Please toss me a bone here.

Thanks!

  • Arsen6331 ☭
    8·
    2 years ago

    Personally, I would say ditch Edge and Chromium entirely, and switch to Firefox. That said, my favorite extensions are: the obvious Ublock Origin, and Dark Reader, which automatically generates and applies dark mode to any site you visit. My eyes start hurting very quickly without it. Both are available for Chromium and thus Edge.

      • Arsen6331 ☭
        6·
        2 years ago

        That’s what I use, but I imagine someone using Edge is not going to have a good time altering settings to make their browser act the way they want.

          • Arsen6331 ☭
            5·
            2 years ago

            Well, every time I install Librewolf, I at least have to disable clearing cookies on close. I usually also have to enable WebGL and WebRTC, as well as DRM if I’m installing it on someone else’s computer and they watch streaming services.

              • Arsen6331 ☭
                2·
                2 years ago

                Librewolf is a firefox-based browser designed for privacy. If you don’t like firefox, you probably won’t like Librewolf more

      • Arsen6331 ☭
        51·
        2 years ago

        In my experience, Firefox-based browsers have always been faster than anything Chromium-based and used less resources.

        • Makan ☭ CPUSAOP
          11·
          2 years ago

          Really? Huh. Not in mine. Mine takes up too much processing and memory.

  • Stalins_Spoon
    7·
    2 years ago

    Don’t use Grammarly becuase it has a perpetual and irrevocable license to store, use, and share your user data

  • redtea
    5·
    2 years ago

    What kind of research?

    Productivity-wise. The fewer distractions, the better. I avoid all plugins. But it depends on the kinds of sites that you visit. The databases I need do not have ads, so I don’t need an ad blocker.

    I have a shortcut to all the databases that I need I’m my bookmark bar. The shortcuts are to the login page, so I can get into the database more quickly when I open my browser.

    Do not include bookmarks for any social media. It makes it too easy to click through when your attention wanes.

    I simply open my browser (no homepage, no search engine – just a blank page). So I’m not tempted to click through to distracting links.

    I suppose a ‘timer’ plugin, like a pomodora thing, could be useful. But I’m unsure if they exist.

    I think there are footnote plugins, which could be handy. And bibliography plugins that keep a record of your sources. I have never been about to summon the energy to become familiar with these kinds of app for them to be useful. And there seems to be an option for the referencing style that I need in my field. You may have more luck. I think they come with the standard reference systems, like Harvard, Chicago, and Blue Book.

    If you want more general productivity tips and research advice, I can help, but you seem to be after something that uses advanced tech here 🖥️💻.

    • Makan ☭ CPUSAOP
      1·
      2 years ago

      For both a novel and a research project in my case.

      Pomodora is definitely out there as an app, btw.

      • redtea
        2·
        2 years ago

        Nice one.

        Sounds like you have your hands full. In that case, you may need to search for all sorts of info, which means you’ll come across ads. As others have suggested, I can recommend uBlock. I cannot remember which one to install. Be careful as there is at least one copycat, which may be unsafe.

        In that case, the pomodora app may help you with the research. If you know the clock is ticking, it can help to stay focused rather than getting sidetracked when you look up some details.

        For long writing projects, I can recommend Scrivener. It’s not free, but it can help keep on top of long documents. Word, for example, gets a bit unwieldy from 20k words and is only good for formatting 80k+ words (combining shorter, chapter-length documents into a single document when it’s all finished).

        If you do use Word, use styles! It will help with the formatting later.

      • panic
        3·
        2 years ago

        It saves all your open tabs on a list. You can title the collections, it’s useful for the moments when you want to pause what you’re researching and do something else.