How to Install Brave Browser on elementary OS 6

Brave is a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. based on the Chromium web browser. Brave is a privacy-focused internet browser that sets itself apart from other browsers by automatically blocking online advertisements and website trackers in its default settings.

Brave claimed that its browser puts less strain on your computer’s performance than Google Chrome. Even with multiple tabs open at once, Brave uses less memory than Google Chrome, up to 66% less. Brave’s recent 2021-recap talked about how they passed 50 Million active users and grew 2x its previous size for a fifth year in a row which shows how popular the browser has become.

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Brave Browser on elementary OS 6.

Prerequisites

• Recommended OS: Any elementary OS 6.xx distribution.
• User account: A user account with sudo or root access.
• System Architecture
  • AMD64

The tutorial will utilize the terminal for the installation found in Applications (Top Right Corner) > Search > Terminal.

Example:

Update Operating System

Update your elementary OS system to make sure all existing packages are up to date:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

The tutorial will be using the sudo command and assuming you have sudo status.

To verify sudo status on your account:

sudo whoami

Example output showing sudo status:

[joshua@elementaryos~]$ sudo whoami
root

To set up an existing or new sudo account, visit our tutorial on Adding a User to Sudoers on elementary OS.

To use the root account, use the following command with the root password to log in.

su

Install Dependecies

To complete the installation, you will need to install the following software packages by using the following command in your terminal.

sudo apt install software-properties-common apt-transport-https curl wget -y

If you are unsure, run the command; it will not harm you. These are the most common software packages found on nearly all Linux distributions.

Import GPG Key & Brave Repository

Users have three choices to import for their Brave Browser installation. The first and recommended is to install the Brave Browser stable branch for most of your usage. However, for more advanced or curious users, you can install the beta and nightly build repositories that are separate installations.

Option 1 – Import Brave Browser Stable (Recommended)

Import Stable GPG KEY:

sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg

Import Stable Repository:

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list

Option 2 – Import Brave Browser Beta

Import Beta GPG KEY:

sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-beta-archive-keyring.gpg https://brave-browser-apt-beta.s3.brave.com/brave-browser-beta-archive-keyring.gpg

Import Beta Repository:

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-beta-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-beta.s3.brave.com/ stable main"|sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-beta.list

Option 3 – Import Brave Browser Nightly (Caution!)

Import Nightly GPG KEY:

sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-nightly-archive-keyring.gpg https://brave-browser-apt-nightly.s3.brave.com/brave-browser-nightly-archive-keyring.gpg

Import Nightly Repository:

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-nightly-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-nightly.s3.brave.com/ stable main"|sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-nightly.list

Install Brave Browser on elementary OS

Brave Browser can now be installed using the following.

First, update your repository list to reflect the new repository changes:

sudo apt update

Now install Brave with the following command:

sudo apt install brave-browser

Example output:

Type Y,  and then press the  ENTER KEY  to proceed with the installation.

Then check the build and version installed, and it also indicates that Brave has been installed successfully.

brave-browser --version

Example output (at the time of the tutorial):

Brave Browser 97.1.34.81 

Optional. Install Brave Browser Beta or Nightly

Alternatively, you can install Brave Beta or Nightly build if you’ve added the repositories. These two versions are not recommended for everyday use, especially not on a main desktop or production environment.

Install the Beta version of Brave Browser:

sudo apt install brave-browser-beta

Install Brave Browser Nightly Build (Dev):

sudo apt install brave-browser-nightly

Note that they do not replace your stable version and are installed separately.

Then check the installation of beta or unstable, use the following command.

Check the Beta version of Brave Browser:

brave-browser-beta --version

Example output (at the time of the tutorial):

Brave Browser 97.1.35.89 beta

Check the Nightly version of Brave Browser:

brave-browser-nightly --version

Example output (at the time of the tutorial):

Brave Browser 97.1.36.58 nightly

How to Launch the Brave Browser

Once the installation is complete, there are several ways you can run bravely. First, while you’re in your terminal, use the following command:

brave-browser

Otherwise, run the  brave-browser & command  in the background to free the terminal:

brave-browser &

However, this is impractical, and you would use the following path on your desktop to open with the path: Activities> Show Apps> Brave Web Browser.

Alternatively, if you can’t find it, use the search feature in the Applications menu if you have many apps installed.

Example:

The first time you open Brave, you will be greeted with the following pop-up window:

Uncheck or leave as is and click the OK button to continue.

Now you will finally see Brave Internet Browser, run through the “Let’s go” first time tour, or click on the “Skip welcome tour” for most users.

Next, you will land at the default search engine landing page.

Example:

How to Update Brave Browser

To update Brave, run the update APT command in your terminal as you would check your entire system for any updates.

sudo apt update

If there is one available, use the upgrade option:

sudo apt upgrade

A better way to upgrade the package directly is if you do not want to update all packages at once.

Example with Brave Browser Stable:

sudo apt upgrade brave-browser

How to Remove (Uninstall) Brave Browser

To remove Brave, run the following terminal command:

sudo apt autoremove brave-browser --purge

Note that unused dependencies will also be removed.

If you have installed the beta or unstable version.

Remove the Brave Browser Beta Build:

sudo apt autoremove brave-browser-beta --purge

Remove the Brave Browser Nightly Build:

sudo apt autoremove brave-browser-nightly --purge

To remove the added repositories, use the following command.

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-*

Note the above command will blanket remove all Brave Browser repositories. To remove specific ones, make sure to specify “brave-browser-beta.list”.

Comments and conclusion

In the tutorial, you learned how to import the APT binary package and GPG key to install the latest stable version of Brave Browser along with alternative beta and optional nightly installations. Overall, the Brave is an exciting newcomer to the web browser scene.

Brave’s claims that it’s much faster than Google Chrome would be believed because by eliminating ads and ad trackers by default, Brave downloads far less content from a website than any other browser and is continually making up ground to the major browsers, including Google Chrome.