Brave Origin: I Paid For a Web Browser
At the beginning of 2020, I was using Google Chrome like most other users of the internet. Months later, I dropped it completely when I started to consider data privacy seriously and defaulted fully back to Mozilla Firefox. Okay, fine. The title isn't quite accurate because I use Vanadium on GrapheneOS regularly. Let's consider desktop devices only from this point on.
I think I've tried just about every common Firefox hardening strategy that people commonly talk about including but not limited to multi-account containers, temporary containers, uBlock Origin running at different blocking modes and custom user.js files.
In addition to using Firefox, I've experimented with alternate browsers. One of the earliest browsers I tried was Ungoogled Chromium. I dropped it pretty quickly because it never felt right using a browser that wasn't backed by a reputable organisation. When Mullvad Browser came out, I picked it up immediately. It's basically a Firefox variant that's hardened out of the box which means I really don't have much reason to mess around with a custom user.js file anymore and it's perfect for browsing the Clear Web; for anything requiring an account, I've been using a lightly hardened Firefox profile.
In April 2026, Brave announced Brave Origin along with the nightly release of the browser. I've known about the Brave browser but I've always stayed away because I didn't like all the random bloat that was built into the browser. Brave Origin is a variant of the same browser without all the bloat and I was excited about it the moment I heard about it. While my own hardened Firefox profiles have always worked reasonably well, it's always pained me to have to apply all my changes. I've also had rare breakages over the years from crappy web apps that didn't like Firefox. In the last few days, the Release channel of Brave Origin went live and I paid for and installed it today. Yes, I use Linux and I still paid for it. I'm actually making this post from it.
Time will tell if I keep using it. Mullvad Browser continues to have a place in my toolbox for the reasons I mentioned earlier. What I haven't figured out just yet is how I'll balance my usage between Mozilla Firefox and Brave Origin. I like the idea of using Firefox to support the diversity of browser engines (even though I've rolled my eyes on way more than just one occasion to Mozilla's actions in the last few years) but Brave Origin may just win by providing a better out-of-the-box experience.