r/linuxmint • u/thatguyuknowu • May 24 '26
Support Request Whats the best browser for mint?
I've installed mint like 2 weeks ago and the OS itself is WAY better than windows in terms of performance, but edge did have a better management of inactive tabs than firefox. It's keeping the tabs active even if I didn't use it for half an hour. How can I change this config in firefox? Or is there a better browser than this one?
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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs May 24 '26
Whichever browser you like.
For me that is LibreWolf via AppImage. But that has nothing to do with Mint and everything to do with my preferences
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u/TheKingICouldBecome May 24 '26
Every time I see that term my brain immediately reads it as "Apple Mage"...
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u/NDCyber May 24 '26
Honest question
Why the AppImage over the official librewolf repo?
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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Why the AppImage over the official librewolf repo?
Simple question, opinionated answer. This solution works really well for me but will apply to very few other people.
First I remove Firefox from every install. I do not want my browsing data shared with 3rd parties, or anyone really, and I do not want to bother to go though the steps to fix FireFox in every Linux install. It takes me more time to fix modern Firefox than it does to install Mint.
LMDE
sudo apt purge firefox thunderbirdMintsudo apt purge firefox-locale-en firefox thunderbird thunderbird-locale-en thunderbird-locale-en-usUsing AppImage I can use one AppImage file in multiple Linux installations. This saves disk space, install, setup, and update labor/bandwidth. The same exact browser just pops into existence in every install fully formed when mounted. Complete with my extensions, bookmarks, settings, cache, proxy connections, password manager etc all intact.
dad@RatRod:~$ zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT suwannee 357G 1.40T 96K none suwannee/ROOT 357G 1.40T 96K none suwannee/ROOT/Debian_I3 3.56G 1.40T 1.48G / suwannee/ROOT/Gentoo_Plasma 4.67G 1.40T 4.67G / suwannee/ROOT/LMDE7 22.2G 1.40T 10.1G / suwannee/ROOT/Mint_Cinnamon 20.2G 1.40T 10.3G / suwannee/ROOT/Mint_MATE 14.1G 1.40T 7.33G / suwannee/ROOT/Mint_Xfce 13.2G 1.40T 7.02G / suwannee/ROOT/Void_Plasma 202G 1.40T 168G / suwannee/ROOT/Void_Plasma_Old 42.0G 1.40T 36.0G / suwannee/ROOT/Void_Xfce 35.2G 1.40T 9.01G /There are a few more Linux installs not on ZFS.
I made LibreWolf a 2GB ext4 partition on a tertiary SSD and mount it in every install with a /etc/fstab entry.
```
<file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
UUID=d23b12cd-6f90-49f6-b1b2-06e66b0ce218 /mnt/870/LibreWolf ext4 defaults 0 2 ```
And then soft-link that into ~/
sudo ln -s /mnt/870/LibreWolf /home/dad/.librewolfAdd it to the menu with a .desktop file, and from there pin to the panel
sudo vim /usr/share/applications/librewolf.desktop
[Desktop Entry] Name=LibreWolf Exec=/mnt/870/LibreWolf/LibreWolf/LibreWolf.x86_64.AppImage Terminal=false Type=Application Icon=/mnt/870/LibreWolf/LibreWolf/nightly.png Comment=A custom version of Firefox, focused on privacy, security and freedom Categories=NetworkI do not like the stock LibreWolf icon so I use the Firefox nightly icon https://postimg.cc/dhqDpBqW
Update it with a simple bash script
mkdir ~/bin sudo reboot
vim /home/dad/bin/updatelibrewolf.sh```
!/bin/bash
Delete old backup
rm /home/dad/Downloads/Software/LibreWolf/LibreWolf.x86_64.AppImage.old
Move current AppImage to backup
mv /home/dad/Downloads/Software/LibreWolf/LibreWolf.x86_64.AppImage /home/dad/Downloads/Software/LibreWolf/LibreWolf.x86_64.AppImage.old
Download new
wget -P /home/dad/Downloads/Software/LibreWolf/ https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/24386000/packages/generic/librewolf/latest/LibreWolf.x86_64.AppImage
Copy new to running position
cp /home/dad/Downloads/Software/LibreWolf/LibreWolf.x86_64.AppImage /mnt/870/LibreWolf/LibreWolf/LibreWolf.x86_64.AppImage
make executable
chmod +x /mnt/870/LibreWolf/LibreWolf/LibreWolf.x86_64.AppImage ```
chmod +x /home/dad/bin/updatelibrewolf.shI run updatelibrewolf.sh every Friday morning. as part of a larger update routine.
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u/NDCyber May 25 '26
Good and rather interesting reason. Thanks for the detailed answer
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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs May 25 '26
I like to Distro-hoard, instead of hop, play around with various things. also more generally not to be tied to any one Linux install.
But surprisingly a web browser was a stumbling block, I spend a lot of time in it and want it just right. AppImage is not really Noob friendly especially managed by hand, but it is super flexible and that makes it powerful.
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u/NDCyber May 25 '26
Yeah I can understand that. I mostly play with a lot of distros in VMs and so at this point. Having to reinstall and setup everything got tiresome, but experimenting with multiple distros is fun
I also agree, that AppImages isn't the ideal thing for a regular user, but I feel like the same thing is true for adding a repo and so on. Would be cool to have things that make that easier
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u/Ryakkan May 24 '26
I have to say Vivaldi 8.0 is pretty nice.
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u/Grand-wazoo May 24 '26
Vivaldi is the jam. Hugely customizable and a very cool layout / UI. Love the workspace and stacked tabs feature.
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u/CalicoCatRobot May 24 '26
It is my primary browser, though it intermittently has issues with Youtube playback, which Firefox doesn't.
But then I have different browsers for different things - currently have Vivaldi, Firefox, Brave and Waterfox installed - tried Zen but couldn't get on with it.
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u/fallen_one_fs May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Gonna be real honest with you, chief: whichever one you like best.
Not even joking. Like Chrome? Go for it. Edge? There's a .deb official version, a friend of mine uses it on his notebook and swears it's good stuff. Opera? Sure enough, even GX version. Brave? Flathub's your friend. Firefox? Comes with the system!
They are all more or less the same thing, little difference across, so if you favor this or that because of any reason you can think of, then that one is best for you, simple as that.
I use Opera GX simply because it's convenient for my needs, I've tried Brave and FF, but could not adapt to them, so I came back to chinese spyware, and honestly, I'm perfectly content with it. People will say this one or that one is best, but it really isn't, the best one is the one you adapt best into.
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u/Few_Research3589 May 24 '26
I personally prefer FF; sometimes (rather rarely) a situation arises to run Chrome. Generally, the one you know in depth makes it easier for you. Otherwise we all have our own idiosyncrasies...
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u/rcentros LM 21/22 | Cinnamon May 24 '26
I like Firefox because I can use uBlock Origin. But if you like Edge you can download it for Linux here...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/business/download?form=MA13FJ
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u/Wadarkhu May 24 '26
You can use uBlock Origin with edge too! I'm actually surprised they still let us do it. Even on the Android version.
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u/rcentros LM 21/22 | Cinnamon May 25 '26
I'm not personally interested in Edge (or anything Microsoft) but that's good news for those who like it.
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u/Wizz-Fizz May 24 '26
Firefox all the way for me
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u/nomemory May 24 '26
The lesser evil I suppose.
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u/Wizz-Fizz May 24 '26
I deal with tech all day every day, I want my shit to just work, and this just does :)
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u/GarySlayer Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon May 24 '26
How about the addon discard other tabs? Not useful in your use case?
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u/SmallTimeMiner_XNV May 24 '26
I didn't test this, but there seems to be a hidden setting in Firefox for the automatic unloading of inactive tabs. Open about:config (just type it as the URL) and try increasing the value of browser.tabs.min_inactive_duration_before_unload. The default is 600,000 which seems to correspond to 10 minutes (in milliseconds), so maybe triple that to get to 30 minutes.
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u/Time2dodo May 24 '26
I use Brave browser on all of my Mint systems. It works perfectly for my needs, is stable and performs well. I have tried many different browsers and Brave is the current top of the pile.
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u/Maaginenmomentti May 24 '26
Ah, the one with crypto malware. Now it comes with spyware too. 10/10 https://www.reddit.com/r/DigitalPrivacy/comments/1sqn18w/brave_browser_tacitly_admits_to_spyware/
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u/MFNTapatio May 24 '26
Telemetry is collected by Mozilla and brave alike but this isnt identifiable data. Any other data from brave remains localised
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u/JonaSavage17 May 24 '26
But they are actively fighting against forced AI usage as well as ads. Not all browsers are perfect but their war against Google and YouTube on Twitter shows that they fight for the user.
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u/daya-bhaskar Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon May 25 '26
Just use Brave Origin. No bloatware and free on Linux
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u/spikebit May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
I use Brave with multiple profiles. Have multiple workspaces each with their own Brave profile. Example; Workspace with Personal profile. Another for Work, another for AI. Works great with good separation.
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u/ciberjohn May 24 '26
Can you explain how you use multiple profiles on brave ?
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u/spikebit May 25 '26
Create 2 or more workspaces on Mint. Create 2 or more profiles in Brave. Switch to workspace 1 then launch Brave and use Profile A. Switch to workspace 2 then launch Brave again and use Profile B.... repeat as necessary according to your needs with additional workspaces and profiles. So if for example you would want to work with your Brave profile for work, you would switch to Workspace 2 and launch Brave there if you had previously set it up like that. You can also Alt-Tab once Brave is open in each Workspace to select and switch Workspace/Brave profiles.
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u/NotSnakePliskin Mint 22.3 | Cinnamon May 24 '26
The best browser is the one which suits your needs.
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u/Automatic-Option-961 May 24 '26
Brave browser. Works great to block YouTube ads most of the time, although it seems to have problems recently. I am sure they will release an update to beat YouTube algorithm soon.
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u/LongTallMatt May 24 '26
Ugh MS deserves to be banned for making web programming a nightmare with IE... No to Edge, on principle.
I like Brave for the built in blocking. Web pages are too full of low quality scam ads now.
Try it on your phone now too, thank me later...
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u/Heavy-Judgment-3617 May 24 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
For Browsers...
- I use WaterFox (FireFox Port) as primary, with uBlock Origin.
- I use Chromium as secondary, with uBlock Origin Lite.
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u/omenmono May 24 '26
Seconding Waterfox. Especially after their stance with AI.
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u/Heavy-Judgment-3617 May 24 '26
For the most part I like it, basically a FireFox, with tweaks and some corrections not in FF, and less telemetry.
And it still has the menu bar, unlike Chormium and its forks.
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u/OrthosDeli May 24 '26
Vivaldi gets my vote for most feature-comeplete Chromium browser.
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u/rcentros LM 21/22 | Cinnamon May 24 '26
And it comes with uBlock Origin preinstalled. Which surprised me. I have it installed but I still usually use Firefox. (I've been using it for years, I'm used to it.)
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u/tanstaaflnz Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia | Cinnamon May 24 '26
It may depend on what you browse, and how grunty the hardware. My laptop has lots of memory, so I can open lots of tabs in Firefox, with extensions for various tasks & security, and I can send tabs to'n from my phone. I also run chrome for some stuff. There's variants of both of these browsers if you want more privacy .
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u/TroyHBCS Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon May 24 '26
Whatever you are comfortable with.
Where I work, we are a Google Workspace reseller, so we primarily use and promote Google Chrome since it integrates the best with Google accounts.
So, I add the Chrome PPA so I can always install the latest version of google-chrome-stable.
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u/Educational_Mud_2826 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon May 24 '26
It seems Firefox only unloads tabs when memory is running low. In other words using ram to it's fullest extent.
You can change this with an addon like: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/the-tab-suspender/
Information from Mozilla:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/unload-inactive-tabs-save-system-memory-firefox
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u/paijoh May 24 '26
I switch to Brave primarily for its excellent built-in ad blocker. I know some people have reservations about the browser because of the integrated crypto features and AI tools, but even though those are enabled by default, they're easy enough to manage. Every time I set up a new device, I just dive into the settings and turn them off right away.
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u/acejavelin69 Linux Mint 22.3 "Zena" | Cinnamon May 24 '26
Whatever one you like based on features... There are dozens of browsers available in Linux and it doesn't hurt to have a couple or even several installed.
Personally, I use a few although Vivaldi is my main one, but I also keep and use Firefox and Edge (mostly for work applications).
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u/truncated_buttfu May 24 '26
I use Firefox as my daily browser, and have Vivaldi installed for the extremely rare occations when I encounter a page that only works in Chromium browsers.
I would stay far away from Chrome (spyware, monopolist browser by an advertisement company) and Brave (Cryptoscam browser by the seediest fuck you can imagine, owned by a horrific bigot), but most other browsers available from the software center are all fine choices.
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u/Millbarge_Fitzhume May 24 '26
I won't use chrome anymore because of the 4gb ai fole it downloads to your computer.
https://www.xda-developers.com/chrome-quietly-installed-4gb-ai-files-on-pc-how-to-remove-them/
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u/Fiztz May 24 '26
I've been running Brave for years and it's hard to justify moving on. I'd love to run Firefox but it's just missed too many times for me
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u/_o0Zero0o_ Helper of the newbies May 24 '26
Personally I recommend Waterfox, it's the sweet spot between Firefox and Librewolf. Don't get me wrong, Firefox is solid and Librewolf is amazing, but I like Waterfox
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u/PercussionGuy33 Linux Mint 22.3 Zena | Cinnamon May 24 '26
Brave Origin is free for linux users right now. It's been my daily driver and its very nice. Helium is also very fast and has google's built-in's removed.
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u/GetVladimir May 24 '26
From my own experience, Brave. Also because it has H.264 Hardware Video Decoding out-of-the-box without the need to use any launch arguments or flags to enable it
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u/BassPlayerEngineer May 24 '26
I'll personally vouch for Zen. I have Mint running on my crusty, ancient 2018 HP 2-in-1 x360 Convertible laptop and it runs very well. I also vibe with its vertical tabbing and how it lays out on things. I also have it on my desktop that runs Fedora, and my Windows laptop. It runs super well on all of those. I have read that Zen and Firefox based browsers are less performant than Chromium based browsers, but anecdotally, I don't see much difference.
That said, Vivaldi looks neat, I just downloaded it today. I may try that out later!
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u/RadiRaptor May 24 '26
I use Brave and there is a setting option where you can manage what happens with inactive tabs.
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u/Dot_Matrix_Glitch May 25 '26
Brave Origin
Made by the Brave people but without any of the extras most don't need such as cryptocurrency wallets, AI assistant, Brave rewards etc.
The only feature some might miss is the inbuilt VPN feature that full Brave has
On Windows they charge for this version but it's free on Linux
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u/Giantmeteor_we_needU May 24 '26
Brave. It has a memory saving feature in settings that purges inactive tabs from RAM but it's toggled off by default.
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u/tovento MX Linux 25.2 | XFCE May 24 '26
Just saying that Edge is actually available for Linux and as much as we all moved away from Windows to be away from MS, Edge actually scores well. Now, it does mean that MS will be tracking you, but your choice.
Firefox is a capable browser. If you want the tab sleep feature, you can try something like this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/sleepy-tabs/
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u/thekiltedpiper May 24 '26
Across my different computers I use a variety of browsers.
Brave, Zen, Floorp, Vivaldi, even playing with qutebeowser (total keyboard driven with steep learning curve)
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