Should I use the default firefox on Qubes OS

2026-03-02 04:02 UTC

I’m installing Qubes OS for the first time, and I was wondering if there is any disadvantage to installing librewolf (or something similar) as my primary browser instead of default firefox? If I do want to do this, is there a recommended method beyond “install it as normal in the template”? I notice that when creating a new qube, there is a menu for additional applications; how exactly does that work? For practical reasons I might also want to install some kind of chromium based browser (probably helium), but I wouldn’t expect to use it much.

Replies (3)

@pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 2026-03-02 05:26

disadvantage to installing librewolf (or something similar) as my primary browser instead of default firefox? LibreWolf comes with more anti-features disabled. You’ll discover which websites are built by assholes. Many answers will not surprise you, but a few might. LibreWolf can be configured either site-by-site or globally, to allow whatever anti-features you are comfortable with, but the disadvantage is needing to change the settings. The advantage I like in LibreWolf is itships without stupid crap like Google search or Pocket. Since I always remove both, LibreWolf saves me some time, overall.

Open ##481149
@Heinous@feddit.online 2026-03-02 06:18

do you trust mozilla?

Open ##481623
@ken@discuss.tchncs.de 2026-03-03 05:52

What are some of your goals, motivations, restrictions, and threat model? Hard to give great advice without knowing more. I would encourage to check out Konform Browser! (am dev) It’s significantly more relevant for privacy than Firefox without compromising on functionality. In any case a benefit of QubesOS is that you can easily use several in different AppVMs so you can mix and match. Regardless of whatever else you use I guess you will always have Tor Browser on the side to, for example.

Open ##499670