Unfortunately LibreWolf doesn't appear to meet our "Mature and well-maintained" requirement and certainly not the "Popular and recognisable" requirement, especially taking into account that we're mainly aiming Zorin OS at new Linux users. It also appears that LibreWolf can sometimes run into issues with playing back DRM-protected content (for streaming Netflix and Prime Video for example), which is a common use case and a table-stakes requirement for a general-purpose web browser in our view.
As always, you can install other web browsers from the built-in Software store, including Firefox and LibreWolf. The question at hand is about the choice of default web browser, so new users can access the web in Zorin OS out of the box.
Hmm ... there would be the Mullvad Browser. It is Firefox-based, privacy orientated and comes from the Mullvad VPN Developers. So, it has a Company Background; I don't know if this is a negative Point for You.
The good Thing is, that they have a normal Repo what You can add. It is describted here:
Besides that, I would be out of good Ideas. Other Stuff I wouldn't see as a good Suggestion. But here are more that enough Users and I'm sure they can offer more Suggestions.
Please keep us informed as to how Mozilla responds to you in this regard. I think it's a good idea to give them that fair chance since, all things considered, Firefox is a fine product.
Considering the target audience of Zorin OS, I think Brave is a good choice. It's based on Chromium, so it works on almost every website, and all of its controversial features are actually disabled by default, which in an incredibly rare sight these days. Compared to other big players, it has also proven to be the most privacy respecting.
As for @Ponce-De-Leon's suggestions, I agree those are good choices on their own. Librewolf in particular is kept fairly up to date and is based on the latest version of Firefox, with only a few days or weeks behind in terms of updates.
But the reality is that a lot of the privacy features they come with out of the box tend to break many websites from working as their developers intended (we could talk about whose fault that is but...). At the end of the day, most people wouldn't even know, nor care, why "Zorin OS can't load this website when Windows can".
However, as a feature request, it might be a good idea to add a "browser selector" during the installation of Zorin OS where you could see a brief overview of some popular alternatives to the big browser vendors. Similar to Peppermint OS does it (and there was another one that Ponce also mentioned recently but I forget what distro it was).
We tested Mullvad Browser in our search for alternative browsers. Unfortunately, it appears that it also didn't support DRM content, which means that it doesn't meet our requirements as a full-featured general-purpose web browser (ditto). In addition, we found their APT repository to be unusually slow and unreliable while installing and updating the browser, which isn't ideal from an end-user perspective.
It's only been around for less than 2 years as an ancillary product in Mullvad's lineup, so we wouldn't be confident in characterising it as "Mature and well-maintained" for long-term support.
Mullvad – as a brand – is certainly more well-known than LibreWolf, but not enough to be considered "Popular and recognisable" by the general public in our view.
Okay, I understand. Well, then the Floorp Browser from Japan isn't a good Idea, too I guess because it exists not very long. This is based on Firefox ESR. But I linked it if You or other Users want to take a Look at it. To add the Repo, look at ''Download Floorp with PPA''.
Do You want only one preinstalled Browser? Because I think, You could add the Mozilla Repo and the Brave Repo and so offer Brave and Firefox preinstalled. So, the Users could decide what they want use. I mean, People can already know both Browsers from the Usage in Windows or the Smartphone. So, it wouldn't be a totally new and overwhelming Situation I would think.
Has anyone used or dealt with recently Midori? I know it has DRM support, its been out for a while, and is open source. I used it a long time ago, but I haven't used it recently. I might take a look at that later today when I get home.
On debian, I see chromium is available on the repositories, and after installing it and taking a quick look, it looks like debian changed the defaults to be as privacy-respecting as possible.
https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=chromium&searchon=names&suite=oracular§ion=all
chromium-browser seems to come up when searching it for ubuntu. Not sure about the defaults, but given that firefox had a custom start page on zorin 16 (or am i confusing it with 15?) I suspect it could be easily fixed in the case of ubuntu's package being just the stock chromium. Tell me if I'm wrong though.
I don't think Brave is a good idea. One time I tried it and it immediately pulled me away when I saw all the crypto stuff. If that was the default on an operating system I'm taking a look at for the first time, I'd assume the OS is also associated with crypto in some way and immediately run away from it as fast as possible. I know ZorinOS doesn't have anything related to crypto, and that's why I strongly suggest against having Brave as default; to avoid wrong first impressions.
Chromium seems familiar enough to not scare anyone away, while not having the privacy invasions of chrome if correctly configured. As another option, Ungoogled Chromium would be even better in terms of privacy if you could manage to give some sane defaults so people don't have to jump through workarounds on the first setup.
I think that this is important to remember. It makes a lot of sense how this topic might shift to a debate about which is the 'Best Browser' again. Let's be mindful that debate will never end.
I have been vocal about my disagreements with Brave Browser. Despite this; I agree with the ZorinGroup.
Brave Browser is the strongest contender. I think that the majority of users would not be uncomfortable with Brave Browser being default.
We all can install any preferred browser. I have for years.
I can continue to do so until the end of Zorin OS Lite.
I am happy to see the ZorinGroup offer a rethink on the default browser. For me, personally, Brave Browser is good enough given the options.
But it also meets certain necessary criteria:
very stable.
well maintained.
supports a wide variety of web content
is known for privacy
EDIT:
I saw this after I posted. I admit: This is one of my own turn-offs for Brave and this is a strong and valid point.
Brave is a great choice because it blocks ads and trackers by default, no need to install extensions manually. I've been using it for a couple of years (I think) on multiple devices and I am quite satisfied.
As many others, I do not care for crypto, the wallet functionality or AI, but the good thing is you can simply hide all of these things so they don't bother you.
I also find their search engine better as it doesn't show you multiple ads as first "results" like Google does.
I genuinely think this would be an improvement for Zorin OS from an ordinary user's perspective.
It can be helpful to remember that a company is not a person, and it does not operate as one.
A person can consider views, adjust thinking and respond with genuine feeling to things.
A company is a conglomeration of many different minds; often with a 'right hand does not know what left is doing' operation.
People are paid to respond appropriately to user concerns but what response they give has no real bearing on what decision will next be implemented in that company's actions. They can give all the reassuring words to the customer they want, while in the other building, a different group of minds are figuring out ways of taking advantage of that customer.
A company cannot really be given a "fair second chance" because a company does not think or act like a Person does. Delay, Deny, Deflect.
They will pay lip service while the other team works on how to get away with doing what they wanted to do in the first place.
Mozilla is not some person who made a mistake. They are a well established company that has a full legal team that knows how to word policy statements. They know better and had known better all along.
Thank you for your efforts regarding Mozilla, we all appreciate that you've already gone ahead, contacted Mozilla, and done some testing of alternative browsers. It is an important issue to take and take action on.
Personally, I'm in the anti-Brave camp, BUT having said that, I do think it's the only viable option available, at this time anyway. I wouldn't have a problem if Zorin_OS switched to Brave under these circumstances. Those of us who don't like the default browser just change it anyway, and there is so much support for newbies here that anyone could ask for help in changing to something different.
I'm 95% in agreement with @Aravisian's beliefs on Mozilla, Firefox (Brave too), except that while I agree that companies are not people, and so don't warrant a second chance, they are capable of hiring and firing of staff who ushered in unpopular policies, and make a turnaround in favour of their users. Let's see what happens next!
I'm looking forward to hearing what response is forthcoming from Mozilla, and if Zorin will end up dropping them!
We agree on that! I'm hoping that the backlash is big enough to shake loose some of the latest "hires", who seem to be behind this new approach.
Edit: I'm sharing this video for the content (I'm not endorsing any political point of view, I don't believe in "throwing the baby out with the bath water"!), but there are a lot of good points raised, which are well worth sharing. Also, I learned something about Yahoo and Linux Mint I'd never heard about before. Switched to Linux:
Both Brave Rewards (ads) and Brave Wallet (crypto) are disabled by default. They are exclusively opt-in features.
Companies do have incentives and interests just like people do. With sufficient backslash they may still decide it's not too late to change course. I'm not saying this is likely to happen, but for the sake of a good product it doesn't hurt to ask.
On a side note, I an wondering what is happening with Thunderbird. I stopped using that when it's Google backend could not be removed. My preference is for Evolution which works incredibly well for me.
