Why I Prefer Firefox Over Chrome

Firefox is an open source browser which can be used across most operating systems today. It has been ported to Windows, Linux, Macs and BSD. Most GNU/Linux distributions come installed with Firefox as default browser. Recently, Google’s Chrome browser has captured the hearts and minds of geeks rapidly staking a market share that sets it in a course to challenge Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox. It is the fastest browser and it hands over the web as soon as you can type that first character in the address bar.

I have an annoyance over Chrome that I don’t experience in Firefox.

Bookmarking I like to depend on bookmarks and use them whenever I open the browser. I’ve used both the Firefox bookmarks and the Chrome bookmarks and have come to the conclusion that the Firefox system with its tags is a superior bookmark system. Now that Firefox also has sync and can upload the bookmarks to its server for backup and downloading to other machines I use, I have dropped the Chrome bookmarks. I’ve gone back to Firefox as my main browser.

Feeds Most sites in the web makes it convenient for you to find the RSS links so you can subscribe to the site. Firefox is the most friendly when it comes to subscribing to RSS/feeds in the web in my opinion.

Noscript The Noscript addon in Firefox is not just for disabling scripts or flash, it also prevents cross-scripting, clickjacking and can also force encrypted connections. And more-if you care to dive in and change some of the default settings. Sadly I can’t find a Chrome extension that comes close because of how Chrome works.

Font Rendering I can’t explain this one except to describe the problem. I have installed both Firefox and Chrome in many linux distros and in many desktop environments from GNOME to xfce and in most cases Firefox starts with better looking fonts than Chrome. I read on screen and I really appreciate that.

Using DNSCRYPT With Arch Linux

DNSCRYPT is software which encrypts data sent from your computer to your dns. Your computer needs dns to give it a map of the internet. Unfortunately, this ‘last mile’ is often the target of ‘man-in-the-middle attack’. By encrypting the traffic to the dns from your computer, security is improved. So how do you enable dnscrypt?

I have arch installed in my computer. Here’s how I did it.

First download dnscrypt from AUR and compile it. Download it here. Unpack the tarball using the terminal.

$cd [download_directory]

$tar -xzf dnscrypt-proxy.tar.xz

then $cd dnscrypt-proxy

and $makepkg –asroot

to compile the package.

Use pacman to install the package.

$pacman -U dnscrypt-proxy-0.8-1-i686.pkg.tar.xz

You now have dnscrypt installed. Change your DNS settings to 127.0.0.1

$nano /etc/resolv.conf

and edit nameserver then save it.

Restart the daemon. $/etc/rc.d/network restart

Then start the dnscrypt-proxy daemon. $/usr/sbin/dnscrypt-proxy –daemonize

Restart the daemon. $/etc/rc.d/network restart

Check your connection here.

Let’s Put It To A Vote Shall We?

"We should not be putting civil rights issues to a popular vote to be subject to the sentiments, the passions of the day. No minority should have their rights subject to the passions and sentiments of the majority. This is a fundamental bedrock of what our nation stands for."