Building an Optimal Software Development Environment - Part 3: Browser Productivity

The browser is your portal to the wealth of the internet - treat it well

If you are not using software to make your life easier then you are wrong. The days of light, minimal computer setups are over. We have a rich ecosystem of software now that can enhance your productivity across multiple devices and operating systems, from browsers, to code, to security, to SaaS, and to digital storage. In this article I will go over some of my favorite browsers and browser extensions that I use to be productive daily so that you can be setup correctly to succeed even more. The faster, more productive you are on your computer directly correlates to less time at work and more time on WiFi money.

The first thing I do when setting up any computer is to get my Browser, Adblock, and Passwords in order. Once I do that I can operate at an efficient no matter what device I’m working on. This will let you browse the internet without annoyances and gives you the access you need immediately. These are important to get correct right from the start as it is the base layer of computer and knowledge work. If you’re still using browser based password managers and subjecting yourself to Ads you’re not gonna make it. An old product manager of mine never used an ad blocker and every time they shared their screen it was embarrassing seeing the targeted ads he was sent. No one want’s to see your underwear ads, so let build up your browsing levels.

Let’s get setup.

Browser Philosophy

The application you will spent the most amount of time in is the internet browser. Therefore it makes sense to spend time optimizing it. With the right choice of browsers, some extensions, and proper ad blocking you can speed up your daily browsing and reduce your annoyance with ads while preserving your privacy and security.

The standard recommendation for a web browser from me is Brave Browser. It takes all the good parts of Chrome based browsers, the speed and compatibility, and combines it with a privacy focused organization supporting it. Most importantly it isn’t run by Google, who will do anything and everything they can to get their hands on your data (see their 5 Billion dollar lawsuit loss they on Incognito mode). It’s convenient in a way that Google, a company that makes it money via internet advertising, also shepherds the means to which you can access the internet. Talk about double dipping. This is why I never recommend using Chrome browsers, you can’t trust your privacy with Google.

To make the simple point why Brave is better and more private than Chrome, Brave ships with a built in ad blocker. Chrome in the meantime is going to start limiting adblockers to stop disrupting their business. Advertisements annoy me and we as people should do everything we can to remove annoyances in life.

Brave supports every major OS and mobile devices, so you can ensure a consistent experience between all devices. I’ve used it on my phone, personal Mac and Windows machines, and my work machines for close to 7 years now. Since Brave works on so many platforms you also get their adblock experience on those platforms easily. It will blocks ad that are often native to the platform you are on, such as YouTube, and can also disable tracking methods from Social media sites if you don’t use them.

Some additional features Brave ships with:

• Vertical Tabs!

• Background audio play on Mobile via Playlist

• Auto Speed Reader mode for articles

• Built in VPN (use your own though) and Tor

• IPFS support

• Built in Crypto Wallet (use your own though)

• Chrome extension compatibility

• Disable AMP based pages

• Ethereum Name Service support

• Customizable privacy features

• Speed Reader Mode

• Popup Blocker

There’s plenty more but I don’t want to be an advertiser for Brave, just know I’ve been a really happy customer with them. However Brave has set some defaults that personally I like to change to get a smoother experience. For example, Brave has a “rewards” program called BAT that replaces 3rd party Ads with their own, more privacy focused Ads and also pays you for it. You can disable this completely like I do and use the AdBlocker to its full extent.

To start with my personal config settings, go into the Settings icon in the top right menu icon, then follow below.

• Appearance Tab

  • Enable Vertical Tabs

  • Disable Brave News, Brave Rewards, Brave Wallet, VPN Button

  • Always show bookmarks

    • Save your most frequent sites into bookmark bar for faster access

  • Enable Wide Address Bar

  • Enable Full URLs (this makes you more secure)

• Shields Tab

  • Trackers & ads blocking → Aggressive

  • Block Cookies → Only cross-site

  • Enable Auto Redirect -AMP pages, tracking urls

  • You can also disable specific social media embeddings on sites

• Privacy and Security

  • Disable Allow p3a

  • Disable send daily usage to Brace

  • Disable Auto sending of Diagnostic reports

  • Block Third Party Cookies

  • Enable “Do Not Track”

  • Upgrade connections to HTTPS → Strict

• Web3

  • Don’t use their wallet! Always use hardware wallet

  • Enable IPFS if you wish (this can track your IP if using public nodes)

  • Enable ENS domains if you wish

• Leo AI

  • Disable

  • Disable Show Leo in the context menu on websites (this seems to be brand new and also auto enabled)

• Sync

  • Every time I used Sync it failed for me, so don’t use. We will use a different service for bookmark syncing

• Search Engine

  • Brave search isn’t great, especially for coding. Currently using Google, Bing, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.

  • Disable improve search suggestions

• Extensions

  • Disable all Google Things, Hangouts

  • Enable Web Torrent if you want that

  • Disable WideVine, a closed course extension by Google for Video DRM

    • We will sacrifice another browser to only use WideVine for video watching

• System

  • Enable Memory Saver and Energy Saver

This gets you a reasonably private and secure Browser while not breaking too many websites. By no means will you be the Jason Bourne of browser tracking evasion, but it’s good enough for regular daily use. Counterintuitively the more aggressive you try to preserve privacy in the settings it actually makes it easier to fingerprint (track) you, so try to not go overboard. Check Am I Unique and adjust as needed to blend in with the crowd. Privacy is a tradeoff with being inconvenienced, so I try to strike a middle ground as much as possible. If you have an immense need for more privacy check out Privacy Tools for more inspiration.

A quick few notes on some useful things I do in the browser for additional productivity.