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Add to SafariWhen comparing Polarity Browser vs GNU IceCat, the Slant community recommends GNU IceCat for most people. In the question“What are the best desktop web browsers?” GNU IceCat is ranked 8th while Polarity Browser is ranked 40th.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Fast and lightweight
According to their own tests Polarity takes up more than 10x less memory than IE, FF or Chrome.
Pro Multi-session browsing with Parallel Sessions
Parallel Sessions allows users to browse the web with different profiles with separate cache, cookies, and history. This enables users to login to multiple accounts to different websites like Facebook.
Pro Built-in privacy features
Polarity browser comes with ad block and Do Not Track built in.
Pro Customizable UI
It allows you to customize many things from window color, tab color and text color to window transparency and border size. You can set Background image or use Shuffle from Bing. You can also save the theme, import and export it.
Pro Custom Developer tools
Polarity comes with the standard Inspector for Blink based browsers along with its custom client that works with both Trident and Blink.
Pro Great HTML5 support
Polarity scores 512/555 on the HTML5 test. It is just a couple of points shy of Google Chrome.
Pro All the benefits of Firefox, but with 100% free software
Pro LibreJS
LibreJS blocks proprietary JavaScript code, ensuring your user freedom.
Pro Protects your freedom, certified free by the FSF
Pro Extra security and privacy features
Pro Made by idealists
It is part of the GNU Project.
Pro No spyware
Pro Https-Everywhere by default
Pro SpyBlock
Blocks privacy trackers.
Cons
Con Few annoyances left unchecked
The browser has a couple of bugs such as where extensions are not actually ran after installation despite a notification stating that they are.
Con Windows and Android only
No Linux, OSX or iOS version available.
Con Unstable and frequent crashes
Though the browser is really lightweight and lightning fast, it crashes many times and is clearly unstable.
Con Uninstallation problems
Polarity browser can only be uninstalled with a built-in deinstallation tool. This is very impractical.
Con Too much bloat
The browser comes with 15 addons installed by default, most of which are useless or ruin one's browsing experience.
Con Mainly just an old Firefox
It is mainly a renamend older version of Firefox that comes preinstalled with some extensions.
Con Not up to date
Latest binary is still version 60.7 ESR and was last updated over a year ago
Con Requires too much unnecessary configuration to use
You have to manually delete all the bloated addons from your files (only for them to show up again when the browser is updated) and manually install some addons and themes that the browser labels as "corrupt".
Con Very slow boot time
It takes 10+ seconds for the browser to load up
Con Can't install some Firefox themes/addons
"Installation aborted because the addon appears to be corrupt".
Con Includes LibreJS by default with no way to remove it
Con Very slow boot time
It takes 10+ seconds for the browser to load up
Con Dependent on Mozilla
Since IceCat is based off Firefox, it's dependent on all of Mozilla's decisions.
Con Made by idealists
It is part of the GNU Project.
