Iridium Browser

Iridium Browser is based on Chromium, but it has been modified to enhance the privacy of the user. It is available for multiple platforms (Windows/macOS/Linux).

You can download Iridium Browser for a variety of operating systems on the Download section from the developers website.

How to Install Iridium on Debian and Ubuntu

Open the Terminal and enter the following:
Enter the following and press the Enter key: wget -qO - https://downloads.iridiumbrowser.de/ubuntu/iridium-release-sign-01.pub|sudo apt-key add -
Enter the following and press the Enter key: cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/iridium-browser.list
deb [arch=amd64] https://downloads.iridiumbrowser.de/deb/ stable main
#deb-src https://downloads.iridiumbrowser.de/deb/ stable main
EOF
Enter the following and press the Enter key: sudo apt-get update
Enter the following and press the Enter key: sudo apt-get install iridium-browser

Reboot your system if you do not see an Iridium browser icon in your menu.

How to Remove Iridium
1. Open the Terminal (Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T)
2. Type the following command: sudo apt-get remove iridium-browser

Illustrated Steps
Enter the following and press the Enter key: wget -qO - https://downloads.iridiumbrowser.de/ubuntu/iridium-release-sign-01.pub|sudo apt-key add -

Enter the following and press the Enter key: cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/iridium-browser.list
deb [arch=amd64] https://downloads.iridiumbrowser.de/deb/ stable main
#deb-src https://downloads.iridiumbrowser.de/deb/ stable main
EOF

Enter the following and press the Enter key: sudo apt-get update

Enter the following and press the Enter key: sudo apt-get install iridium-browser

Reboot your system if you do not see an Iridium browser icon in your menu.

At the time of creating this webpage PCLinuxOS installs version 2020.04.81 while Ubuntu installs 2019.04.73. I used Alien software to convert iridium-2020.04.81-3pclos2020.x86_64.rpm to iridium_2020.04.81-3pclos2020_amd64.deb. If you install the browser using the converted .deb file, then wait till you see "Status: Same version is already installed" before you close the Package Installer.

Differences between Iridium and Chromium

Iridium Browser is a browser based on the Chromium project; however, there are a lot of changes the project made to the Chromium code to improve your online security and privacy. For a complete list of enhancements check out the site Differences between Iridium and Chromium. Below is a long list of modifications the Iridium team made to the Chromium browser.

Increase RSA keysize to 2048 bits for self-signed certificates (used by WebRTC)
Generate a new WebRTC identity for each connection instead of reusing identities for 30 days
Disable "Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors"
Disable autocomplete through prediction service when typing in Omnibox
Always send "Do-Not-Track" header
Network/DNS prediction is disabled by default
Block third-party cookies by default
Site data (cookies, local storage, etc.) is only kept until exit, by default
Passwords are not stored by default
Input form autofill is disabled by default
The default search provider is Qwant
Don't report Safe Browsing overrides.
Don't use autofill download service.
Disable cookies for safebrowsing background requests.
Disable the battery status API.
Disable background mode
Disable Google hot word detection
Disable Google promotion fetching
Disable Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) status check
Disable Google Now
Disable automatic update check
Disable profile-import on first run
Network/DNS prediction is disabled by default
Add DuckDuckGo search provider
Add Qwant search provider
Don't ask to send settings to Google by default on profile reset
Don't warn about missing API keys (services are not used anyway)
Show all extensions (including internals) in chrome://extensions.

I set the Qwant search engine as my homepage because it claims that it "respects your privacy." However, you may not see a homepage load until you press the Home button or the Refresh button. It doesn't retrieve information across the Internet until you tell it to fetch the data.

If you used the .deb file that I created from a .rpm file to install Iridium, then you will notice Version 2020.04 (Fedora Build) (64-bit) instead of Ubuntu Build.

I installed three extensions from the Chrome Web Store to help secure Iridium Browser even more:

If you install Version 2020.04 you may notice you can't install extensions from the Google Chrome Web Store. Some may consider this a bug in the browser, while others may think that Iridium is doing a great job blocking Google from installing things within the browser. You can still manually add extensions to the Iridium Browser. Click the three dots in the upper right corner of the browser and highlight More Tools and then click on Extensions.

Next, switch on the Developer mode in the upper right corner.

You can download Chrome Web Extensions from Crx4Chrome and manually install them within Iridium.

Locate your downloaded extension and drag it into the chrome://extensions/ page of the Iridium Browser. This will manually install the extension.

You can change the Background and/or Theme of the Iridium Browser.

I installed a Minimalist Theme called Black Carbon + Silver Metal.

For more information on this browser please check out their website at https://iridiumbrowser.de/. You can also keep track on their social media accounts on Twitter @IridiumBrowser and FaceBook at Iridium Browser.

Sep 22, 2020