It gets my goat that people think it’s a good option. There are plenty of articles explaining some of the many issues with it, but a few are:
- It’s run by anti-LGBTQ+ crypto bros.
- It has ads right out of the box.
- It collected donations towards people who never signed up for them - then held them to ransom in exchange for the kind of information you should never share on the Internet.
- They’re a for-profit advertising company. “Privacy-centric” my elbow.


If you had to pick a chromium variant, which is the least horrible?
I enjoy Vivaldi and Ungoogled Chromium when things don’t work in Gecko engine.
I primarily use LibreWolf. Mullvad for scenarios when I need privacy, and Tor + VPN when I need maximum privacy and anonymity.
Personally, if it doesn’t work in Firefox, I just give up.
Vanadium
I trust Vanadium but it’s not the best if you like your web ad-free.
Anything chromium based won’t be best for the web.
I haven’t used it myself but if I had to I’d probably give Helium a try it looks promising.
Ungoogled Chromium is ok. I used it for a while. I found it to be ok. Not great. Not terrible. Just ok.
Helium looks ok too, if they ever release it as a flatpak or snap I’ll give it a go.
I tried Vivaldi. It reminded me of what Netscape Communicator used to be - browser, mail client, newsfroup reader… A few too many bells whistles and gongs for me.
If I was forced to pick a chromium variant, I’d probably turn my PC off for the night and go and have a nice lie down.
I use just plane chromium for all my chromium needs
I’m a fan of Vivaldi.
Brave