Consent-O-Matic★★★★★Convenient browser extension that detects cookie consent pop-ups and automatically fills them out according to your choices. Lets you know it’s working without getting in your way.
Firefox★★★★☆I still have a soft spot for Firefox. At times it’s been the best web browser on Windows and Linux. It’s still good, has a solid extension ecosystem, and serves as an important bulwark against one company dominating browser tech.
Firefox Sync★★★★☆Works on nearly every Firefox-based browser and can mix and match. Even IronFox and LibreWolf recommend using it, as it’s encrypted end-to-end.
Floccus Bookmarks Sync★★★★★Very flexible, syncs across many different desktop browsers and mobile devices, and for privacy it can run on your own server or encrypted on another cloud service.
GNU IceCat★★★☆☆Firefox minus all branding and connections to Mozilla services, plus add-ons to block non-FSF-approved JavaScript.
IronFox★★★★☆A privacy-hardened Firefox variation for Android, comparable to LibreWolf on desktops. Removes Mozilla tracking and services like Pocket. Locks down features that can leak data, but those changes can break some sites.
KeePass Password Managers★★★★★KeePassXC, its browser extension, and KeePass2Android are a nice, clean set of apps to manage your passwords on your OWN desktop and mobile devices, auto-fill websites and apps, and sync over your own server or cloud provider.
LibreWolf★★★★☆Customized Firefox, with an eye toward security and privacy. Follows the stable release channel. Works well most of the time, but privacy features can break some sites.
Mastodon – Simplified Federation★★★★★A Firefox add-on that automatically opens remote Mastodon users or posts in your home server when you interact with them.
Privacy Badger★★★★★Tracking protection add-on for web browsers that also converts embedded media to placeholders and adds GPC support to browsers that don’t have it built in. (It used to detect new trackers automatically, but had to stop when someone figured out how to track that.)
Regarding Mozilla and BraveOn Brendan Eich’s brief promotion to CEO at Mozilla, the fallout for Mozilla and the creation of Brave.
Tor Browser★★★★☆When you really want (or need) to stay private while using the web, Tor is the way to go. Just keep the drawbacks in mind when you do.
Waterfox★★★★☆A Firefox fork aimed at improved performance and privacy, without sacrificing usability. Also available on Android.
Wayback Machine Browser Extension★★★★☆Useful for when you want to make sure the pages you’re reading will still be around in some form in the future, and to easily get at additional context. Checks every page you view against the Wayback Machine, so turn it off when you’re not using it.
Xmarks (Discontinued)★★★★☆Xmarks was a cross-browser bookmark sync service that I used for a long time to keep Chrome, Firefox, IE, and Safari on multiple computers using the same set of bookmarks. It shut down in 2018.
Zen Browser★★★★☆Similar to Arc, Zen has a non-cluttered design that stays out of your way. Unlike Arc, it’s built on Firefox, runs on more platforms, and doesn’t require you to log in just to use it!
@font-face Crashes Firefox on Fedora 11 (Obsolete)
Until Fedora updated one of its libraries, Firefox on Fedora 11 would crash on any website that uses an embedded font.
Cloning a GitHub Repo via Mobile FirefoxEven on a tablet with a big enough screen that GitHub looks like it’s showing the desktop version, you might have to insist on it to get all the buttons to appear.
Don’t Hide Version NumbersIt breaks user expectations with no real benefit, and makes it hard to tell if you’ve actually gotten the latest security fix.
Keep Your System Updated!Most drive-by computer infections use old vulnerabilities for which patches are already available.
KeePass Password ManagersKeePassXC, its browser extension, and KeePass2Android are a nice, clean set of apps to manage your passwords on your OWN desktop and mobile devices, auto-fill websites and apps, and sync over your own server or cloud provider.
On Broken HTMLFrom time to time the idea is put forth that less common browsers need to start dealing with bad code. There are two problems with that view.
Pure CSS ButtonsAs part of a minor site optimizing kick, I replaced the validation labels with something smaller, less obtrusive, and directly on the page. I tried to duplicate the look of the classic antipixel-style buttons in CSS.
Reverse the Colors when Viewing a Web PageNot as good as a real dark mode, but you can easily reverse the colors on any website you’re viewing, turning light pages dark and dark pages light.
Simple Browser Categorization (Obsolete)
Sometimes you want to know exactly what software people (or bots) are using to view your website. Sometimes all you want to know is which rendering engine’s quirks you need to cater to.
Web Design is Like PizzaA lot of pages aren’t as specific as the authors think they are. When you write code and test it on only one browser, you’re not testing that the code is correct, you’re testing that that browser makes the same assumptions you do.
Webslices and Microsummaries (Obsolete)
Both features have since been removed, but they offered and interesting way to let visitors know when a site had been updated.