Kalchaya wrote on February 17, 2021 at 3:38 AM

Guess it depends on how you define 'trust'. If you mean browsers that will not function as spyware for the developer, then my shortlist (in order of preference) is: Iridium, TOR browser, Epic, Ungoogled Chrome, Superbird, Advanced Chrome, Comodo Dragon, Basilisk, Waterfox, and Slimjet.

If you define 'trust' as being the latest'n'greatest and most updated, I couldn't tell ya, as I don't follow that hogwash. For the last 3+ years I been using XP Pro, which means I'm stuck using Mypal, Centaury and Firefox 52.9.0. Despite using outdated OS and browsers, I've had zero malware after 5000+ hours of internet surfing...unless you count 3 or 4 PUPs. Needless to say, I'm not a believer in this EOL/EOS and most current browser rot. In my experience security does not come from this blather.

Wahaha OP wrote on February 17, 2021 at 8:52 AM

I mean trust in the sense that it won't fuck you over in the near future. I've also continued using FF 3.6 and later FF 38 for years without experiencing any trouble. The only trouble I ever experienced with FF was related to upgrading it. And this happens basically with every other update.

It's hard to trust software that updates every two weeks, so even if you wanted to poke at the source code to make sure nothing nasty slipped in, nobody would even have the resources to do so.

Kalchaya wrote on February 18, 2021 at 11:13 PM

While I fancy myself a 'futurist' able to make fairly accurate predictions, I would not attempt that prognostication. Developers are an unreliable lot. The same one that creates a freeware app today is likely to sellout tomorrow, and include nasty bundleware with his app. In its early days, Firefox used to be one of the good guys, now it's just as likely to "fuck you over" as Chrome is:

https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/mozilla.html

Brave is another one that started out okay, then quickly crossed to the darkside:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/privacy-browser-brave-busted-for-autocompleting-urls-to-versions-it-profits-from/

https://www.netsparker.com/blog/web-security/brave-browser-sacrifices-security/

I would not venture to guess which browsers will go rogue in the future. I can only list those that are okay now. Browsers are much like sites that source software. Right now, Softpedia and Majorgeeks are kinda/sorta safe...how long before they become as nasty as CNET is unknown.

Wahaha OP wrote on February 19, 2021 at 8:38 AM

Yes, but a browser that won't update until six months from now, can be trusted for six months. Also, a browser that you can read the source code of, in the sense that it is short enough that you can actually manage to read it in an evening or two, also has higher trust from me, like the surf browser.

Kalchaya wrote on February 28, 2021 at 3:19 AM

As said, I've been using XP Pro for three years now, and hence relegated to using Mypal, Centaury and Firefox 52.9.0 browsers. As both the OS is long ago EOL/EOS, and the browsers are equally outdated, I'm not impressed with that malarkey.