Hey there. I am here to ask for a bit of guidance.

For around 16 years I have been using Firefox as my main browser, while trying some different ones, but never straying out too far: Those recent 250 employees fired just before renewing their 500 million contract with Google just did it (I was already discomtempt with stuff like UI changes, lack of customization, etc). I just found that I don't know any browser that can replace it and would love to hear suggestions.

I had tried SeaMonkey in the past, and I like it. It just won't compile anymore on my machine. I also remember it was very sluggish (A+ for the interface tho).

Chrome is a big no-no because of its data collection. I had tried Chromium in the past, but it won't do it for me as it won't display websites with DRM, like Netflix.

Most recommendations go towards WebKit engine based browsers. Those are a big nope for me too: I use two computers and compile everything: My puny dualcore takes nearly TWO days to compile webkit, and my average 6th gen I5 takes 8+ hours (sometimes over 12). The smell of burning CPU is still chiselled into my brain.

So without Webkit, Chrome and SeaMonkey: ¿Is it there anything I could use?

ps: Links and lynx always worked for me, but they are not great for Netflix

I have a few. Like you, I'm underwhelmed with the current Firefox which has slid in tracking while selling itself as a paragon of privacy.

Primarily, I use Palemoon. It's a fork of firefox code before they started messing with half-a**ed languages (pre-Artemis IIRC?) but they took firefox-25 or so and developed it in C/C++. It has a very Firefox feel, and a better approach to privacy. It doesn't do DRM. So you get youtube, & putlocker, but not Netflix. I believe it's handled by ex-firefox devs.

I avoid Chrome. But I have a RazPi 4 as a media box because my tv is so *$@€&£%! awkward. I have 32bit & 64bit PiOS builds. It has Chromium. It takes adjustment but seems ok.There's also seamonkey and firefox. Something I wanted uses seamonkey libs, and I haven't deleted firefox yet. I occasionally need one over javascript. I believe brave to be good also.

A lot of sites exclude dodgy browsers without certain core parts (the chrome engine) so fringe browsers aren't much use. You're now stuck with half a dozen or so.

Personally, I would stick with Firefox. The deal with Google is not in itself a data harvesting exercise, so unless your discontent is pure moral outrage on behalf of the (former) employees, I wouldn't worry. Firefox is also the most private ordinary web browser possible when properly configured. Importantly, other than WebKit, Mozilla's Quatum engine is the only practical alternative to Blink/V8 combination used by Chromium-based browsers, which dominate web usage.

If you want a Chromium-based browser, Brave is as private as it gets out of the box. Ungoogled Chromium may also be worthy of consideration.

I have been using brave for well over a year, but there are now concerns with its new owner. Well discussed.

I agree that unless quitting Firefox due to them releasing the employees Firefox is still probably the best browser avaialble for privacy or security focus. The google ad money isn't for tracking, it's just for ensuring that google is the default search engine for the browser and even then you can change it.

I'd actually disagree with Brave. I always found that it was basically the exact opposite of privacy focus. Yes, I want to use a browser that forces ads to me that I can't block? No...

Vivaldi might be one to look at. The settings are rather...complex. But it's based on Chromium with some refinements and improvements.

Opera might be as well, although I don't personally care for it since it was sold all those years ago (which is the reason for Vivaldi, to create that "classic" Opera feel).

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Many articles I have read conclude that Chrome is probably slightly more secure than Firefox, but I don't know if that accounts for potential security issues in Firefox that you can disable (e.g., WebRTC). In any case, I think it's a cigarette paper between them and in that case I'd much prefer improved privacy (indeed, I disable Google safe browsing in Firefox for that reason) - particularly when running Linux.

My understanding is that you have to opt-in to Brave Ads to receive ads from selected (i.e., probably paying) partners, in exchange for Basic Attention Tokens (BAT), their own cryptocurrency. Otherwise, you should not receive advertisements at all, so long as the Brave Shields are up. Out of the box, Brave's configuration is widely considered to offer better privacy than Firefox combined with very good ad-blocking.

That said, I'd recommend installing Firefox and configuring it properly instead. I use Brave purely for web activities that are essentially massive data collection exercises (e.g., social media and YouTube) and some web commerce (with a different browser profile).

I'm ok with Firefox for now, but I always add a few things eg NoScript, uBlock Origin, Ghostery, which help to keep things sane.
There are plenty of other add-ons, depending on how far you want to go.

Ghostery have screwed up and changed ownership too many times to be trustable, and last time I checked it doesn't do anything that uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger can't do?

I've been using Falkon as my main browser for quite some time now. It's based on WebEngine/Blink instead of WebKit that it's ancestor Qupzilla used. I keep FireFox as a backup if a site doesn't play well.