Jack Wallen names his top four web browsers, excluding Chrome

ZDNET writer Jack Wallen says that after using nearly every browser, his top four are Opera, Zen Browser, Tor Browser and FireDragon — notably excluding Google Chrome. Wallen praises Opera for its Workspaces tab management, new theming engine and strong performance. He notes Opera offers forced HTTPS, protection against malicious sites, Secure DNS and V8 security, and includes Aria AI and an Opera VPN.

Opera is available for free on Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android, iOS and iPadOS. Zen Browser is described as a Firefox-focused fork that improved tab management with Workspaces, added native theming and supports community-developed Mods. Wallen made Zen his default on Linux within the past year; it is available for free on Linux, MacOS and Windows.

For serious security, Wallen recommends Tor Browser. He says it anonymizes and encrypts traffic via the Tor Network and offers unmatched privacy, though it is lighter on features and sacrifices performance. Tor Browser can be installed for free on Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android and iOS.

FireDragon, new to the scene, was originally based on LibreWolf and later Floorp. It uses the Gecko rendering engine and SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine, adds privacy measures, includes Workspaces, bundles Dark Reader and defaults to the Searx search engine. FireDragon resembles a mix of Opera and Firefox and is available only for Linux via the Arch AUR, an AppImage, Flathub or a binary tarball.

Key Topics

Tech, Web Browsers, Opera, Zen Browser, Tor Browser, Firedragon