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Is Mull a good private browser for android?
(discuss.tchncs.de)
I use Mull as my daily driver. It works well. It tends to break some sites, so I keep Fennec as a backup.
Same, minus the Fennec as a backup thing.
Honestly my experience is that if a site is broken it probably isn't work using. That being said I can't remember the last time something broke. I mostly do research and reading so maybe it is just my use case
I like it. Pretty damn good for privacy, based on Gecko, supports desktop extensions, and developed by the Divested Computing Group (the same one that created and maintains DivestOS).
It's fantastic. Can't recommend it enough. The best part for me is that it's on Fdroid
It would be perfect except that the fingerprint protection includes forcing the screen refresh rate to the lowest common denominator. Scrolling is unbearable.
They need to report whatever number they want while always using the highest rate instead.
it's worth noting that this is the intended behaviour for privacy.resistFingerprinting. this is not exclusive to Mull.
I know it's intended, but I find it unusable. Report what you want, but disconnect from the actual refresh rate. Best of both worlds.
I wholly agree with you there, I'm just saying it's the same behavior on all browsers built on Firefox. true for desktop as well
Does Firefox standard fingerprint resistance include the refresh rate? Because I use Firefox over mull on Android because of the drastic difference when scrolling.
yes, if you enable resist fingerprinting on any Firefox build it will cap refresh rate to 60hz. Mull is not doing anything special, it's just changing about:config options by default.
you can disable resist fingerprinting in mull and regain standard refresh rate (although you lose fingerprinting protection) just as you can enable resistFingerprinting in Firefox beta or nightly and see refresh rate cap at 60.
Ok, that actually sounds encouraging to me. Honestly, on Android Firefox I don't see the option for resist fingerprinting. I am using Strict Enhanced Tracking protection but that isn't affecting refresh. What am I missing?
you need to use Firefox beta, nightly, mull, or Fennec F-Droid to access about:config and from there you can search for and enable resistFingerprinting. it's not an option in the settings.
Ok, I've now had time to check this out. Android Firefox is set to strict Enhanced Tracking Protection which says offers fingerprint protection. If that is capping my refresh rate, then I can't see it. Scrolling is smooth.
In contrast, Mull is distractingly flashy when scrolling. There is absolutely something different going on here.
Does this cause heating issues? I've noticed this happening to me while using Mull.
I'm pretty sure it's the opposite, although it's understandable that it'd give off that illusion.
You might experience a lower framerate in apps because your battery is overheating, but intentionally invoking it (like Mull does) will make your device require less processing power and thus less likely to overheat.
It should set your screen to 60 Hz
And that is exactly why I find it unusable. I have a 120 Hz phone slowed down to a hideous 60 Hz. This is why use Firefox instead of mull.
To each there own I guess
What's the browseraudit.com score of using it?
361 passed, 30 warnings, 40 skipped in my device and network.
You also might want to try running the eff fingerprinting test. It isn't always a good metric but it does give you a decent idea of how well your browser protects your privacy.
It is a really good browser just make sure you install ublock origin. The only big privacy issue is the screen resolution but that's really hard to defend against.
I've started using Fulguris lately, just random tryout. Its actually decent and has a built in content blocker where you can add lists with the big three main ones already being there. I'm not 100% sure how barebones privacy is on it, but it is open source and from what Exodus says there's no trackers (unless you opt into Google Crash Reporting which is off by default). It does have some extra permissions you might not need, so if you want a near-permissionless browser, it might not bwe the one for you.
it's the best private daily driver. recommend to pair with something like cromite too
My combo is Mull and Mulch.
the Divested combo, based
I honestly had no idea Mulch was from Divest, it just works better for me than Cromite. Thanks for the info.
that's because Cromite is much more tightened down in terms of privacy and security. Mulch is basically vanilla with some hardening patches
Absolutely. Cromite needs a bit of tweaking to work for me, and Mulch needs some tweaking to be more private.
No such thing as the perfect browser.
I use Privacy Browser
I used FOSS Browser, now im into Tor Browser
Mull is better as extensions and has a better UI (in my option)
I stopped using it after I was having many crashing issues (it was from upstream, but at the time upstream was already updated and it took weeks for them to release an update). Since Mull is just Firefox with a few settings changed I decided to use regular firefox, but it seems that on Android if you are really rad about privacy you should be using Vanadium (which unfortunately is Chromium based)
this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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