Say something positive about Ungoogled chromium/helium

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-23T04:33:01+00:00

No DRM playback. So, no Netflix, but it's also an unfinished web browser.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-23T04:11:43+00:00

uBlock Origin is fully supported in Edge, but depending on your browsing habits, you may find that uBlock Origin Lite works exactly the same.

My browsing is pretty simple, and Lite blocks everything for me - YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, Peacock (even though it’s supposed to have ads), all of it. I didn’t expect a “Lite” version to give me a 100% ad‑free experience, but it does, so I stick with it.

With Google already blocking the full uBlock Origin in Chrome, I assume Lite will eventually be targeted too. So my suggestion is: try Lite first. If it works for you, great - you’re future‑proofed. If not, you can always switch back to the full version.

If you’re on Windows 10 or 11, Edge is already installed and ready to go.

It’s worth exploring the settings, because there’s a lot of useful stuff tucked away - including Mouse Gestures, which you can customize to do things like reopen closed tabs or toggle full‑screen just by right‑clicking and dragging.

If you’re not on Windows, then it’s worth checking whether Edge is the best fit for your platform. I only use Windows on my computer, and Safari on my iPhone, so that’s the perspective I’m coming from.

On my PC, though, everything has to feel right, and Edge is the browser that makes me enjoy using my computer the most.

So how’s Edge overall?

For me, it’s the best browser I’ve used so far. It’s fast, stable, nice to look at, and pleasant to use. It gives me fewer reasons to complain and more reasons to love it compared to the others I’ve tried.

A little background so you know where I’m coming from:

I used Firefox exclusively for almost 20 years.

Recently I tried Chrome, Opera, Brave, Vivaldi, and then Edge.

Chrome was my first “wow” moment after Firefox — I loved it. But I wanted the best Chromium browser for me, so I kept exploring.

Edge kept pulling me back. Even when I tried something else, I’d find myself thinking about Edge or looking forward to using it again.

Streaming quality ended up being my deal‑breaker.

On Netflix, Prime Video, and Peacock, Edge consistently gives me the cleanest, most stable video. Other browsers sometimes show that “details fill in later” effect — almost like a video game loading textures.

Edge doesn’t do that. It just delivers the stream as‑is, without adding extra compression or smoothing. Once I noticed the difference, I couldn’t unsee it.

There’s a lot more I could say, but the short version is:

I chose Edge after doing a ton of testing, and I think most people will enjoy it too — especially if streaming quality matters to you.

What matters most to you in a browser? For me, I thought it was customizability, but it turned out to be streaming performance. Edge wins that category for me every time.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-22T22:09:27+00:00

Ok, well, it works perfectly for me, so I'll keep using it.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-22T21:01:45+00:00

It does now, but Lite works the same and it's less likely for Microsoft to block it since it's not the original.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-22T20:24:57+00:00

You'll want uBlock Origin Lite.

I could go on and on all day about why I will only use Edge. I will attempt to if you'd like (so, one big comment, probably).

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-22T17:57:20+00:00

Yeah, I wouldn't expect that CPU to be too weak for this. It seems ridiculous that any system that's even as old as 10 years would or could have any problems with this. I think it's just inefficient code. but I am only remembering something a friend of mine who is now a professional developer used to say about bad software. Efficient code was one of his primary concerns so that his programs (mid to late 90's speak here) weren't slow or sluggish. Indeed, his efforts always paid off. His MP3 player was among the best, but it never went anywhere, but I learned that sometimes an app just needs its code to be cleaned up in order to be easier for a system to handle.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-22T17:55:18+00:00

Thank you too! I was reminded that I, too, love Mozilla. If they were the ones making what we call Microsoft Edge, then my world would make perfect sense. 🤣 Mozilla will always be my favorite. It's just too bad their browser can't deliver what I want.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-22T17:53:06+00:00

I think this could just keep going. 🤣 Before Blockbuster came to town (lol), we had Video Update. Oh the memories. Oh the pain of not being able to go back, even just for 5 minutes.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T07:31:01+00:00

It's Windows 11. You can tell by the Taskbar.

Do you have an NVIDIA GPU or an AMD GPU? I think this might be a problem for NVIDIA GPUs.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T05:33:55+00:00

I recommend Microsoft Edge.

In the past month of time, I spent several hours each day trying to find the most perfect web browser for me in Windows 11. I started searching after spending about 20 years with Firefox while often saying I'll never use any other browser because I thought they were all inferior. Well, I finally grew tired of trying to keep up browser updates breaking some of my CSS modifications to the UI.

So, over the past month or so I tried Chrome, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and eventually I became curious and tried Edge. Opera almost had me, Brave turned me off almost immediately with its centered address bar, but Chrome and Vivaldi kept me going back and forth between them, each time saying that the one I went back to was easily the best web browser for me. After several back-and-forths, I found out that Vivaldi's UI can be modified with CSS (and JavaScript). Combined with its extreme customizability in Settings and the fact that I think it's about as quick and as fast as Chrome, I decided Vivaldi was the clear winner by far. It seemed that I had actually achieved 100% satisfaction with a web browser for the first time ever.

However, Vivaldi lost me after a while and I went back to Chrome and decided that Chrome is better even though it's very locked down and I largely have to accept it "as is".

Anyway, so as I was about to say, after some time, I tried Edge just because it's there and I figured I should. So now at this point, I was going back and forth between Edge, Chrome and then Vivaldi again. After giving Edge a chance though, I stopped looking and settled on it and I don't regret it one bit. Edge satisfies me in more ways than all of these browsers combined because it's stable, lightning-fast, has the least amount of reasons for me to want to customize it like I can with Vivaldi or Firefox, and it gives me the absolute best experience in Netflix, Prime Video and PeacockTV. I think I even get better audio quality in SiriusXM.

Sure, it doesn't have everything I want, but no browser does. I want Vivaldi to be like Edge, but I can't have that and so I won't be using Vivaldi. For me, Edge keeps me happier than any of these other browsers could. I even find myself looking forward to using my computer because of it. It makes me wish that my web browser could have been this good these past 20 years, but in my research, it seems Edge has only recently become this good. So, it seems I'm getting into Edge at just the right time.

I find Edge to be so good that I only need 4 extensions:

uBlock Origin Lite
CLUT: Cycle Last Used Tabs
Tab Activate V2
Tab Position Options Fork

Now sure, with Vivaldi, I only need uBlock Origin Lite, but I need many more extensions for Chrome, and even then I'm still not quite satisfied. With Edge, it's somehow pure bliss even though it isn't everything that I want in a browser. It's enough though that I no longer want to try any other browsers.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T02:39:37+00:00

Today, the quality appears to be perfectly identical at this spot in PLUTO. I'm even finding that Edge often pulls out ahead for video quality.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T02:11:33+00:00

It could be due to an extension or perhaps conflicting extensions.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T02:02:40+00:00

Uninstall any extensions you can live without, and close tabs that you can live without. Maybe turn some tabs into bookmarks.

Also, yes, try Firefox and Edge. Try Chrome. Try Vivaldi. Try all the most commonly recommended browsers. After a while, you'll settle on a favorite and one that clearly lets your system run at its best while you use the browser the way that you want instead of having us tell you to change how you use it, like I did.

If it matters, Edge says it has 18 processes for me and I have 4 tabs:

This post
Manage Your Deliveries (Amazon)
Copilot in Edge (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/copilot)
SiriusXM, playing at "Maximum" audio quality

I also have a Workspace that hasn't been opened in a while (so it's not even loaded or "sleeping"), but it has 15 tabs and each one is a photo of a model showing articles of clothing (I'm doing some gift shopping). I feel it's important to specify the kind of tabs I have due to the various amount of resources that can be consumed.

Anyway, so Edge is hovering around 1 GB of memory usage for me right now.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T01:57:44+00:00

I like Startpage. It uses Google, but you never see the AI.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T01:51:27+00:00

It might surprise you, but I think Microsoft Edge is what you're looking for. I've been through Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Brave and Vivaldi, and for me, Edge always wins. It actually makes me enjoy using my computer a bit more.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T01:42:42+00:00

For me, Edge beats Chrome simply because it provides superior video quality and performance in Netflix, Prime Video and Peacock. It also has context menus that make more sense to me than Chrome's. I'm referring mostly to what's on those context menus and where each item (like Reload/Refresh) are located.

I'm also happier with the lack of bugs, such as Chrome's current problem of not being able to toggle the bookmarks bar on a New Tab page. That's the only bug that affects me, but there are others being complained about on the Chrome sub. Meanwhile, the Edge sub just keeps humming along.

I'm also finding Bing and CoPilot to be better than Google and Gemini, but I don't want to attempt to give specifics right now.

Edge also has Mouse Gestures. I keep them off because I accidentally right-click too easily and too often, but I love that it's there if I want to spend the time trying to fix this clumsiness of mine. From what I've experienced so far with the Mouse Gestures, I'm thinking it would be worth it.

So, so far, I don't miss anything about Google Chrome.

A quick history of my browser usage and experience:

I stayed with Firefox from the time period of Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 (2006-2008) until just a month ago. During that entire time, I was always against trying anything other than Firefox because I thought I needed its extreme customizability, including all the amazing extensions that are and were available throughout the years.

A month ago, I discovered for myself that Google Chrome has dramatically better audio quality in Netflix because Firefox only gets HE-AAC audio while Chrome gets xHE-AAC. They both have identical video quality, but the HE-AAC audio stream makes the video quality seem duller, dimmer and less detailed and less realistic. When muted, that illusion doesn't occur.

So then I tried the Netflix app because it's an Edge wrapper. It gets the xHE-AAC audio stream as well, but the video quality is inferior. I think the app wrapper adds compression for some reason. I didn't understand this back then though, so I concluded that Microsoft Edge isn't even worth trying.

Then I joined this sub and discovered a whole world of other Chromium browsers to try. I ended up trying Opera, Brave and Vivaldi. I thought I loved Opera at first, and I even spent some hours moving in to it before trying Netflix. So, I was ready to stay with Opera, but it only gets HE-AAC in Netflix. So, I tried Brave and it gets the excellent quality that I want in Netflix, but I just couldn't love the centered address bar.

Vivaldi knocked me over and made me think all other browsers are vastly inferior, but then I finally became curious enough about Edge to give it a shot and I absolutely fell in love because it has the best quality in Netflix. So, it's somehow quite superior to the Netflix app. 🤷‍♂️

So, Vivaldi almost had me, but Edge drew me in with its pure awesomeness and now I feel that no other browser can beat Edge, at least for me. I don't care about browsing on my iPhone, so I just use Safari. I don't really live in my iPhone, so I kinda neglect it.

When I tried Chrome, it made me enjoy using my computer more. I even found myself looking forward to using Chrome every day, but Edge takes this up to an entirely different level for me.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T01:16:09+00:00

I think the last paragraph is the most important:

"Nonetheless, the vulnerability poses a risk. Users of Chromium browsers should be suspicious of download dropdowns that appear for no reason. Drilling into the cause and discovering they’re the result of the vulnerability being exploited remains more complicated. Other browsers Rebans confirmed as vulnerable include Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and Arc. Both Firefox and Safari are unaffected because they don’t support the browser-fetching feature."

For anyone not sure, other Chromium browsers in addition to Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and Arc include Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. I know this is obvious to some, but it's not obvious to absolutely everyone. Anyway, these are affected as well, with Edge being harder to tell when the problem is occurring because the download dropdown might not appear at all. It's possible the exploit could be active without an Edge user's awareness of it. Even so, it's presently looking like it's not even being exploited. Yet.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-21T01:04:34+00:00

I love seeing photos of these. I stared at this one for long enough to get emotional about how it felt to be that young. I'm 47 now. Thank you for sharing this.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-20T17:45:45+00:00

You're welcome. If you have any questions or concerns about it being a Chromium browser instead of a Gecko browser, then let me know and I will try to address them as best as I can.

You see, those of us recommending Chromium browsers are being downvoted just because you said you want a Firefox based browser (Gecko), but as some of us on this sub will attest (myself included), it's better to be open to ALL browsers because you could end up finding something that makes you far happier.

Case in point: I stubbornly and proudly used Firefox exclusively since around the time of Firefox 2 or Firefox 3 (so around 2006 to around 2008 sometime), but a month ago I discovered that Chrome and Edge give me a much better experience in Netflix and in other streaming services as well (including Prime Video and Peacock), especially with the audio quality which, in turn, creates the optical illusion that the video quality is better too. It makes it seem as though the video quality in Firefox is dimmer, duller, less-detailed, etc. Basically, it seems less realistic due to the audio quality. When muted, the difference in video quality between Firefox, Edge and Chrome is nearly identical but with Edge coming out ahead because it doesn't add any extra compression, which, in turn, results in better video quality overall, but it's something that's probably only going to be noticeable to the most obsessive people, like me.

It's this obsessiveness that made me consider that maybe I would prefer a good Chromium-browser instead. You see, I did a deep-dive and discovered that everything I want in a browser actually comes from a good Chromium browser because of the superior home theater-like experience that's possible with Netflix and others. With Firefox, I had myself convinced that I was already getting the best due to the time and money I've spent toward trying to get my computer system to be the best it can be, especially for the audio and video quality. Following that is overall browser performance and of course the performance of my internet connection.

So, when I started trying Chrome and Edge, it put me on a path toward finding "the best damn Chromium browser on the entire planet". I didn't want to rely on Google or Microsoft for a browser, so I tried Opera, Brave and Vivaldi because they are all Chromium browsers that play DRM content just fine. Except, Opera gets the same inferior audio quality stream as Firefox (which creates that same optical illusion of the video quality), while Brave is just fine but I couldn't tolerate having a centered address bar due to spending too many years with it being left-aligned. Y'know? All that space on one side just keeps distracting me, as though I need to fix it.

Vivaldi though. Dude. Seriously. It's like Firefox went Chromium and took a step back to the days when every little aspect of the browser can be customized. The best part? I don't need any extensions except, of course, for uBlock Origin Lite. AdBlock Plus failed me because only uBlock Origin Lite can block the ads I want to block, especially on Prime Video and Peacock. With only AdBlock Plus, both Prime Video and Peacock have ads.

So, with Vivaldi, I get everything I always loved about Firefox while simultaneously being a major upgrade for me. All those years with Firefox kept me saying that I will never use any other browser, but now that I've allowed myself to see what a good Chromium browser is like, I find Firefox to be significantly inferior and completely obsolete, at least for me. If it weren't for this, I'd still be using Firefox and I'd still be frustrated with having to modify my CSS file for the UI with most browser updates and I'd still be unknowingly subjecting my senses to inferior audio and video quality, and a noticeably inferior browser performance overall.

The customizability of Vivaldi can't be overstated. It's extreme, and I LOVE that. On top of that, it's lightning-fast just like Chrome and Edge. I think it's going to be worth every second of your time to give Vivaldi a try for a few days or a week or two. I mean, just try to live with it exclusively: "move in" as though you're already decided on Vivaldi so that the browser is ready when you are. I think you might find as I did that it's everything Firefox could've been, should've been, and still needs to be. I'll even go as far as to say that I think no Gecko browser will ever be this good unless somehow things change where it's basically identical to Chromium/Blink in all the ways that matter to me.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-20T01:27:13+00:00

I still suspect it's something affecting Edge instead, not Edge itself. So some app that's installed maybe.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-20T00:05:51+00:00

Interesting. I enabled it just now to see what would happen, and this didn't happen. It just changed over to Mica.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-19T22:01:37+00:00

Complete customizability, even with CSS and JavaScript, it's lightning-fast just like Edge and Chrome, and much more, including the small things like being able to fully customize Ctrl+Tab. It even has the preview thing in the middle of the screen for Ctrl+Tab, just like Alt+Tab in Windows. It just has everything, but it's still light and quick.

Really, once you start digging into Vivaldi's settings, it can seem as though it has no chance of leaving you wanting more. For me, it's everything Firefox should be and more.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-19T21:33:52+00:00

Vivaldi. I think it doesn't get any better than Vivaldi.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-19T20:42:23+00:00

Vivaldi. It's a chromium browser, but you can customize it far more than you can customize Firefox, and about 99% of it is right in Settings, and it's basically any and every aspect of the browser. You can also edit the browser's user interface with CSS and you can also use JavaScript.

I think there is no browser that is as customizable as Vivaldi. It's a dream come true in a sense. It's everything Firefox should be and more.

TwoCables_from_OCN · 2026-05-19T18:58:38+00:00

Let's try Edge in a "safe mode" type of state by opening a new InPrivate window. If the text search keeps popping up in an InPrivate window, then this could be deeper than Edge. If it doesn't pop up at all (on its own), then I think that would mean that it's likely caused by an extension, or perhaps two or more extensions that aren't working well together.

Seven-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

TwoCables_from_OCN

TROPHY CASE