Subject to change should a better process arise, this is a semi-comprehensive list and configuration for browsing the modern web without annoyances. You will likely need the following:
I'd Recommend Firefox if you're looking to a decent "chrome" or default browser alternative. However, if you insist on remaining in the "chrome ecosystem", Arc Browser is now available for Mac & PC, with mobile versions only available for iOS.
In it's current state, Firefox is by far the safest & most open browser experience you can have browsing sites to-date.
a must-have these days for browsing the internet without fear or cookie tracking or just encountering you average habit tracking AD, is the uBlock extension available for most browsers. Setting up uBlock can seem a little intimidating if you'd never used a utility like it, but it should be fairly simple once you've added/removed the things you want to include. I'm talking primarily about filters list found in the Filter Lists tab. This option (among others) can be found in the uBlock dashboard, which you can access by clicking the gears link in the popup
Once looking at your dashboard, navigate to the Filter Lists tab, if you havent dont so already. You'll notice that a lot of stuff is already selected by default. Should you want to get more granular, you can, however it may be overkill if you're just navigating to fairly common websites. One additional thing that you could add that may prove helpful, is a snippet to bypass most paywall systems, for things like NYT or washington post. To do this, scroll to the bottom of your Filter Lists tab where you see an import section with a textarea
in this box, paste this url
https://github.com/bpc-clone/bypass-paywalls-clean-filters/raw/main/bpc-paywall-filter.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/liamengland1/miscfilters/master/antipaywall.txt
The above includes the original bypass list, as well as an additional one made by a user. The later being just added coverage, since you cant go wrong with adding more.
To add another layer to "browsert customizability" with Firefox, you can enable userChrome to get the most out of themeing and skinning your browser experience. For example, you can choose to completely hide the top tab navigation, and use an extension like Sideberry to serve as your browser navigation in the sidebar. As for theming, theres a whole "userChrome" community on Reddit where themes are often shared. You can, of course, just write your own.
- userChrome Things