💾 Archived View for bbs.geminispace.org › u › requiem › 17332 captured on 2024-06-16 at 19:23:09. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

View Raw

More Information

➡️ Next capture (2024-08-18)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Comment by 💀 requiem

Re: "Looking for an alternative, smolweb inspired, web..."

In: s/SmallWeb

NextDNS / an adblocking VPN should work; if you set the server or enable the connection on your Android phone and tether that then you are gold.

💀 requiem

May 26 · 3 weeks ago

18 Later Comments ↓

😎 decant · May 27 at 01:28:

When I was younger, I went through a phrase where I would seek out every single web browser, configure, run and test them. There is of course, EFF’s coveryourtrack and various tools you can use to look for automatic outbound connections made by the browser.

I think firefox is overall, best platform for umatrix, but for the love of virgin mary, I can’t disable all the automatic outbound connections. So for a while, I firewalled all known Mozilla domains.

Ungoogled-chromium makes no automatic connection at all, but being made by google, it is some what ḥarām in my book.

1/2

😎 decant · May 27 at 01:29:

Around this time, I test drived probably 90% of all browsers available, I went a bit insane. Then the virus with a crown rolls around, I discovered gemini. I’ve been roaming the geminispace ever since. For http only blogs I like, there is always the stargate.

It is comforting knowing that the gemini philosophy is constructed to be the antithesis of the whole http experiment.

😺 gemalaya · May 27 at 09:33:

@decant I wrote this for web & rss => gemini

— https://gitlab.com/cipres/levior

🐙 norayr · May 27 at 11:48:

requiem, maybe i am wrong, i got the 'chrome' engine impression from this developer video, exactly here:

— here

🐙 norayr · May 27 at 12:02:

i looked further, it it looks like ladybird is indeed written from scratch. sorry for confusion.

❄ freezr [OP] · May 27 at 14:47:

I forgot to mention the good old SeaMonkey and its stepbrother PaleMoon...

But I remembered how I failed to compile both for aarch64... 😞

🚀 blah_blah_blah · May 27 at 18:57:

@freezr Wow, what a thread. So I'm not going to study it at length, but respond to this:

many modern websites rely on JavaScript and do not offer html-only alternative. When you disable JS you won't find this crap anymore but then you cannot navigate 90% of the WWW.

This is why you turn off JS, to avoid 90% of the web. I am very selective of the sites I permit JS on. I would suggest using a non-JS browser, and make exceptions for specific sites you need JS for. Put that dangerous browser inside a virtual machine named "DO NOT ENTER!"

🚀 stack · May 27 at 20:37:

@blah_blah_blah, the worst part of that is that the very important sites such as banks require me to turn off most of my security features! It's a bad joke -- I browse useless internet sites with full armor, but places that need most security and are most vulnerable to attack insist that you use most-insecure settings!

❄ freezr [OP] · May 27 at 21:10:

@stack I would enjoy a desktop app, not electron, to connect to my bank... For instance I hate that to request vacation I have to use my the app on my phone because the website is pure garbage...

The whole situation really sucks... 🤬

😎 decant · May 28 at 02:15:

@gemalaya I would like to run an instance locally. What kind of fingerprint would this http>gemini coverter leave from the perspective of the web server?

qubeos have this concept of pdf VM where a fresh VM would spin up and parse a pdf and provide output in the form of bitmap. Should the pdf try to exploid the parser, all you get is some scrambled images. I think webpage, with java enabled deserve the same if not more containment.

😺 gemalaya · May 28 at 10:24:

@decant levior makes web requests using the aiohttp library. You can also define a socks5 proxy, so it's possible to use it with Tor. You can change the HTTP user agent. So in terms of fingerprinting it's quite minimal i'd say.

❄ freezr [OP] · May 28 at 17:06:

I did a quick round with Basilisk aarch64 and it did not get a good outcome. With only a couple of tabs opened it was struggling to scroll a page (in reading mode) up and down...

LibreWolf with a lot of tabs opened or suspended performs way more better... 🤔

🤷

🚀 stack · May 28 at 17:10:

@gemalaya would you try amiunique.org? I am curious as to how unique your requests really are...

😺 gemalaya · May 28 at 17:59:

@stack Do you mean, requesting https://amiunique.org through levior to run the fingerprint test ? Their test requires Javascript, therefore you'd have to enable levior's JS rendering, which will make browser fingerprinting very easy. Making levior's requests less identifiable is something i plan on improving.

🚀 stack · May 28 at 18:52:

@gemalaya I don't think they require JS or at least they didn't! With JS off, BTW, you are probably unique within a city block or so. The problem is that the smaller your 'fingerprint', the more unique you are! The best strategy is using the same signature as Tor browser, it is fairly unique but all for users share it. And make sure there are no typos or extra spaces -- that would obviously make you very unique..

This is maybe the only situation where obscurity (by looking as every tor user) is as close to anonymity as you can get.

Modern surveillance equipment used by corporations that extract huge profits from extracting, packaging and selling data is very sophisticated. Even when you think you have no footprint, you are leaking information based on timing, pattern of browsing (you don't browse randomly), minor variations in requests, etc.

Don't forget about forward security -- Even when they don't know who you are, they will build an extensive dossier with your history. One day you may slip up and log into gmail, or leak enough info, and years of hiding goes up in smoke.

😺 gemalaya · May 28 at 18:59:

@stack Tried it without JS and it says:

"Almost! Only browsers out of the observed browsers have exactly the same fingerprint as yours (NaN %)."

🚀 stack · May 28 at 19:23:

@gemalaya You are unique. That is bad.

😺 gemalaya · May 28 at 19:35:

@stack Almost :) Indeed. Thanks for the insights, i'll work on it.

Original Post

🌒 s/SmallWeb

Looking for an alternative, smolweb inspired, web browser... 🙏 — Hello folks, I am currently using LibreWolf but unfortunately it is still Firefox. I tested other alternative browsers and the best one I found has been: Surf; however it didn't match all my needs, which are: smaller footprint fast & light, alternative UI toolkit tab support ADS & Tracker block sock5 support easy bookmarking JavaScript support Usually lightweight browsers, like Dillo, does not support JavaScript therefore it is...

💬 freezr · 44 comments · 2 likes · May 25 · 3 weeks ago