I unGoogled my PC and got a boost in speed

[bucolic_frolic]

Out with the Chrome and in with the Brave. Before I could not run a light data stream let alone 2, and Zoom in another browser. Now I run all 3 without any hesitation or stutter.

Chrome was so busy scooping up data and fighting ad blockers that I was at a crawl.

YMMV ... I have the slowest internet, soon to be upgraded, but for now any speed improvement is appreciated.

[jfz9580m]

1. I support this

I hate google. I have been using DDG and Protonmail for over a decade now.

I tried Brave, but I had already gotten accustomed to the DDG browser.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. I hate GMail, and what Google does to my phone. But I do use Google Voice

I'd like to unwind Gmail. What a mess.

[jfz9580m]

3. I have to help my dad with his phone sometimes

That is the only time I ever come across Google or Reliance (this awful local giant whose ceo Ambani could give any of your creeps over there a run for their money re awfulness - they treat their employees pretty badly I have heard) anymore.

He has an Android and it is a nightmare to use imo.

I could not pull off a switch to a Mac though. Too used to the damn pc.

[lostnfound]

4. Wikipedia re 'Brave' raises concern: Thiel's Founders Fund and odd crypto tracking

I’m glad it solved your slow speed problem, that’s wonderful. The idea of living with fewer ads sounded appealing but i wanted to check it out before downloading. At the moment, these were too much red flags for me — though ‘YMMV’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)

“In August 2016, the company had received at least US$7 million in angel investments from venture capital firms, including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Propel Venture Partners, Pantera Capital, Foundation Capital and the Digital Currency Group“

“In 2020, the company was found to be appending affiliate referral codes to the end of certain cryptocurrency exchange URLs typed into the browser's address bar. The practice applied to exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase, and was later discovered to extend to suggested search queries for terms like "bitcoin" and "ethereum". Following media attention, Brave CEO Brendan Eich called the behavior a mistake…”

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Thanks for the research, it's like you gotta dance with the devil on some level

I'll never use crypto, so not overly concerned at this point. Trouble too is that on some level, somewhere, companies have to make money somewhere. Though Linux seems to barrel onward.

[lostnfound]

8. I get it. A family member has recently talked to me about Linux

and my whole family regularly bemoans the constant time suck from advertising. In our personal lives, we have been acclimated to almost unlimited advertising in all forms (phone calls, texts, website interruptions, billboards, gas pumps, textbooks, product placements, sponsorships of stadiums, and of course, radio and TV); the very idea of ‘noncommercial’ anything is almost seen as unamerican.

I remember the innocence of my own childhood where schools and churches were an ad-free zone; ads were small things inside the newspaper or separate sections - not on 1A; and people were a bit more respected as citizenry and customers; not ‘consumers’ and guinea pigs.

[The Madcap]

6. I ended up putting the Microsoft Launcher on my Android phone.

I also don't use Google for anything but Youtube, so technically, I have a GMail account. I only open GMail to delete the inevitable junk mail it receives.

Whatever happened to having a pure search engine that isn't an ad-generator or AI wasteland?

[hunter]

7. I rarely see or hear advertising on any of my electronic devices...

... but maintaining the levees that hold back the floods of shit is a constant chore.

I've been on the internet since the late 'seventies and don't like what's become of it.

It will probably reach the point where I'm using whitelists instead of blacklists for my browsing . I'm already doing that for television.

I don't have an Android or Apple phone. I use my little flip phone for talking with people and to send and receive texts. There's no email on my phone, and no apps. I don't check any of my personal email accounts regularly anyways.

Democratic Underground is my only social media.

I can easily imagine the internet reaching a point of such intrusiveness and wretchedness that I abandon it entirely.