Frequently Asked Questions About the Change of Default Web Browser

Answers to your questions about why and how the default web browser in Zorin OS was switched to Brave.

First published on 4 April 2025:

Since the release of Zorin OS 17.3, Brave has been included as the default web browser. This change was made based on user feedback and in consultation with our community. Learn more ›

Why did Zorin OS switch from Mozilla Firefox as the default web browser?

In late February 2025, the Mozilla Corporation introduced their new Terms of Use for Firefox. This policy was introduced as a supplement to the Mozilla Public License that the Firefox web browser had already been licensed under. As part of the new Terms of Use, the following term was added to grant Mozilla additional rights to user data:

“[You give Mozilla] a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox.”

This term – as well as other policy changes introduced by Mozilla at this time – caused Firefox users to raise data privacy concerns. These concerns were also raised by the Zorin OS community.

Upon our subsequent analysis of the matter, we no longer felt assured that Firefox aligned with our commitment to protect your privacy. Because privacy is a fundamental value of Zorin OS, we had no choice but to take our community’s concerns seriously and be proactive about protecting their data & security.

Did the Zorin OS team consult Mozilla before switching from Firefox?

Yes, our first step was to contact the Mozilla team directly to get clarity about their new policy changes. In doing so, we wanted to give Mozilla a fair chance to share their side of the story.

Their initial reply briefly stated that their new Terms of Use don’t give them ownership of user data. However, they now require a license to user data in order to “make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible” and that they “couldn’t use information typed into Firefox” without it.

The question remained as to why the Mozilla Corporation needs a license to your user data for Firefox’s basic functionality (i.e. when you interact directly with the Firefox browser app, not Mozilla’s servers) in the first place. This claimed requirement – for Mozilla to get a license to process user data within the app – appears to assume a significant unprecedented legal paradigm, at least according to the explanations we’ve seen from other Mozilla representatives. However, this seems to be out of line with other client-side software. From our understanding, there are other web browsers like Apple’s Safari and Brave that don’t ask for a license to user data for basic client-side functionality in their respective policies. These web browsers are developed by companies based in California – just like Mozilla – and are available worldwide. As a result, they would be subject to the same legal jurisdictions.

We sent Mozilla another email asking this question directly, but we still haven’t received an answer from them as of the time of writing this article (on 4 April 2025).

Because the concerns weren’t addressed in time, we had to go ahead with plan B: to change the default web browser for the Zorin OS 17.3 release onward.

How did the Zorin OS team select the new default web browser?

When looking for an alternative web browser, we aimed to be as pragmatic as possible. As such, we judged each browser – as it is today – on its objective merits. To ensure that the new default browser works well out of the box for as many users as possible and aligns with our values, we first set the following requirements:

Free and Open Source software.
A general-purpose, full-featured web browser.
Privacy-respecting.
Popular and recognizable.
Mature and well-maintained. This is especially important for reliability and the quick availability of patches for any security vulnerabilities, consistently for years to come.

We then spent a significant amount of time researching and analyzing which browsers were natively available for Linux and met these requirements.

Any web browsers that didn’t respect users’ privacy – like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge – were initially disqualified from our shortlist.
As we aim to maintain the Free and Open Source nature of Zorin OS as one of our core values, we weren’t able to go ahead with browsers that were wholly or partially proprietary, such as Opera and Vivaldi.
Some less popular web browsers may not support many commonly-used websites and services. For example, some browsers don’t include full support for playing copyright-protected content on the web, which often doesn’t make it possible for users to accomplish common tasks like playing videos & music from popular streaming services. More obscure browsers may be blocked from some popular web services due to their user agents not being whitelisted by the web developers. While considering possible browser options, we needed to be mindful of our users’ requirements and ensure that Zorin OS allows them to use as many of their online services as possible. As these popular use cases may be inaccessible in such browsers, this makes them less than viable candidates for a full-featured web browser that’s ready for ordinary users.
Some alternative browsers – such as LibreWolf, Waterfox, Floorp, and Ungoogled Chromium – appear to be developed & maintained informally by hobbyist teams, and in some cases by individuals. This means urgent security patches may not always be available in a sufficiently timely manner, which is a vitally important consideration for such a critical piece of software used by the Zorin OS community for years to come. In addition, this arrangement can carry the risk of the project eventually being not actively maintained, or drastic changes to leadership & development structure, as has previously occurred.
We also considered other privacy-centric web browsers such as Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser. Because they’re designed for certain niche use cases, they include trade-offs that may significantly reduce their performance and compatibility with some websites. As a result, they were also found to be unsuitable for use as a general-purpose web browser.
A couple of recent additions to the browser landscape – Zen Browser, Ladybird, and Orion Browser – are promising options in the long term. However, they’re currently in Beta and pre-Alpha states, so they can suffer from stability & performance issues and may be missing critical functionality. As a result, these projects aren’t mature enough to be suitable for inclusion in Zorin OS, at least for now.

By a process of elimination, we arrived at Brave, which satisfied the requirements we set at the beginning of our search.

As the web browser is a vital part of everyone’s computing experience, we wanted to ensure that our community was also in the loop and had a say in this change. That’s why we reached out to our users on the Zorin Forum to present our findings. This also gave our community the space to discuss their thoughts, consider alternate browsers, and offer other suggestions before making a final decision. The participating members of our community subsequently reached a consensus about this proposed browser change.

Does Brave come with any AI or cryptocurrency features enabled in Zorin OS?

No, these features are disabled as standard in Brave and not visible by default in Zorin OS.

By introducing custom default settings, we’ve reduced the visibility of various optional features in Brave. These features include Brave News, Leo AI, Brave Rewards, sponsored background images, and Brave Wallet. Doing this provides a cleaner and more intentional browsing experience out of the box in Zorin OS.

Our decision to reduce the visibility of these optional features was made based on the feedback we received from our user community during the browser selection process. However, if you wish to display & enable these features in Brave, you can follow the instructions in the article linked below:

How to display & enable optional features in Brave Web Browser ›

I installed Zorin OS on my computer before version 17.3. Will my web browser be changed automatically?

No, you’ll keep your existing web browser as before.

This change of default web browser takes effect in new installations of Zorin OS 17.3 and beyond. As a result, no changes will be made to the web browser on existing users' systems to respect their prior choices.

However, existing Zorin OS users can opt to install Brave from the built-in Software store or by following the instructions on the Brave website.

Can I change the web browser in Zorin OS?

Absolutely! You can install any other Linux-compatible web browser from the built-in Software store or the browser’s official website.

We’re aware that your preferred web browser can be a highly subjective choice. That’s why it will always be possible to use your favorite browser in Zorin OS easily.

Will the default web browser change in future versions of Zorin OS?

Possibly. We’re always open to re-evaluating the default software we include in Zorin OS based on their merits, particularly as the web browser landscape changes in the future.