–] charonn0@startrek.website 80 points 1 year ago (3 children)

2008 is not ancient. Nor is same-sex marriage some minor technical legal point.

Nor has he repented.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 year ago

Nor has he repented.

That's the important point for me.

People can change after 20 years. But he prefers to double-down instead.

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[–] Naatan@lemmy.one 43 points 1 year ago (6 children)

You see, when someone is known to make bad choices it makes sense to approach what they do with apprehension. This guy not only has a history of bad choices, he's also the CEO.

You're free to do as you like of course, but I'd say it's hardly fair to say the article is unconvincing.

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[–] Gsus4@feddit.nl 46 points 1 year ago

The moment my cryptofan buddy started talking up brave, I knew it was time to uninstall.

[–] regalia@literature.cafe 43 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It should've been as simple as stop using any chromium-based browser, but the CEO is also super bigoted, doing ad theft, and pushing crypto scams.

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[–] Steeve@lemmy.ca 38 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Stop telling me what to do

[–] LinkOpensChest_wav@beehaw.org 54 points 1 year ago (5 children)
[–] Steeve@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] ulkesh@beehaw.org 32 points 1 year ago

Now it makes sense why some of the Fox News-parroting, right wing people I know use Brave. I had no idea about what the author mentioned about the browser, I just know it is based on Chromium which I will not use. Thus, I am on Firefox. And for many reasons, including those the author laid out, I'm happy I chose wisely.

[–] emptyother@programming.dev 31 points 1 year ago

Don't need to tell me twice. I've distrusted Brave since I saw their advertisement for it. It just feels like they sell the browser in same mood as pyramid schemers does their products.

But its just my gut feeling. Got no good reason why people should avoid the browser. And because the CEO is an ass isn't a good enough reason for most people.

[–] Janis@feddit.de 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

if you useanything alphabet like chromium, then YOU are the problem.

[–] acastcandream@beehaw.org 66 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

I think it’s pretty unfair to put all of the blame on everyone who uses a chromium browser, considering that most people with a computer have no idea what the hell you are talking about.

Google Chrome is the single most popular web browser. Everyone’s work uses it, everyone’s school uses it, why would they possibly question it? And then they discover a new browser someone recommended - why would they look into “chromium” and what it all means? It’s just not reasonable to expect of nearly the entire population at this stage.

Take your anger out on the company and educate people. This is a problem of education, not selfishness (on the part of the user).

[–] rog@lemmy.one 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you've found your way to the technology community on a federated lemmy instance, youre techy enough to take the blame for using chromium

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[–] RobotToaster@infosec.pub 29 points 1 year ago

Isn't this like the fourth time this has been posted? the conversation always goes around in circles with nobody changing their mind.

[–] retronautickz@beehaw.org 23 points 1 year ago

I never used brave. I wasn't interested in it since I learned it was chromium and all the crypto stuff.

[–] Decompose@programming.dev 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Article, brought to you by Google.

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[–] Melody@lemmy.one 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I don't use Brave, won't use Brave, and have my reasons for it.

  • Brave is Chromium based; a project which is slave to the whim of Google.
  • Brave integrates an unnecessary cryptocurrency.
    I hate shitcoinsI don't trust small crypto projects, and I doubly do not want this to be integrated into my browser. It's a good way to lose your stable crypto-holdings if you have them. (I don't; but I've seen lots of anecdotes about catching malware that subsequently stole their crypto wallets, including any BAT tokens they owned)
  • Brave does not block ads! It does not 'enhance' your privacy. It just absorbs some ads, replaces some, and blatantly lets first-party advertisements through the filter. That's not ad-blocking
  • Brave does not protect your privacy. As per my previous point; it does not block ads, it injects it's own right into browser chrome! That's worse than plain Chrome! Your privacy is automatically violated when you watch/view even a single ad.
  • Brave does not have many benefits above "Ungoogled Chromium" or other competing projects. It just doesn't. Unless you like marketing fluff.
  • Brave is NOT BETTER THAN Firefox. It's worse; because it's Chromium; which is enslaved to Google whims. Don't believe me? Try to contribute something to Chromium that goes contrary to Google's stated goals and watch how fast you get shot down.

But sometimes...Yes, Sometimes a programmer does succeed. But only sometimes; and this is usually because they have the clout, coding skills, chops and public reach to embarrass the fuck out of the Google PMs. This will never be you, unless you put an extraordinary amount of effort into becoming a very well known and respected contributor in the OSS space. If you already are a respected contributor in the OSS space, Congrats! You're still likely to be forced to fight a long and protracted battle against the Google nerds to get "Google-Hostile" code changes approved.

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[–] sculd@beehaw.org 20 points 1 year ago

I used to think Brave was good until I found out they are into crypto.

Nope Nope and Nope! Not using that thing again. Firefox is my friend now.

[–] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 year ago

this whole thing is terribly written... lol

how about you just use which ever shitty browser you like?

and i'll use firefox

[–] rglullis 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (21 children)

Some counterpoints:

  • I like the idea of a system where users get a share of the revenue from the ad networks, which then can be used to support other content creators or businesses online. I think that if most of the web worked like this, we wouldn't have people being treated as eyeballs and we would still have the power to vote with our wallets to choose who is actually worth of our attention. Is there any other browser or company doing anything like that?

  • People keep talking about Firefox as if it's a paragon of virtue, but casually forget that they are only alive because they are completely dependent on Google to survive and are nothing more than "controlled opposition" nowadays. They also have done a ton user-hostile shit like sponsored links in the frontpage and completely crippled pocket, and let's not forget that current Mozilla execs are raking in millions while laying off people and disbanding key projects.

  • The crypto part keeps called a scam, but their system has been working perfectly fine and it has always been liquid enough for me at the exchanges. Is their BAT token needed? Certainly not, and I would be fine if the 3-8 euros worth of BAT I receive every month (depending on my mobile usage and on their success as an network) were sent to me directly via SEPA. But can anyone realistically say that there is any efficient worldwide way to distribute payouts? For every dollar you sent to someone via Patreon (or Ko-Fi, or any alternative), how much do they get to keep? With the Brave creators program, all of the $15/month that I send to the different people get to them.

All in all, I will stop using Brave in a heartbeat if there is anyone else providing any alternative with a slight chance to fight Surveillance Capitalism. None of the Chromium or Mozilla forks are doing that.

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[–] trackcharlie@lemmynsfw.com 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I don't care what his political affiliations are, if the product works I'll use it. What an absolute set of incompetent garbage.

[–] TheFriendlyArtificer@beehaw.org 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Some of us do care.

A product directly bankrolled by Peter Thiel? A project, not concerned about blocking ads but rather making sure that it's their ads that you see?

If you're on iOS. Maybe the EU will bail you out and force Apple to allow other web engines.

If you're on Android, Firefox works perfectly well and Fennec is a fine fork.

If you're on anything else, Librewolf is fork of Firefox without all of the Pocket and other privacy hostile default settings.

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I don't care what rights they want to curtail, if they say they'll lower my taxes by a nickel I'll vote for them!

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