Hi,
Since the Chromium browser will be losing the ability to sync with Google, and Pinebook Pro users cannot install Chrome, what is the next step for Google users on Pinebook Pro? I've used Google for years and I have an Android phone, so being able to sync my bookmarks and history is important to me. I'm unaware of any solutions that exist; and using another browser ecosystem, like Firefox, isn't really a solution to the problem, since it's an entirely different browser ecosystem.
Anybody have any ideas?
It's really time now to make the switch to Firefox - and it's mostly painless: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/swi...me-firefox
You lose the browser eco-system, but you also begin the process of de-Googling your life. There is very likely to be a compelling alternative to absolutely everything you use with Google - if not better. Google actively try to sabotage many of the extensions you likely enjoy that help promote privacy and block ads (both of which they actively profit from).
Thanks for your suggestion. I've installed Firefox and everything is great so far. I can sync bookmarks with my desktop computer via Firefox sync.
03-02-2021, 05:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-02-2021, 05:40 PM by z4v4l.)
or, if FF has hung your computer eating up all the memory and causing massive paging out, you can try MS Edge. I switched to it, after FF pissed me off with the mentioned hogginess, I don't use that sync stuff anywhere, but I can see, it's present on Edge. The latter is way more efficient, honestly.
Oh sorry, you asked about Pinebook Pro. well, then FF  But I think Edge will be available for arm64 soon.
ANT - my hobby OS for x86 and ARM.
(03-02-2021, 05:15 PM)jc1685 Wrote: Thanks for your suggestion. I've installed Firefox and everything is great so far. I can sync bookmarks with my desktop computer via Firefox sync.
Glad to hear it. You can also get Firefox for your Android device if you want to sync across devices.
I recommend installing 'uBlock Origin' (block ads from being downloaded and run) and 'NoScript' (block random JS from running - you can whitelist per site). This will really help with RAM and CPU limitations.
(03-02-2021, 05:37 PM)z4v4l Wrote: or, if FF has hung your computer eating up all the memory and causing massive paging out, you can try MS Edge. I switched to it, after FF pissed me off with the mentioned hogginess, I don't use that sync stuff anywhere, but I can see, it's present on Edge. The latter is way more efficient, honestly.
Oh sorry, you asked about Pinebook Pro. well, then FF But I think Edge will be available for arm64 soon.
I really suspect Edge is not faster than Firefox if it supports the same feature set. The only way I would expect to see Edge be faster on Windows is if they are using new/undocumented features to give themselves an unfair advantage.
03-03-2021, 11:21 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-03-2021, 11:33 AM by TRS-80.)
This is going to be a completely different take, which you may or may not appreciate.
I realized some years ago that by depending on any particular piece of software to keep links, bookmarks (or anything, really), you will ultimately be tied into that software / ecosystem. Now, IMO Mozilla/Firefox are much more trustworthy than Google/Chrome in this regard (much less Microsoft/Edge), but ultimately you are still tied to the whims / fortunes of Mozilla (or whoever else).
So at some point I started keeping all my important information in text files, as I realized these are a sort of universal "lowest common denominator" format, so to speak.
First I put my "bookmarks" into a few interlinked plain HTML files, the entry point of which I set as the home page in my browser. I synced the files across devices, as this worked equally well on all platforms (as it's just plain HTML).
Later I evolved to using TiddlyWiki, then I could include some notes and light formatting along with my "boookmarks" to give them context.
Nowadays I am using Orgmode in Emacs but learning the latter is honestly a bit of a commitment (assuming you even edit enough text to justify it in the first place).
There are a lot of other tools out there, too. You may find one or more that suit you better than the ones I have mentioned. The main point here is more about a change in mindset from relying on particular software or "platforms" or "ecosystems."
In fact, more recently I have heard the term "protocols, not platforms" and I like that a lot and have started repeating it and trying to explain it to people. Platforms are all about lock-in, where protocols are all about interoperability.
(03-03-2021, 01:35 AM)barray Wrote: I recommend installing 'uBlock Origin' (block ads from being downloaded and run) and 'NoScript' (block random JS from running - you can whitelist per site). This will really help with RAM and CPU limitations.
I also use and recommend these, along with something like Cookie Auto Delete (and some others like HTTPS Everywhere, etc.) but I consider that just part of browsing, which is tangential to the discussion of Personal Information Management (PIM).
Incidentally, I was also a long time NoScript user, but eventually figured out I can do all the same things (and more) in uBO (and/or uMatrix), and I eventually even came around to preferring the UI of those.
With Firefox you can always host your own sync server.
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Quote:I really suspect Edge is not faster than Firefox if it supports the same feature set. The only way I would expect to see Edge be faster on Windows is if they are using new/undocumented features to give themselves an unfair advantage.
and your suspicion is based on?... right, on the prejudice, formed by sh1tloads of lying BS thrown onto MS. you can see, what features it is using by its import analysis. functions, classes, whatever it uses, it cannot hide. by reverse engineering after all. have you done that and have you the proofs for your claims? My "suspicion" is you haven't.
there is nothing "unfair" in being better in quality and it really is - it takes less CPU for the same tasks (for example playing videos), page rendering activity (scrolling, repositioning elements) and it certainly consumes way less memory. it's what can be easily observed by just freaking using both and not reading some random sh1tsite of a crazy m0r0n, obsessed with hatred to Bill Gates for several decades.
ANT - my hobby OS for x86 and ARM.
03-03-2021, 07:24 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-03-2021, 07:26 PM by barray.)
(03-03-2021, 05:02 PM)z4v4l Wrote: Quote:I really suspect Edge is not faster than Firefox if it supports the same feature set. The only way I would expect to see Edge be faster on Windows is if they are using new/undocumented features to give themselves an unfair advantage.
and your suspicion is based on?... right, on the prejudice, formed by sh1tloads of lying BS thrown onto MS. you can see, what features it is using by its import analysis. functions, classes, whatever it uses, it cannot hide. by reverse engineering after all. have you done that and have you the proofs for your claims? My "suspicion" is you haven't.
there is nothing "unfair" in being better in quality and it really is - it takes less CPU for the same tasks (for example playing videos), page rendering activity (scrolling, repositioning elements) and it certainly consumes way less memory. it's what can be easily observed by just freaking using both and not reading some random sh1tsite of a crazy m0r0n, obsessed with hatred to Bill Gates for several decades.
From a website called 'TheWindowsClub' [1], it seems Edge is better for video and audio, with Firefox being better for online transactions and games.
I have not looked at the imports as I haven't really used Windows since Vista (what an awful OS that was), but better video and audio would indicate better kernel integration for acceleration. I remember reading an article about how Edge was using non-documented functionality in Windows, but I cannot find it.
The other problem is that the other browsers build engines to run across a wider-range of software and hardware platforms - and these smaller improvements are just one in a long list of items to be done.
In terms of solving the original issues the poster asked, Firefox in my opinion offers the best transition of data and allows for a similar setup to that of Chrome/Chromium.
[1] https://www.thewindowsclub.com/edge-vs-f...al-browser
(03-03-2021, 11:21 AM)TRS-80 Wrote: I realized some years ago that by depending on any particular piece of software to keep links, bookmarks (or anything, really), you will ultimately be tied into that software / ecosystem. Now, IMO Mozilla/Firefox are much more trustworthy than Google/Chrome in this regard (much less Microsoft/Edge), but ultimately you are still tied to the whims / fortunes of Mozilla (or whoever else).
I know of a plugin that converts all of your Firefox tabs to a filesystem - could be useful for scripting together something that auto-builds a list for you!
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What Now for Google Users?
