I saw a short review of the flatpak app called Carburetor. It connects to the Tor network for anonymity. Does anyone have experience with this app or an opinion?
I have no experience with Carburetor …
My view (from research, but not from actual use) is Carburetor could be a bit annoying to use. Of course, that is my opinion.
My understanding is that the openSUSE Flatpak version of Carburetor installs in user space, not system space. Since your computer’s network stack operates at the system level, the ISP will see your real device identity (e.g., your real IP and system credentials) UNLESS you configure your browser’s proxy to use that of Carburetor.
From what I understand, Carburetor creates a local Tor proxy, but it doesn’t automatically route all your system traffic through that Tor proxy like, for example, the GNU/Linux OpenVPN app does does.
Instead, Carburetor sets up proxy in a user session, which means applications (such as a browser) need to be configured to use that Carburetor proxy. Further, one also has to remember in Carburetor to switch ON proxy settings.
However if in a subsequent boot, you decide not to use Carburetor, then the browser(s) you setup will not work as the Proxy is wrong. You will then need to go into the browser settings, and remove the custom Carburetor proxy setup.
Possibly there may be a browser extension, that allows to to easily toggle proxy settings on/OFF ? I have not researched this.
Another possibility, is to assign one browser (say Firefox) to ONLY be used if you have Carburetor active (and that browser will not function if Carburetor is not active), and ALSO to assign another browser (say Chrome) to be used in the knowledge it will not use Carburetor’s tor network even if Carburetor is active, but that it will work independent of Carburetor.
This is based on my reading - NOT on actual use - so hopefully those who have actual experience with this will chime in and correct my limited understanding.
Hmm - previous Reply AI-based (?) 
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We’re set on our browsers: mostly Brave for general use - Chrome for personal use. Have tested many browsers over the years.
Out of curiosity, I did some research on this Carburetor app. I’d not use it. To the OP, have you done any ‘Internet’ research? Did you read the reviews in the Discover app with Carburetor selected? Some folks out in Reddit (and other sites) aren’t motivated to use it.
As I mentioned, we use Brave. Guess what - it has a Tor option built right in!! You can open a new standard Tab or Window, a Private window, or a Private with Tor window. For us, no need to use another browser just for Tor type usage. Brave is based on Chrom(ium)e.
Screenshot showing the Tor option in Brave.
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NO. I installed it. Played with it. And did not like it. When I say not on actual use … I meant I only played with it enough to conclude it did not work (at least for me it did not work).
You have a fixation on AI that I believe biases your perception.
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Thanks for all the input. It seems it is not as easy or worthwhile as the review implied. It’s not for me!
I rarely use the Tor window in Brave because it seems slow and often gets blocked. Maybe there are settings I should tinker with but I will use it rather than Carburetor.
Thanks again.
Nope. I strictly believe only in NI 
Face it - the slowness of ALL Tor browsers is a natural (negative) side-effect.
They are slower, because your ‘Net’ traffic is routed through multiple volunteer-run relay servers. Because of that, the side-effect is added latency … plus network congestion. Heck, even the long-running original Tor Browser has this slowness!!
Read more here (" How can I make Tor run faster? Is Tor Browser slower than other browsers?"):
You might consider using a VPN, versus Tor. Here’s a decent article describing the differences and why a person would choose one versus the other:
Tor was slow when I first tried it, decades ago. These days, I can’t see a difference in speed between using it and not.
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