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A fresh Brave install in 2026: sponsored ad wallpapers on new tab page by default (opt out). Brave VPN, News, Talk, Leo (AI), Rewards and other revenue-milking bloat is advertised/pinned by default. Analytics and "phoning home" by default. Google as default search engine in most regions by default. Sponsored search engines like Russian Yandex in CIS countries by default: github.com/brave/brave-core/… Brave has an ad branch that handles advertising within the browser: brave.com/ads. Brave does on-device ad targeting based on cohorts and interests, just like what Chrome used to do and what Google was largely hated for (remember FLoC?). This applies to additional (opt-in) rewarded ads, shipped as part of Brave. Brave has injected referral IDs to crypto-related URLs entered into the omnibox in the past, intentionally, by design: teapawt.org/CR1337/status/12692014… github.com/brave/brave-brows… reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/… Brave also uses dark patterns to drive users away from turning off ads in their browser. For example, an article linked from the "opt out" button in the browser has a wall of text making excuses for ads before the actual steps needed to be taken to disable them: support.brave.app/hc/en-us/a… kind of hypocritical for brave to judge firefox for lesser bullshit, don't you think?

Microsoft doesn’t stop you from uninstalling Edge just to annoy you or take away your freedom. It’s because, in modern Windows, Edge is no longer just a browser but rather part of the operating system itself. A lot of Windows components now depend on Edge’s rendering engine (WebView2) to display content. Things like Settings pages, help screens, widgets, login flows, Microsoft Store content, and even some third-party apps use Edge in the background to render web-based interfaces. So if you completely remove Edge, you’re not just deleting a browser, you’re removing a shared system dependency. That can break core features or make parts of Windows unstable. Because of that, Microsoft treats it like a protected system component and restricts normal users from uninstalling it. Linux works differently because of its design philosophy. Nothing is “sacred” or protected at that level. The system assumes the user has full control and full responsibility. If you have root privileges, you can remove anything even critical parts like the bootloader, kernel, or libc. Linux won’t stop you, warn you much, or lock it down. If you delete the bootloader, the machine simply won’t boot. That’s not a bug; it’s intentional freedom.