I would love to have a bookmarks file that is text, not SQLite, so I can use rsync or git to keep a master copy on a server and have all my computers share it.
Same with a passwords file, except make it encrypted with a master key.
Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
231–240 of 250 posts
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#232Basically Opera 12 or pre-Chromium Opera in general.. - Obvious things like encryption support, tabs, full cookie options, (customizable) "smart" address bar, speed dial, history, favourites, optional synchronization, extension support, spell check... - heavily customizable UI, - plenty of other customization through settings or Opera's neatly done opera:config, - easily togglable (is that a word?) side panel with M2…
+1
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#233I would love to have a bookmarks file that is text, not SQLite, so I can use rsync or git to keep a master copy on a server and have all my computers share it. Same with a passwords file, except make it encrypted with a master key.
Are you worried about privacy? Are bookmarks an attack vector of any kind? Or am I just naturally paranoid about these things?
I've always been wary of who can see my bookmarks, but not for any particular reason. It kind of reminds me how US libraries are vigilant to shield your checkout history from government searches.[0]
[0] An ongoing issue in the age of the PATRIOT Act. http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000060501
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#234I would love to have a bookmarks file that is text, not SQLite, so I can use rsync or git to keep a master copy on a server and have all my computers share it. Same with a passwords file, except make it encrypted with a master key.
Are you worried about privacy? Are bookmarks an attack vector of any kind? Or am I just naturally paranoid about these things? I've always been wary of who can see my bookmarks, but not for any particular reason. It kind of reminds me how US libraries are vigilant to shield your checkout history from government searches.[0] [0] An ongoing issue in the age of the PATRIOT Act. http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000060501
Yes, I care about privacy. That's why I want my shared bookmarks to live on my own server, not on delicious or Google Drive or whatever.
If they are encrypted before they leave the client so much the better. I would consider that a hard requirement for the passwords, so might as well do it for the bookmarks too.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#235No antifeatures / downgrades. I am aware that this is a fuzzy concept. However, a few specifics: * Think very hard before adding things to make sure that they actually need to be in the core browser. Looking at you, FF Hello. * Don't baby the user. Everything should be configurable. And existing options should not be changed on upgrades. And general solutions are (always) better than centralized services. Looking at…
Sorry, but I'm going to call this arbitrary FF hate.
With the exception of the Pocket and Hello arguments, Chrome has all of these problems. Electrolysis, the malware stuff, etc... all comes from Chrome stuff!
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#236I know this is crazy but I want there to be a service where I can subscribe to a number of websites, and every week I get a printed hardcopy of all the content that I can leaf through. Eco-greenie-ologists be damned, I want my degradable, ephemeral paper to leaf through while lounging in a rocker chair drinking ice tea. Civilized. Now that's a browser. Solves the security issue right there, aint nobody tracking me no…
What an interesting idea -- if I wasn't reading this webpage, I'd say it was a solution looking for a problem. But honestly I would love to try out something like this purely for novelty. It's like the definition of a horse-shaped car. (Or is that a car-shaped horse?)
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#237I wish it were easier to select text with the mouse.
On "complicated" web pages, tiny changes in the position of the mouse while dragging (selecting text) can result in large changes in the selection (the parts of the page highlighted in light blue). Sometimes a tiny change in mouse position even causes a whole 'nother column of text to be highlighted.
It sometimes takes many tries simply to select the contiguous words I want to copy. It sometimes takes planning and learning from experience. I would prefer for selecting text with the mouse to be so easy that I can always keep all of my planning and learning faculties focused on the ideas discussed on the web page.
Even on pages (such as the page where this comment will appear) where selecting text with the mouse is relatively straightforward, I would prefer to be able to select a contiguous series of lines (or paragraphs if individual lines is too hard) by dragging in the left margin the way that it is possible to select a contiguous series of lines in TextMate 2 or in Sublime Text 3 by dragging in the gutter (the left margin where the line numbers appear). (Neither Firefox nor Chrome lets me do that with HN's pages.)
In general, I would prefer for my browser to be optimized for "active reading" or "reading broadly understood" (reading plus related activities like copying a short passage from a web page and pasting it into a text editor).
I would probably make heavy use of such a "browser optimized for reading" even if it barfed on "complicated" web pages (i.e., failed to render all or part of pages that use a difficult-to-implement modern web API) provided there were an "Open in Firefox" or "Open in Chrome" item on the right-click menu whenever the mouse is over a link -- or some similar easy-to-implement convenience.
In other words, I think I'd use it and love it even if it was unusable with most pages on the modern web as long as it provides a good experience on certain sites with relatively simple pages, like HN and Wikipedia.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#238My ideal web browser wouldn't be a browser at all, but instead a bunch of "do one thing and do it well" components that I can piece together to do things and swap in/out as necessary. I'd like to be able to swap rendering engines, Javascript interpreters, UI components, plugins, extensions, etc. in and out with maximum modularity and flexibility.
I'd also love for there to be a Unix-ish interface for browser plugins/extensions that isn't dependent on a specific language (or, if it is, for that language to be something C-compatible for maximum FFI compatibility). The more I can do without touching a single line of JS, the better.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why wouldn't donations work? Something like Gratipay (formerly Gittip) for journalists?
Because a journalist needs a minimum of $50 a day, it's a hit based business, and readers are fickle. Everything you say must be in complete agreement with their world view to get a donation. One mistake and they're gone. Also, it's been tried before and has failed every time. A subscription based donation system might still work though.
Ok, thanks. It was an honest question, btw, thanks for taking it as such.
Re: Ask HN: What would you want in an ideal web browser?
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're using Android, then Firefox supports ad blocking. If you're not using Android…well, that's the choice you made.
Last time I checked ad blocking on Android was quite difficult to set up. It requires root, it runs as a background process, and I need to set up a proxy for each wifi connection. When the adblock process died, the internet connection would stop working completely. I just want an ad blocker in the browser, like on the desktop.
> Last time I checked ad blocking on Android was quite difficult to set up.
Nope, just install Firefox, go to Tools:Add-ons, find AdBlock Plus or uBlock Origin, install it, and never see an ad again. No rooting, no proxying, no goofiness.
Only works in the browser, but it works well enough for me.