Updated 13-Feb-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. For Debian, the simplest is the add repository and install manually option.
echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/ungoogled_chromium/Debian_Sid/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:ungoogled_chromium.list
curl -fsSL https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:ungoogled_chromium/Debian_Sid/Release.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/home_ungoogled_chromium.gpg > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ungoogled-chromium
For the latest distribution, install the four packages found on Github releases.
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 is Microsoft Edge Canary (as it has some amount of extension support, though a bit unweildy and does not include sideloading). 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.
Extensions
Both Kiwi Browser and Ungoogled Chromium support extensions. Here are some I use:
- Chromium web store note: download .crx then drag file into Extensions tab, unless have added the Extension Mime Request flag below
- uBlock Origin
- Google Translate (old version)
- Bypass Paywalls
- Mute Tab
- New Tab Redirect
- Get CRX
- Enable Download Button
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
I'll have to see the extent of the differences between Kiwi and Vivaldi and report back here, now that Kiwi browser is no longer being maintained.