It seems like I’m always studying free software. I believe it’s important for many reasons, most of them political, but I also believe free software is typically the most pragmatic. For example, because the source code for such software is always readily available, there is often no shortage of supporting documentation to help learn, and every minute detail of an application can be investigated if desired. This is why I’d recommend “going libre” to anyone that loves to learn. It’s an excellent experience being able to understand one’s computer the way Linux nerds do.
I also believe the free software ecosystem is typically better from a development perspective. Why should the same team programming your kernel, the center of your operating system which animates your hardware, be the team who makes your desktop environment? And why should the user be stuck with a single choice of desktop? Living in the free universe, one starts to ask interesting questions about how software gets made. Routine questions about what the latest software does turn into questions about what the user would like.
Virtually everyone on the net needs a web browser, and thankfully, the vast rendering engines which power all the mainstream choices are free software! There are three different branches to choose from when looking for full-featured browsers. Browsers such as Safari use an engine called WebKit, which was originally made by the free software org KDE. The engine for Chrome is called Blink, and is a fork of WebKit. Last but not least, Mozilla Firefox calls their web engine Gecko. I tend to favor Gecko, because it’s more configurable, supports standard web extensions and has strong roots in the free software ecosystem.
Gecko is my usual choice. To learn about its origins, check out the documentary Code Rush availble on Peertube. The organization behind it is Mozilla.
For those of the free software disposition, there are few groups more attention-worthy than GNU. GNU IceCat is pre-configured for greater privacy and security, and pruned of anti-features such as support for digital restrictions management (DRM) by more scrupulous eyes than basic FireFox. They include a handful of small web extensions, including the LibreJS add-on. An official GNU program, this extension blocks non-trivial, non-free javascript from running in the browser. Technically, javascript found on the web is usually non-free software! The goal is for such scripts to be marked with their license when delivered to users’ browsers.
Tor is a downstream project of FireFox. It is famous and controversial for its unique ability to fully anonymize web traffic using its own networking protocol and relay infrastructure when used properly. It can be made even more effective when combined with tools such as Whonix or Tails.
Webkit is my usual second choice. It’s a sleek and simple browser engine, but often doesn’t implement extra features such as standard Web Extensions.
GNOME Web is a very vanilla browsing experience, intended too be shipped as a default browser for operating systems featuring the GNOME desktop environment. The creators, GNOME Foundation, are an excellent free software organization focused on elegant yet powerful graphical applications. The edition planned for GNOME 43 will finally support FireFox's WebExtensions! Source
Eolie is a personal fork of GNOME Web, extended with python to support more features. The interesting thing about free software, is one can often choose to use some random guy’s personal programs, designed for themself. Eolie is fairly popular among GNOME users.
Blink is typically my least favorite, because it’s made by Google, the US technology conglomerate. In order to get the most out of Blink, it’s necessary to “UnGoogle” it. Many in the free software ecosystem treat it like a cursed waste of time, and they’re probably correct.
UnGoogled Chromium is an ambitious project downstream of the free Chromium browser. For those who enjoy the Chrome or Chromium browsers, but who are done with Google’s nonsense anti-features, UnGoogled Chromium can be worthwhile. In the past, there have been fiascos in which end-users found UnGoogled Chromium to still be making background connections to Google’s servers and downloading the latest unnecessary junk.
Brave is a de-Googled browser with unique performance in terms of privacy features. Unfortunately, their founder is a reactionary bigot, and their organization is antagonistic to those who prepare their own software forks. By default, they litter their user interface with advertising for the cryptocurrency trading platform of the week, and offer dystopian “basic attention tokens” for experiencing ads.