this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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Firefox

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[–] BeanCounter@sh.itjust.works 278 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Summary:

  • Brendan Eich's donation to Proposition 8, opposing same-sex marriage.
  • Backlash and resignation from Mozilla CEO position due to controversy.
  • Creation of Brave Software and fundraising despite backlash.
  • Plan to replace ads with Brave's own ad network faced legal challenges.
  • Introduction of Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) cryptocurrency for ad incentives.
  • Privacy scandal involving affiliate codes added to URLs for revenue collection.

Please at least copypaste the content when you post...

[–] iByteABit@lemm.ee 68 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't usually judge by looks, but you can just tell that Brendan Eich is an insecure fragile person with many mental problems.

I don't know what's worse: The whole anti same-sex marriage deal or inventing Javascript.

Probably Javascript..

[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 32 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Oh he's THAT guy?!

Fuck that guy. He basically is the reason popups was so damn widespread.

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[–] IHeartBadCode@kbin.social 166 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Brave Software, the company behind the browser of the same name, was founded by Brendan Eich. He's best known as the creator of JavaScript from his days at Netscape Communications

Say no more fam.

[–] nxfsi@lemmy.world 61 points 1 year ago

Truly no atonement can be sufficient for a sin that grave

[–] hai@lemmy.ml 145 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (26 children)

TL;DR: The article claims that the Brave web browser is bad and should not be used.

The author points out that Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript, co-founder (and ex-CEO) of Mozilla, and founder of Brave, donated 1,000 USD in support of a proposition to ban same-sex marriage. Along with making the claim that Brave's goal is not to act as an ad-blocker, but instead to build and grow their own advertisement network, and he also believes that the network has several flaws:

  • Brave Ads paysout in a form of cryptocurrency, called BAT (🦇).
  • As BAT is a cryptocurrency there is high volatility.
  • BAT can not be redeemed for fiat ("actual") money directly from within the Brave Wallet.
  • The author also believes that "it [the network] has largely failed" but that it "has generated a lot of revenue for Brave," via the ICO (Initial Coin Offering; IPO for crypto).

In addition to these key points the author also:

  • Claims that Brave prompted FTX, before the scandal.
  • Cites the The Brave Marketer Podcast where ex-CMO of Crypto.com Steven Kalifowitz shares an ambitious goal of being a "'brand like Coke and Netflix.'" The author then mentions that:
    • In 2023 there was a report from The Financial Times that Crypto.com traded against their customers.
    • In 2022 the company try to hide the severity of its layoffs.
  • Mentions Brave's integration with Gemini, and how the crypto exchange is under investigation for lying about FDIC insurance.
  • Mentions a partnership with the the 3XP Web3 Gaming Expo where they sponsored the Esports Arena and rewarded contestants with the BAT token.
  • Claims that Brave added affiliate/referral codes to URLs, such as "binance.us."

Finally, the author lists Firefox and Vivaldi as alternatives to Brave, and ends the article with "Brave Browser is irredeemable, and you should not use it under any circumstances."

I am human, please let me know if I've made a mistake.

Edit: Fixed bat emoji and typo.

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The author points out that Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript, co-founder (and ex-CEO) of Mozilla, and founder of Brave, donated 1,000 USD in support of a proposition to ban same-sex marriage.

My impression was Brave got started after he got hoofed out of Mozilla or left on his own accord after the backlash for showing his ass to be a homophobe. Redditor types were of course very angry about this blatant disregard for frozen peaches and jumped onto his new venture in droves

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[–] viking@infosec.pub 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As BAT is a cryptocurrency there is high volatilability (I don’t know if I spelled that right :/ ).

Volatility :-)

[–] zerohash@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But Volatilability sounds cool

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[–] Lafuma300@lemmy.world 90 points 1 year ago (41 children)

No. Couldn't care less what the founder did or didn't do. We need as many non-Google browsers as possible. The problem with Brave is that it is a chromium browser.

[–] shotgun_crab@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'd say being chromium makes it a Google browser...

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[–] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml 77 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The fact is i don't care about these things. All it matters is that Brave uses Chromium, therefore I'll never touch it.

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[–] jabberati@social.anoxinon.de 74 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

@whou Don't forget the time they made it possible to 'donate' to creators, but when creators weren't signed up with their program #Brave would just keep the donation. So users would think they have donated for example to Tom Scott, but in reality he never received anything. Overall just a scummy company.

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[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 64 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

[Eich] donated $1,000 in support of California's Proposition 8 in 2008, which was a proposed amendment to California's state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

Even though I do not agree at all with the donation and support - out of the things that influence me into choosing a browser, 15 year-old private donations of appointed CEOs is pretty low on that list.

And the whole BAT thing is opt-in and they're very transparent about it. I don't get why people get so triggered when the C word - crypto - is involved.

[–] Infiltrated_ad8271@kbin.social 35 points 1 year ago (12 children)

I think the only relevant criticism I see is adding affiliate codes to urls (until they were caught).

The author also forgot the polemic of adding twitter and facebook trackers to the whitelist, and impersonating people in their ads. There are some interesting criticisms against brave, I don't understand why their detractors are obsessed with the CEO and crypto.

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[–] buh@hexbear.net 57 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I don’t use it because the UI and logo are ugly

[–] wallmenis@lemmy.one 24 points 1 year ago

Honestly...

Based

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[–] heavyboots@lemmy.ml 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

I mean… I've been using Firefox since Google silo'd all log-ins together.

On the other hand, search.brave.com is freaking incredible. It's so much better than Google, Bing or DDG at this point, it's shocking. I switched a couple weeks ago and it's surreal to see so many usable, useful results on the first page again.

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[–] drathvedro@lemm.ee 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Please stop reposting this crap every fucking day. What's up with you and this exact article in particular anyway? Are you getting paid or something?

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[–] ytg@feddit.ch 38 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Fine, but, like, don't recommend Vivaldi. Also, if you disable the Brave ads, you're not really supporting them, while still getting the benefits.

— Sent from Librewolf

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[–] xaxl@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

You shouldn't use Brave simply because it's heavily infected with crypto shit and tries to monitorize your web browsing time by default. Not everything you do has to be a side hustle.

Sure you can "switch it off" but then why not use something else in the first place that's focus isn't trying to make money out of you. If Brave ever gained any decent market share the web would be an even shitter place than what Google is suggesting at the moment.

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[–] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 31 points 1 year ago

I don't use it because if I had to pause to laugh at the self-seriousness every time I opened a browser, I would get even less work done than I do now

[–] FIST_FILLET@lemmy.ml 31 points 1 year ago (5 children)

did not know about the founder’s past, cheers for this. whenever i’m forced to open a chromium browser for something from now on, i’ll be using vivaldi.

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[–] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

To be honest the best chromium based browser I've used (when I'm forced to use a chromium based browser) is the Samsung internet one. It has a dark mode that actually works and protects my vampire eyes lol.

Never used brave because I heard all of the scammy ad network and crypto stuff years ago, immediately put me off it. Now learning that the creator probably hates me, it's just another reason not to touch it.

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[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 year ago (14 children)

As if people really using a browser with a built-in advertising network.

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[–] Echo71Niner@lemm.ee 30 points 1 year ago (7 children)

What a shitty fucking article.

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[–] Fuckass@hexbear.net 28 points 1 year ago

Brave is terrible. But while not entirely relevant, so is DuckDuckGo. These mfs have enough money to appear in superbowl commercials lol. How can anyone trust their privacy claims when their shit is in the US and I don’t believe they’ve been audited. I suppose it’s good to find alternative results, but for privacy? Come on

[–] ilikekeyboards@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

Fuck chromium and fuck Google

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