Iridium Browser - open source, chromium-based

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webfork
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Iridium Browser - open source, chromium-based

#1 Post by webfork »

WARNING: As discussed later in the thread, this program may not be seeing the kind of update frequency necessary for a modern browser. So this might not be an ideal browser for daily use.

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It's far from a new browser (it was first mentioned back in 2017) but Iridium has become my go-to non-Firefox browser. This is important because I'm increasingly running into situations where I *have* to use a Chromium-based tools. It's unfortunate but necessary. At the same time, I don't really want to use a closed-source browser and I don't want to use something tied to Google services the way default Chromium is.

While I've been promoting Ungoogled Chromium for ages now, that appears to have been a foolish suggestion. I went to actually download the program recently I noticed that the Windows downloads are "unverified". With all the Chromium issues published last year, that's not a reassuring status.

"Iridium Browser" sounds like just one of the two dozen knock-off Chrome browsers but so far is looking like the next best thing. Appears to be open source, has some privacy tweaks, and there's a portable version.


COMPARISON TO OTHER BROWSERS
  • Ungoogled Chromium had a few hoops to jump through to get the add-ons working but Iridium seems to have that sorted out of the box.
  • Actually closes down unlike Edge, which just seems to linger in memory after closing the browser.
  • In testing, idle CPU usage was low.

NEGATIVES
  • Customization options were extremely limited. Folks who like the various tweaks in Firefox and Vivaldi are going to be disappointed.
  • It likely won't be able to avoid walking away from Manifest v2 support, which is a bad tech decision by Google to nullify ad-blocking tools. Iridium is likely too small a project to handle that.
  • No option to auto-dump everything at browser close, to be essentially always in Incognito mode.
  • Runs 17 unique processes with only a few browser tabs open, which is unplesant but fairly standard for browsers.

PORTABILITY

I didn't run a thorough test but it does appear to have some portability enabled. Just make sure you use the included .LNK file or create a batch file with the same info:

"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" /c "START %cd%\iridium.exe --user-data-dir=%cd%\Profile"

Default search engine is Qwant, which I don't know anything about but was pleased to see puts us at the top of the results for portablefreeware.


OTHER NOTES
  • Not sure where the included PDF viewer came from (Google's PDF tool is closed source) but it seems to work fine.
  • Appears to support all the crap Google tech like FLOC and "Enhanced Protection" but appears to have them all turned off by default.
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Iridium Browser | A browser securing your privacy. That’s it.
https://iridiumbrowser.de/

Iridium Browser: A Browser for the Privacy Conscious - It's FOSS
https://itsfoss.com/iridium-browser-review/

Iridium Secure Browser Project · GitHub
https://github.com/iridium-browser

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JohnTHaller
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Re: Iridium Browser - open source, chromium-based

#2 Post by JohnTHaller »

webfork wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 9:17 am Not sure where the included PDF viewer came from (Google's PDF tool is closed source) but it seems to work fine
I don't think this has been the case since Google open-sourced it in 2014: https://pdfium.googlesource.com/pdfium/
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freakazoid
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Re: Iridium Browser - open source, chromium-based

#3 Post by freakazoid »

webfork wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 9:17 am While I've been promoting Ungoogled Chromium for ages now, that appears to have been a foolish suggestion. I went to actually download the program recently I noticed that the Windows downloads are "unverified".
That's not true. You can get the latest build for Windows here: https://github.com/ungoogled-software/u ... ses/latest. It's from their main repository on GitHub and uses GitHub Actions, so the build is automatically built from a VM.
is it stealth? ;)

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Re: Iridium Browser - open source, chromium-based

#4 Post by Midas »

webfork wrote: PORTABILITY

I didn't run a thorough test but it does appear to have some portability enabled. Just make sure you use the included .LNK file or create a batch file with the same info:

"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" /c "START %cd%\iridium.exe --user-data-dir=%cd%\Profile"

Quick note to point out that you can possibly change the first quoted absolute file path ("C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe") to the relative "%COMSPEC%" default system variable for enhanced portability across systems...

Moreover, I have used Qwant in a number of systems and although it's not as polished as the competition (mainly DDG) is quite competent and unobtrusive... and as plus, it's EU based, so it adheres to GPDR principles.

Incidentally, I recently became aware of PulseBrowser:
An experimental Firefox fork that enhances focus and increases work productivity due to its hyper minimalistic UI and built-in tools.

PulseBrowser Github is at https://github.com/pulse-browser/browser.

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Re: Iridium Browser - open source, chromium-based

#5 Post by webfork »

JohnTHaller wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 1:24 pm
webfork wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 9:17 am Not sure where the included PDF viewer came from (Google's PDF tool is closed source) but it seems to work fine
I don't think this has been the case since Google open-sourced it in 2014: https://pdfium.googlesource.com/pdfium/
Thanks, I thought the PDF bit was one of the closed elements inside the browser.

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freakazoid wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 2:47 pm
webfork wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 9:17 amI noticed that the Windows downloads are "unverified".
That's not true. You can get the latest build for Windows here: https://github.com/ungoogled-software/u ... ses/latest. It's from their main repository on GitHub and uses GitHub Actions, so the build is automatically built from a VM.
Here's what I'm referencing. This is from the downloads section of their homepage: https://github.com/ungoogled-software/u ... #downloads
Third-party binaries

If your operating system is not listed above, you can also try to Download binaries from here

NOTE: These binaries are provided by anyone who are willing to build and submit them. Because these binaries are not necessarily reproducible, authenticity cannot be guaranteed; In other words, there is always a non-zero probability that these binaries may have been tampered with.
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Midas wrote:Quick note to point out that you can possibly change the first quoted absolute file path ("C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe") to the relative "%COMSPEC%" default system variable for enhanced portability across systems

...

I recently became aware of PulseBrowser
Good to know on both counts, thanks for that.

freakazoid
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Re: Iridium Browser - open source, chromium-based

#6 Post by freakazoid »

webfork wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:08 am
freakazoid wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 2:47 pm
webfork wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 9:17 amI noticed that the Windows downloads are "unverified".
That's not true. You can get the latest build for Windows here: https://github.com/ungoogled-software/u ... ses/latest. It's from their main repository on GitHub and uses GitHub Actions, so the build is automatically built from a VM.
Here's what I'm referencing. This is from the downloads section of their homepage: https://github.com/ungoogled-software/u ... #downloads
Third-party binaries

If your operating system is not listed above, you can also try to Download binaries from here

NOTE: These binaries are provided by anyone who are willing to build and submit them. Because these binaries are not necessarily reproducible, authenticity cannot be guaranteed; In other words, there is always a non-zero probability that these binaries may have been tampered with.
I think their readme copy is old. That copy was needed when other developers were posting their own builds of Ungoogled Chromium for submission on this page: https://ungoogled-software.github.io/un ... -binaries/. They recently added automated builds of Ungoogled Chromium for Windows on Github a couple of months ago at the link I mention in my prior post.
is it stealth? ;)

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Re: Iridium Browser - open source, chromium-based

#7 Post by webfork »

So an update here: I may have to back off of my own advocacy for this program.

Today I saw that Softpedia is listing the current release from back in May: https://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/ ... dium.shtml ... turns out that was April according to the download host: https://dl.iridiumbrowser.de/windows/

This is a problem because there have been multiple serious vulnerability issues this year for the underlying Chromium base.

According to their home page, an update is forthcoming from a few days ago but, as of today, isn't out for Windows users. And the lack of updates between now and back in April makes this seem like it doesn't have the necessary maintenance to be a standard browser.

I know I'm asking the developers to take on a lot of maintenance work but unfortunately that looks like it's necessary to stay secure.

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Re: Iridium Browser - open source, chromium-based

#8 Post by rightsteel »

JohnTHaller wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 1:24 pm
webfork wrote: Mon Nov 14, 2022 9:17 am Not sure where the included PDF viewer came from (Google's PDF tool is closed source) but it seems to work fine
I don't think this has been the case since Google open-sourced it in 2014: https://pdfium.googlesource.com/pdfium/
It's true, I think this build is generated from a virtual machine.

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