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A Brave move? Why I decided to quit...

·774 words·4 mins
Rich
Author
Rich
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I quit.

No long goodbye. No gradual tapering off. Just a clean break from something that had been part of my daily routine for years.

Firefox is gone.

Before you assume burnout, frustration, or some dramatic failure, it is none of those things. In fact, this is a story about improvement. About tightening control. About refining a setup that already worked well, but could work better.

This is the story of why I moved from Firefox to Brave.

The starting point: a “privacy-first” Firefox setup
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For years, Firefox was the obvious choice.

It aligned with everything I care about:

  • Open source foundations
  • Strong privacy stance
  • Deep customisation via about:config
  • Policy control through policies.json
  • A hardened setup tuned exactly how I wanted

My configuration was not default. It was deliberate.

  • Telemetry disabled
  • Fingerprinting resistance enabled
  • State partitioning enforced
  • DNS handled at the network layer (no DoH in browser)
  • Extensions reduced to essentials only

It worked. And it worked well.

But it came at a cost.

The hidden tax of control
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Running a hardened Firefox setup is not “set and forget”.

It is:

  • Continuous tuning
  • Reading changelogs to ensure settings still apply
  • Watching for breaking changes
  • Maintaining user.js consistency across devices
  • Explaining to yourself, repeatedly, why each setting exists

This is the trade-off: control versus simplicity.

And over time, I started asking a simple question:

What if I could get 80–90% of this outcome, with 20% of the effort?

Enter Brave
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Brave was not new to me. It had always been “that Chromium browser with opinions”.

But I had dismissed it previously for a few reasons:

  • Chromium base (less ideological appeal than Firefox)
  • Built-in crypto features I had no interest in
  • A perception that it was “privacy-lite” rather than “privacy-first”

Revisiting it with a more pragmatic lens changed that view.

The Mac factor
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Running entirely within the Apple ecosystem changes the equation.

On macOS, I care about:

  • Battery efficiency
  • Native performance on Apple Silicon
  • Smooth rendering and scrolling
  • Minimal system overhead

Brave, being Chromium-based, benefits heavily from optimisation in this space.

The result is noticeable:

  • Faster page loads
  • Lower perceived latency
  • Better responsiveness under load

Firefox is good. Brave is simply sharper here.

Privacy without the constant tweaking
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The real shift was not performance. It was philosophy.

Brave makes strong privacy decisions by default:

  • Aggressive tracker and ad blocking (no extension required)
  • First-party storage isolation concepts baked in
  • Fingerprinting protections enabled out of the box
  • HTTPS upgrades automatic
  • Shields model that is visible and understandable per-site

This is important.

With Firefox, I engineer my privacy posture.

With Brave, I inherit it.

That difference matters more than I expected.

Fewer moving parts
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My Firefox setup relied on:

  • Browser configuration
  • Extensions
  • Network-level DNS filtering

Brave allowed me to reduce that stack:

  • Built-in blocking replaces uBlock-style needs
  • Cleaner extension footprint
  • Less risk of extension-based supply chain issues
  • Fewer components to audit and trust

In a security mindset, fewer moving parts usually wins.

The Chromium reality
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There is an uncomfortable truth here.

Most of the modern web is built and tested against Chromium.

That leads to:

  • Fewer compatibility issues
  • Better support for newer web standards
  • Less time troubleshooting odd rendering bugs

Switching to Brave reduced friction in subtle ways:

  • Fewer sites breaking
  • Less need to “just try another browser”
  • More consistency across devices

What I gave up
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This was not a free upgrade. There are trade-offs.

I lost:

  • Deep, granular configuration via about:config
  • The philosophical alignment with a non-Chromium engine
  • Some of the satisfaction that comes with fully owning the stack

Brave is opinionated. You accept its model more than you shape it.

For some, that is a dealbreaker.

What I gained
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In return, I gained:

  • A simpler setup
  • Strong privacy defaults without constant tuning
  • Better performance on macOS
  • Reduced maintenance overhead
  • A browser that “just works” more often

Most importantly, I gained time.

The real reason I quit
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This was not about Firefox being bad.

It is still one of the best browsers available, especially for those who want absolute control.

This was about recognising that my priorities had shifted.

I no longer wanted to:

  • Continuously maintain a browser configuration
  • Revalidate settings after updates
  • Treat my browser like a project

I wanted something closer to:

Secure. Private. Fast. Done.

Brave gets me close enough to that ideal.

Final thoughts
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If you are deeply invested in control, Firefox remains unmatched.

If you are looking for a balance between:

  • strong privacy
  • solid performance
  • low maintenance

then Brave is worth serious consideration.

This was not a rage quit.

It was a pragmatic one.

And sometimes, that is the more meaningful move.

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