LibreWolf is one of the best browsers for people who don’t like generative AI.
Here is the statement posted on Mastodon:
As there seems to have been recent confusion about this, just a quick “official” toot to then pin: we haven’t and won’t support “generative AI” related stuff in LibreWolf. If you see some features like that (like Perplexity search recently, or the link preview feature now) it is solely because it “slipped through”. As soon as we become aware of something like this / it gets reported to us, we will remove/disable it ASAP.
I just switched to Waterfox today. I’m also curious about what the differences are.
In short: LibreWolf is for those who want a “locked-down” fortress out of the box, while Waterfox is for those who want a privacy-conscious browser that still feels like a normal, convenient daily driver.
Choose LibreWolf if: You want the highest level of privacy without having to manually edit config files, and you don’t mind occasionally “fixing” a broken website or re-logging into accounts.
Choose Waterfox if: You want a privacy-respecting browser that supports Firefox Sync, has an Android counterpart, and handles streaming sites/logins without any extra friction (it supports WideWine out of the box, which lets you stream DRM protected content (netflix, hulu, disney, etc).
This is really helpful, thanks!
Super helpful man, thank you. I like that librewolf is available if I wanted to be extra locked down, but for my needs I think I’ll swap to waterfox. 🙂
Great summary. One additional note: Using LibreWolf with the KeePassXC extension makes the issue with re-logging into accounts much less of a hassle. However, the extension unfortunately doesn’t work well when using the Flatpak package of LibreWolf. So, if there is a native LibreWolf package for your distribution, use that one; it should give you a good experience.
Pepole say that with some fiddling it is possible to get KeePassXC integrated even with the Flatpak version, but I for one wasn’t successful in that. So, if there is no native package for your distro, try compiling LibreWolf yourself, or perhaps try the AppImage, or else you may have one reason more to choose Waterfox (at least if there is a native Waterfox package for your distro).
Currently using waterfox on android. Would appreciate hearing how tradeoffs compare to desktop.
I prefer IronFox on android as they include similar privacy protections out the gate similar to Librewolf, unlike Waterfox, which effectively stock firefox minus three or so components.