Google's Chrome OS operating system updates itself silently and automatically - as do most of the core apps associated with the platform - and it doesn't get gunked up and slowed down over time, as traditional operating systems tend to do. They’re not going to do much for your Amazon shopping trips, but the geekier users may find them useful.As far as computers go, Chromebooks are almost shockingly low-maintenance. Still, if you’re (perhaps rightly) paranoid about web privacy, that might be a discomfort you’re prepared to wear.īrave’s rebel-without-a-pause credentials are reinforced with built-in support for cryptowallets, allowing users easy access to various currencies. Some sites may also want you to fill out one of those painful Captcha tests before granting access. Note that browsing with Tor is much slower than normal as your connection is bounced around different locations to mask its identity. Its private browsing mode also includes the option to browse with Tor, which means your activity is not only hidden from others on the computer, but also from your internet provider or employer. You get to select your default search engine during set-up, with options such as the tracker-free DuckDuckGo on the list. It’s ridiculously fast.īrave is big on privacy too. Most pages load the instant you click on the link or the bookmark. One thing’s for sure: Brave is certainly faster than Chrome as a result. Ultimately, it’s down to personal conscience whether you think that’s fair or not. That doubtless harms many web publishers, although Brave does try and make amends with its own advertising scheme, which permits only certain types of “privacy-friendly” ads and smacks a little of poacher turned gamekeeper. Braveīrave picks up speed by blocking ads Barry Collins/Braveīrave takes the controversial decision to block ads and trackers by default. It’s not as draconian as Brave (below), although you do wonder whether Microsoft would be quite so happy to thwart web advertisers if its own attempts to sell web ads had proved more successful.
Even if you later open that PDF in a different program, such as Adobe Reader, the edits are saved.Įdge is edgier than Google on privacy too, giving you the option to apply Basic, Balanced or Strict tracking controls when you first set up the browser. Most browsers have these now, but Edge’s allows you to highlight passages of text or scribble on the document (especially handy if your laptop has a stylus), then save those changes for later reference. Microsoft Edge also has an excellent built-in PDF reader. If you use Edge on your mobile device, Collections are synced too. It’s a brilliantly simple research tool and Edge retains the link to the original website, so you can go back and buy that dress or re-read the whole interview from which you spliced a quote.
Collections is a great built-in Edge feature that allows you to drag images or snippets of text into a “collection” of, say, clothes you’d like to buy or artists you admire. It was one of the best decisions Microsoft has made in years, because it’s freed the developers from worrying about the nuts ‘n bolts of the browser engine to focus on great Chrome-beating features. Microsoft EdgeĮdge lets you curate collections of images and text Barry Collins/MicrosoftĪfter years of laboring with Internet Explorer and then its own Edge engine, Microsoft finally conceded defeat and shifted Edge to Chromium.
Vivaldi is a hugely powerful browser that deserves more acclaim than it gets. Trackers and ads can be blocked in the browser, although nothing is blocked by default and Vivaldi gives you the option to exempt sites from the blocking.
If you want browser tabs at the bottom of the screen, audio to be silenced by default, or the browser’s Dark Mode to kick in at a different time to your operating system’s, it’s all here. And if Vivaldi does something you don’t like, you can almost certainly change it, because its hugely customizable. Vivaldi has a huge array of features, far too many to mention here, but they don’t slow the browser down. You don’t even need to visit the site first. If you’ve got a favorite site you search frequently, you can assign it a letter (say ‘F’ for Forbes) and then type that letter into your address bar along with a search term to get search results from that site. Custom searches are another great Vivaldi feature.