New recommendations following recent Cromite updates

[Metrokoto]

The reasons for these settings:

1. Use list mode for tab switcher - Prevents saving snapshots to disk (while not having the same level of added sluggishness when opening the tab switcher as Use only Icons In the tab grid does)

2. Use ephemeral mode for CCT - If you have to enable CCT for whatever reason, having this enabled is a privacy and security benefit

3. Open external links in incognito - Self explanatory, when clicking a link from an external app, links will open in a partitioned incognito window, limiting the chance of things like cookie stealing going on, among other things

[Metrokoto]

Additionally, setting the homepage and new tab page to about:blank might be a good idea too, in line with Arkenfox and Betterfox recommendations.

[celenityy]

Thanks for the issue! Haven't been able to use Cromite lately since I primarily use iOS nowadays... looks like they've added a lot of options. Will test these out and update ASAP. I should probably also try their desktop version and make recommendations there too.

As for these specific settings:

Allow custom tab intents

I agree this should be kept off in favor of links just opening in the browser directly.

Use ephemeral mode for CCT

If you have to enable CCT for whatever reason, having this enabled is a privacy and security benefit

Agreed, this should definitely be enabled.

Allow forward URL requests to external intents

Should definitely be kept off like you have it now.

Use list mode for tab switcher

Prevents saving snapshots to disk (while not having the same level of added sluggishness when opening the tab switcher as Use only Icons In the tab grid does)

Fair enough, nice to benefit both privacy & performance :)

Use only icons in the tab grid

Interesting, will have to test.

Open external links in incognito

Self explanatory, when clicking a link from an external app, links will open in a partitioned incognito window, limiting the chance of things like cookie stealing going on, among other things

💯, Great to see Cromite added this!

Ask to restart on connection change

Wow, that's a great new feature. Definitely should be enabled and will be noted as well.

Additionally, setting the homepage and new tab page to about:blank might be a good idea too, in line with Arkenfox and Betterfox recommendations.

I disagree with Arkenfox and Betterfox on this, I don't think this makes sense for most people, and I'll explain why.

In Firefox's case, by default, the home page is a disaster, as it includes advertising, "top sites", Pocket crap, etc. While this does suck to look at and use, it's also problematic from a privacy perspective due to the implicit connections it makes to these third parties (Ex. I've noticed Firefox out of the box connect to Facebook).

So, Firefox's default homepage is a problem, but I feel there are better ways to solve it rather than replacing it entirely in with nothing (about:blank), as Firefox's homepage does include useful functionality like the ability to display the weather, a search bar, the ability to pin sites, custom backgrounds, etc. My approach with Phoenix to solve this was to keep the homepage intact, but with all of the crap removed, so it's the best of both worlds. Users can still take advantage of the nice features and clean look of about:home (Firefox's default homepage), but without compromising their privacy or dealing with the ads.

Uazo took a similar approach for Cromite. Chromium's default homepage does have issues similar to Firefox's (such as showing random sponsored content, articles, promotions, "top sites", & other crap), but instead of replacing it with a blank page, uazo also just disabled & removed all the crap, so like in Phoenix's case, it's the best of both worlds.

So ultimately, since there aren't any privacy or security risks to using the default homepage in Cromite, changing it to about:blank just comes down to personal preference. The only benefit I could maybe see is performance, but I doubt it makes any meaningful impact there. If I'm wrong and it does have a performance hit, then I would of course be open to reconsidering.