Hello all! I've been making the switch from American to European tech, and was wondering your thoughts on Vivaldi browser and Qwant search engine.

Vivaldi is based on Chromium and iirc not fully open source, but is still suggested in European tech spaces, and has a pretty good privacy policy.

Qwant is not open source, though claims to not to sell personal data or store searches.

What are your thoughts and perhaps suggestions for alternatives?

Browser I’ve been using Librewolf for over a year.

Helium also looks promising for a browser but it’s Chromium based and I’m not a fan of Chromium.

For search I’ve been using StartPage. I don’t believe they are open source but Quant I believe like GoDuckGo are using Bing and I think Bing is absolute trash.

If you don’t mind paying there is Kagi but personally I don’t think the search results have been better than GDG.

This has been my default for a couple years now. Qwant search is ok at best but I mainly use it because I wanted an EU alternative with some privacy. As for Vivaldi I think its great, and especially with an OISD list with the built in blocker.

Thanks!

As you've pointed out, Vivaldi is based on Chromium so you are still indirectly supporting Google's browser monopoly.

Qwant is a decent search engine but they share certain information, including IP's, with uptream search providers such as Microslop and Google. I do believe they have a partnership with Ecosia to develop their own joint search engine/crawler but until then they both rely on Bing and Google and have to share information as per agreement terms. As always, check privacy and ToS agreements for full details.

Search engines are kind of in shit place right now with so many being either A: American, or B: relying on Bing or Google (secret third option: both A and B). As for browsers, Firefox is also in a shit place right now but there are numerous excellent forks that strip out all of Mozilla's stupid stuff. Waterfox, Librewolf, just to name a couple.

There's also SearXNG, but you'll have to look closely at which provider to get.

• Qwant is ok. It' snow my default, I used to use the US Kagi (which I loved but being US...).
• Vivaldi is a fine browser highly customizable (it's my chromium-based choice), and they're not pushing AI at all.
• Waterfox (a privacy-respecting , non-AI fork of Firefox) is my default browser. IT works great and its fully compatible with uBo.

I use fennec with ublock origin add on

i've been avoiding using all the chromium based browsers because i don't want to help google gain more dominance; but it feels like that meme of tom hanks shooting a pistol at the tank.

Can be a real mess sometimes. I’ve had issues with performance and time outs

I use Waterfox and Ecosia. Qwant doesn't play nice with VPNs.

Never use Chromium based browsers as it is coming from Google and gives it more power. The only alternative is Gecko / Firefox based: Fennec for Android and Librewolf for desktop.

I agree to not be using something that comes from Chrome, but Chromium is open-source, so it's not like it's actively benefiting Google, right? (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Chromium is still controlled by Google though, and they way it benefits them is giving them market share and user base. It's not as direct as using Google, but indirectly still benefits them to have such massive market share with chromium that they can do whatever they want with it. See:manifest v3 and working against adblockers

I don't really see how that can be the case when Chromium is open-source, though I'm admittedly not very knowledgeable on this subject.

It's because Google are the main contributors to it, and as such have a lot of power over the directions it goes.

Here's a somewhat decent article I randomly found that explains it a bit better than I can

https://medium.com/@lowharris15/master-of-the-web-how-google-rules-the-internet-with-chromium-65c9e10bd7dd

Ohhh, thank you for the information! I'll look into something like Waterfox then.

The more people switch from Chromium browsers, the less money they get! The more people switch from Google services, the better. Remember that they get money from us using their services.

I second this. Always try to avoid Chromium if possible.

My thoughts on Vivaldi:

It's a decent browser however I'd recommend avoiding Chromium wherever if possible. But the biggest downside of Vivaldi for me is that it's not fully open-source. I would almost always prefer open-source software rather than closed-source even if the parent company or developer is trusted. I would not recommend Vivaldi because of this reason.

My thoughts on Qwant:

Again, the same thing here, it is trusted but it's still not open-source so it's a no from me.

What I'd suggest:

• Firefox-based browsers:

All of these suggestions will contain ONLY free and open source softwares.

I would suggest you to use one of these or other Firefox forks instead of chromium browsers but, ultimately, it's upto you what you choose.

All of these Firefox forks remove the telemetry that you'll find in the original Firefox browser.

1. IronFox: Privacy-wise, it's pretty strong. The only counterpoint I've noticed is that the sites may break sometimes because of its aggressive anti-fingerprinting and stuff. This is available for Android.

2. Fennec: This is the one I use and I've found it pretty nice. I've been using it for about 4-5 months now. This is available for Android.

3. LibreWolf: This is what I think is the best for desktop. It is very good for privacy. This is available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

4. Zen Browser: This browser has a nice balance between privacy and convenience. Pretty customizable, plus I like the UI of it. This is available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

Note: I haven't tried these but they're reputed and famous in similar private-focused communities.

1. Mullvad Browser: The privacy is strong but it is not very customizable. This is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

2. Waterfox: This is a famous and reputed browser too. This is available for Android, Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

• Search Engine:

All these suggestions are also FOSS and can be self-hosted.

1. SearXNG. It's the most popular right now and it's completely FOSS.

Note: I haven't tried the following these, as well, but they're also pretty famous and respected in privacy-related spaces.

1. Apache Solr

2. YaCy

3. Typesense

I've presented my suggestions but you should choice the one that suits you the best while also providing you with sufficient privacy and always avoid closed-source softwares even if the parent company or developer is trusted.

You're right but Chromium still belongs to Google and they can change it whenever the want, and do anything to it. For example, if Google, say, removes a feature from Chromium or a line of code in it, this change will not be limited to just Chrome but also other Chromium browsers like Brave, Vivaldi, etc. including FOSS ones like Cromite. And the second reason to avoid Chromium is so as to not let them become a monopoly in this as well. If they control this market too, that's a win for them.

I used Qwant years ago, but don't remember why I stopped. Maybe they introduced ads like Google, or something more annoying. But it's not 100% european, they use Google and Bing engines (just like most private search engines) to show you results. Also, there are some articles talking about how sketchy it really is (French government public funding, links with Chinese companies, and more).
About Vivaldi, it depends on your devices. In my experience, Vivaldi for Android works fine on weak hardware, faster than Brave and Firefox, but slower than Chrome. Using it on PC always was a headache, it's the worst optimized browser I've used. They care more about productivity features than performance or privacy. It can feel bloated.
I understand your concerns about headquarters and privacy. I think the strongest european options for browsing and searching are Vivaldi and Qwant, but remember to try them before switching.