Chromium browser and related

Updated 18-Aug-2025

This is meant to help with selecting and installing a chrome-based browser, with minimal tracking and other cruft.

Ungoogled Chromium for Debian

Actually there are a variety of OS builds for ungoogled Chromium, many of which lag behind. There does not seem to be an up-to-date apt repository anywhere. Therefore manual installations are needed.

• For the latest distribution, install the four packages found on Github releases.
  • Skip the .buildinfo, .changes, and dbgsym files.
• For older Celeron devices (e.g., NUC6CAYS, Asus Chromebook C214), use the older v112 release.
  • Will likely need to install old drivers: libre2-9, libflac12, and libjsoncpp25.

Kiwi Browser for Android

UPDATE 13-02-25 The venerable Kiwi Browser is no longer getting updates, and it is no longer in the Android store (though a similarly named browser chock full of ads and spyware is in fact in that store). Final Android apk file is available.

• The recommendation (for Android) -- in the absence of Kiwi -- is Vivaldi. This Microsoft product for me is a non-starter in that it is spammy bloat-ware.
• I'm going to try out the Vivaldi browser, and StartPage which is my search engine of choice, and also now has its own mobile apps. Pretty sure Vivaldi is the way to go, as it can sync across desktop and mobile (if desired) with built-in Adblocking.

Extensions

Both Ungoogled Chromium and Vivaldi (for Desktop) support extensions. Because of the new Manifest, browsers will not be able to use the Chrome Webstore for extensions. Instead, use the Get CRX extension, and then download extensions as .crx files and drag into the extensions settings page.

• uBlock Origin
• Google Translate (old version)
• Bypass Paywalls
• Mute Tab
• New Tab Redirect
• Get CRX
• BlockTube
• Enhancer for YouTube
• enhanced-h264
• New Adjacent Tab
• Dark Mode

Note that Vivaldi for Android does NOT support extensions (as of May 2025). However, they do have a built-in Adware blocker.

Flags

Some useful flags found at chrome://flags/

• Extension Mime Request Handling: Always prompt for install
• Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents: Enabled
• Tab Scrolling: Disabled
• Parallel downloading: Enabled
• Chrome Labs: Disabled

Vivaldi

Update 12-05-25: For Android, the Vivaldi browser is a serviceable replacement for Kiwi Browser (sadly discontinued). As well, Vivaldi is a decent desktop browser, which I use as a secondary / backup to Ungoogled Chromium. The one problem I have is because both seem to use the same chrome:// settings, as Ungoogled Chromium effectively blocks communication with Google, Vivaldi is subsequently disabled from using its own (non-Google) sync. Not a huge deal, but backing up settings or syncing tabs is not an option. I save a bookmarks file and export passwords to a csv file on occasion.

Some Vivaldi Settings

• Dark mode, Native window, Startpage as search, etc., etc.
• Note that basic ad blocking such as on startpage.com isn't possible, sadly.