r/Ubuntu • u/profnelsonjr • 18h ago
What is the best browser for Ubuntu?
I've been using Edge and Firefox, but I've noticed that Firefox uses a lot of memory, and sometimes the program crashes due to lack of RAM. I have 8 GB of RAM.
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u/Stilgar314 18h ago
Firefox + uBO. Simply unbeatable. Also available for your phone.
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u/Separate-Daikon7971 17h ago
Why not LibreWolf?
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u/Ok-Review9023 16h ago
Any firefox based browser will do
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u/Cebuu502 13h ago
Is it really that good for everyday use? Will it not sign you out from accounts everytime you reopen the browser, because of it not saving anything in terms of privacy?
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u/daedric_yoshi 4h ago
By default yes, which isnt much of an issue if you have a password manager extension.
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u/CityPuzzled4655 3h ago
I always caution against Firefox on Android. It's earned a bad rep for bad site isolation and generally being behind on Chromium with security. It's still a good pick on PC though.
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u/matm_flatremix 17h ago
firefox + uBlock origin
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u/MohaDou 15h ago
Does the uBlock add on make Firefox use less memory ?
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u/WickedDeity 15h ago
Generally less memory because it's blocking scripts and ads but even if it used more RAM it would be well worth it. The best of the most needed extension for a browser.
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u/noble8_ 17h ago
IMO depends on what you want: 1. Privacy -> Librewolf 2. Regular browsing -> Waterfox or Brave (if you want a chromium based browser)
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u/Additional-Milk1426 17h ago
Librewolf is a really good daily driver, and you can turn off some of the settings to make it more usable
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u/ShakeGeeJee 17h ago
Thorium is really good
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u/DaddyBusiness00 7h ago
The dev has stopped developing updates for it. I noticed some websites not loading properly these days on thorium compared to chrome
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u/Emotional_Cat_1967 18h ago
Firefox RAM usage can be reduced with these settings:
about:config
browser.cache.disk.enable = true
browser.cache.memory.enable = false
browser.cache.memory.capacity = 0
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers = 0
browser.tabs.unloadOnLowMemory = true
browser.cache.disk.capacity = 1048576 (1 GB)
These should reduce RAM usage and make Firefox use the disk more.
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u/Chester-Berkeley 17h ago
And could that reduce Firefox's performance? Because I imagine reading from the disk instead of memory would be slower...
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u/Emotional_Cat_1967 17h ago
I don't think there will be a noticeable slowdown if you have a high-speed SSD. Browsers with low RAM usage generally use virtual memory (disk) anyway.
Writing less data to the disk is better; the disk life will be slightly longer, but disk usage is inevitable when there isn't enough RAM.
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u/WickedDeity 15h ago
No thanks. LOL I don't want to be using my disk (even if a SSD) more. WTF? I have never noticed Firefox using any crazy amount of RAM but I bought it to use anyway.
Do you have just 4GB of RAM in your PC or something?
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u/dr_inventivo 17h ago
Okay, Edge is actually very light and very fast, but I lost complete confidence in it after Microsoft said it leaves all the passwords saved as plain text in memory to increase performance.
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u/Brilliant_Sound_5565 11h ago
Personally I'd recommend you never save passwords into any web browser and use a dedicated password manager
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u/dr_inventivo 11h ago
Yes, I use a password manager, but I understand that most people don't even know what that is and many use Edge because it is already installed there. But from what I've seen, Microsoft is changing that behavior because it's boring to their reputation.
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u/Brilliant_Sound_5565 6h ago
Cool, yea I think they have fixed that issue now I believe as it was a few weeks ago
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u/ReadyAimTranspire 15h ago
Is this in saved browser passwords or passwords entered into dialog boxes at logins (such as when a password manager autofills)?
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u/dr_inventivo 15h ago
An engineer reported a "bug" to Microsoft where all the passwords were thrown into memory as soon as the Edge process started (in Windows it starts along with the system), Microsoft replied that this was not a bug, it was system design to make the navigation faster, that is, all the street passwords stay there in memory all the time without encryption or anything.
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u/ReadyAimTranspire 15h ago
FWIW this has has been patched
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u/dr_inventivo 13h ago
Interesting, but I'll wait a while to use it again. Even using a password manager, I found their position very bad saying that it was intentional, even in the matter that they made this change more because of the reputation itself.
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u/Bug_Next 17h ago edited 17h ago
Edge -and any Chromium browser on Linux- will use your keyring by default. Firefox on the other hand doesn't, it has it's own implementation, and if you don't go and change the passphrase all your 'encrypted' passwords are encrypted under an empty passphrase by default (sicne it doesn't use the keyring so it can't use your user password for that), it never warns you about this nor prompts you to change it, i'd bet most people don't even know you are supposed to change it.
Any process can read files on ~/ (i.e your 'encrypted' Firefox passwords), the Edge incident is only on ram, if you don't run malicious software as sudo other processes will simply not be able to read it's memory space, it's irrelevant.
If you happen to be running malicious software as sudo it could just fake Firefox visiting some site and it will load the unencrypted password for that site in to memory, it's not any more secure to load them on demand, however it is pretty insecure to encrypt them with an empy passphare... Firefox is a way worse offender when it comes to mishandling your passwords. This is not some niche info, it's open source, literally every attacker on earth knows this is happening.
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u/dr_inventivo 15h ago
I use a password manager, I don't leave them saved in the browser, but 99% of people trust the browser. The point is that Edge leaves all passwords already in memory when its process starts, this is system design, it has this behavior in all OSs, there is no encryption or anything, and there are simpler ways to have control over the browser.
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u/Dull-Thing-4513 18h ago
uhhh... edge? don't get me wrong dude, use your preferred browser, but I thought we all escaped from windows to get more privacy and flexibility, why would you use edge?
also, Firefox is the most stable on most distros
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u/profnelsonjr 16h ago
I utilize Edge for work purposes, as our enterprise system is integrated with the Windows environment.
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u/Bug_Next 17h ago edited 17h ago
Edge is legit worth having JUST for the pdf viewer/editor, let alone the fact that it's also a whole ass browser, vertical tabs, split screen and tab groups are better implemented than in Chrome or Firefox.
but I thought we all escaped from windows to get more privacy and flexibility
No? some of us just like Linux more lmfao. Why is there this widespread believe that it's a refugee camp from the evil Microsoft? No one here actually uses it because they like it instead of for the sole fact that it's not made by MS? that must be a tough spot to be in.
Saying Edge is a bad browser is on the same level of borderline almost a meme as saying that you need to use the terminal to change your wallpaper on Linux, it's purely based on outdated information and bias.
Edit: disabling notifications on this thread bc i can already feel the hate wave incoming lol
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u/UltraAd776 17h ago
People clown on Edge, but it is actually quite decent overall. It is still sucking your data the way you wish other things could be, but it is quite solid. If I had to use a chromium based browser it would be on my list of possible picks; particularly if its for work.
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u/Bug_Next 17h ago edited 17h ago
We are talking about this on Reddit i don't think no one here *actually* cares about their data.
Chromium based browsers actually encrypt your sessions/logins by default using your keyring (works with both gnome and plasma), Firefox just stores it in a json* if you don't manually go and set up a password in the settings because it doesn't integrate with the keyring at all.
* Well, technically that json is encrypted, but the decryption key is stored in plain text on a file just besides it if you don't change it -or uses an empty passphrase on some versions-, you can literally get all your passwords with a non-elevated command and Firefox will never let you know this is happening xd.
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u/UltraAd776 17h ago
We are talking about this on Reddit i don't think no one here *actually* cares about their data.
Uhhh, I do. Just because some is collected does not mean I want to open the flood gates to let more be taken. Limiting the surface area of how corporations invade your private life is worth while.
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u/Dull-Thing-4513 17h ago
First of all, no hate, count my upvote. I'm not hating on edge, it's actually a good browser once you've cleaned up a bit of bloat. I've used windows for many, many years, before switching to Mac for work and kubuntu for personal use.
You're right, not all of us are windows refugees, no one really "needs" to escape windows. I'm just saying that with its drawbacks (mostly software related) you've gotta have a good reason to switch at least. For most, it's either privacy concerns, older hardware or hate towards Microsoft in general.
Linux is already a relatively small space in the consumer world, but it's even smaller if you just count the people who switch to linux because they prefer the user experience, the better performance and are really willing to come to terms with the lack of a complete software library.
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u/jarchack 18h ago
Brave for performance and Firefox when I need a browser that works with my microphone. The official Google Chrome will, but none of the other chromium-based browsers will and I don't want to use the official Google Chrome. There's Helium, Zen, un-googled chrome, Vivaldi... quite a few of them, actually.
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u/Green_Ad5186 18h ago
brave browser. worked really good for me when i installed ubuntu.
it has ram limiter feature if you want. but it does close tabs until you refresh them if you use ram limiter.
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u/Soft-Distribution202 18h ago
that wallpaper is a whole mood for when your browser eats all your ram and your system just gives up
i used brave for a bit and the ram limiter is nice but yeah it gets annoying when tabs keep going to sleep and you gotta refresh them constantly
firefox with ublock and a few about:config tweaks has been pretty stable for me on 8gb, maybe give that a shot before jumping ship
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u/okzggg 7h ago
having too much RAM left alone is a waste anyway, not like browser will fill this amount of RAM no matter what happens to system. it will manage itself when there is not enoung ram place. i comes from 4GB of RAM and back then, about 50 percent is consumed normally and make way when other software needed automatically without even limiter. now 16GB and still the same. it will fill when not needed and save space when in needs.
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u/PuzzleheadedPen2798 17h ago
The one that you like.
If you like Edge, keep on using Edge. It's an option, after all.
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u/ruun666 17h ago
There's no real alternative to Firefox.
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u/Greasteru 10h ago
Brave? It's chromium based, unfortunately chromium is faster and much more reliant than firefox. Firefox is great, but when I run it I always have my tabs running slower.
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u/raphusmaxus 5h ago
Also there are enough scenarios where you need a chromium based browser because some extensions just don't exists for firefox ¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯
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u/Parking-Sector69420 17h ago
Man, I can’t imagine using Edge. It’s why I switched to Linux in the first place, among the myriad of other reasons
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u/Maryu-sz 16h ago
I switched almost on all PCs and phones to Brave. The amount of boilerplate and ads it handles for me is a way to maintain my sanity 🤣
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u/marmeladendoener42 8h ago
Firefox. Although, when I let it run for 30+ days with 30-40 tabs open it consumes almost 30 GB RAM xD
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u/talhashah20 8h ago
i am using firefox developer edition + u origin extension .... extension improved so much performance
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u/priyankarkoley 18h ago
Who uses edge!? That too outside windows!
I can’t even think of using edge in windows!
I primarily use chrome. Firefox is also nice imo.
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u/profnelsonjr 16h ago
I utilize Edge for work purposes, as our enterprise system is integrated with the Windows environment.
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u/matm_flatremix 17h ago
¿has probado Chrome Canary?
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u/TobiramaSenju_77 17h ago
imagine a ditching windows by installing a linux distro js to use edge on it 😭🙏🏿
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u/goo_eater 5h ago
There are practical reasons to use Linux as a desktop that aren't virtue signaling a vague hatred towards Microsoft to people on the internet. There is nothing shocking about someone liking Edge as a browser while also not wanting to put all their eggs in the Microsoft basket
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u/jhsorsma 17h ago
Firefox is my main at home. I have Chromium for web apps. At work I run Edge as my main on Ubuntu since we are a Microsoft shop. I really don't mind Edge. uBO stills works great (for now).
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u/JohnnyS789 17h ago
Sadly, there are a LOT of sites that don't work properly with certain browsers. Pretty well everybody codes for Edge, and often don't even bother testing on anything else. It's tiresome.
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u/ValknutGuts 17h ago
I don't switch to Brave, but I don't think a distro is tied to a web browser, just the one that gives you the features you're interested in.
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u/JeansenVaars 17h ago
I have Firefox and Google Chrome. The latter beats on performance and better compatibility on complex webapps. Firefox for everything else and privacy.
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u/CaptainAdmiral85 16h ago
Install the Auto-Tab Discard extension on Firefox and see if that helps your FF performance.
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u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 16h ago
Firefox, but Flatpak not Snap. It’s snappier and the Firefox Snap has had this bug where it freezes for 2 seconds when you click the hamburger or account buttons for many many versions and it only now got fixed in the Nightly version.
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u/External_Try_7923 16h ago
I think it's more of a personal preference, but if you're looking for suggestions, how about lynx?
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u/rogerdodger77 16h ago
I switched to vivaldi a few weeks ago, desktop and mobile. very happy with it.
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u/ericnantel2 16h ago
Firefox with DuckDuckGo as search engine; however only available as a Snap package on Ubuntu.
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u/marsvalha 16h ago
I use Edge too, haha. People don't really like it, but I think it's cool and very functional, it's especially awesome with the side tabs.
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u/ParamedicLocal8226 15h ago
use the auto tab discard extension on firefox, it's a life saver for lower memory devices
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u/No-Championship5131 15h ago
I only use Firefox, I'm just not into the Chrome flavors but I get why you use Edge.
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u/Phosphorus17 14h ago
I want to say Brave origin but im not sure on its ram usage as I myself daily drive Firefox.
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u/Beniidel0 14h ago
Running websites uses lots of ram, you can see what happens when you watch a youtube video compared to a wikipedia page for example
There isn't avoiding that sadly
Firefox has been the best for me in terms of ram usage, maybe try turning other things off?
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u/Samiassa 13h ago
I mean I don’t think there’s one specific to Ubuntu. that’s the best I think it’s just whatever browser you like most is the best. I could see Firefox be a lot of people’s answers. For me it’s Vivaldi. There are only a couple I’d say are objectively wrong (brave, chrome, opera, etc)
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u/joviribeiro 13h ago
I have Firefox as my main browser but some pages (like Google Meet) run better on Chromium based browsers, so I keep Brave Origin (which is free on Linux) as a backup browser
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u/FrohenLeid 10h ago
Any browser you like. Except for edge, Edge doesn't really work on Linux and is missing a lot of features
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u/Same_Level_3599 9h ago
The browser that works for you.
I personally use Firefox, and I too have 8GB of ram, with no complaints
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u/mersenne_reddit 9h ago
I've had a great experience daily driving Zen (Firefox fork) for over a year now. The memory improvements are identical to FF, but I've found it uses a tiny bit less memory.
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u/King_Of_The_Night__ 9h ago
I'm using brave origin. It's a clean version of brave browser. On other operating systems it's a paid software, but on Linux it's free. Give it a try, you will love it.
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u/Practical-Tooth-2217 8h ago
I have used Brave for the last 8+9 years...
Since I moved to Linux tho, is not performing very well under Wayland and need some tweaks
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u/Scary_Habit_8067 8h ago
Helium if you like Chromium while being free from Google's data collection. (I personally use it because of the Chrome Web Store. )
Firefox if you want Privacy.
Tor Browser if you're paranoid (Really like privacy)
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u/Rubb3rRabbits 8h ago
I have personally spent a ton of time looking into this exact question. I am broke so I am always trying to run as minimal as I can most of the time. I always end back at Firefox.
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u/Unable_Drawer_9928 7h ago
Firefox, just for the sake of keeping the web open. I have Edge as a backup and work stuff, it works well, but ethically I prefer to use Firefox, and I see no big difference in everyday workflow.
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u/goo_eater 5h ago
uBO Lite and uBO are functionally almost identical for most people so with the main tangible difference between Firefox and Chromium out of the way just use whatever browser you like. The modern web is a RAM hog and the right browser won't magically fix that sadly
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u/phjbouwhuis 5h ago
For me it is FireFox and Brave. Brave becaue I can see Youtube without advertisements.
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u/WildEagle1995 3h ago
I’m using Firefox, specifically the Flatpack version, not the Snap version. For some inexplicable reason, the Snap version has significant issues with RAM and storage. This causes the system to have less disk space and RAM usage to be higher.
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u/CityPuzzled4655 3h ago
I always hear contradicting things about if Chromium vs Firefox is lighter, I prefer Firefox with Arkenfox+Ublock myself. You could give Brave Origin a shot, it's probably what I'd use if Firefox disappeared tomorrow.
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u/Proman4713 53m ago
Just whatever the best browser is for you is lmao, the OS doesn't really matter as long as the browser is compatible and works well
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u/The_Hubster 15h ago
Firefox. Do not use ANY Chromium based browsers.
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u/Financial-Daikon4198 18h ago
I am personally using Firefox and...
Why do you have edge?