Min – A smarter web browser • Hacker News Board

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#11

Post by userbinator » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 3:22 AM UTC

mrmondo wrote: post #8

I don't see what's "smarter" about it. - The UI seems clumsy and is so flat that it doesn't offer any directional hinting at all. - It's the same size as Firefox (160MB) despite offering significantly less features. - It's resource consumption seems to be about 25% more than a fresh Firefox instance.

and is so flat that it doesn't offer any directional hinting at all.

These featureless, "wide expanse of pure white" UIs are one of the things that most irritates me about "modern" software today. They give the impression of being unfinished and opaque.

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#12

Post by linopolus » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 3:32 AM UTC

I build a browser in your browser, so that you can browse the web browsier.

It sounded reasonably nice (beyond the point that Firefox is all this with a few addons), but Electron? Again?

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#13

Post by rqs » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 3:54 AM UTC

mrmondo wrote: post #8

I don't see what's "smarter" about it. - The UI seems clumsy and is so flat that it doesn't offer any directional hinting at all. - It's the same size as Firefox (160MB) despite offering significantly less features. - It's resource consumption seems to be about 25% more than a fresh Firefox instance.

> It's the same size as Firefox (160MB) despite offering significantly less features.

Part of that is because of Electron.

From the day Electron was released, I knew somebody will build a Web Browser upon it. Now that day finally came, again. LOL

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#14

Post by dblohm7 » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 4:04 AM UTC

rqs wrote: post #13

mrmondo wrote: post #8

I don't see what's "smarter" about it. - The UI seems clumsy and is so flat that it doesn't offer any directional hinting at all. - It's the same size as Firefox (160MB) despite offering significantly less features. - It's resource consumption seems to be about 25% more than a fresh Firefox instance.

> It's the same size as Firefox (160MB) despite offering significantly less features. Part of that is because of Electron. From the day Electron was released, I knew somebody will build a Web Browser upon it. Now that day finally came, again. LOL

That day came a while back: Brave.

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#15

Post by rqs » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 4:29 AM UTC

dblohm7 wrote: post #14

rqs wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's the same size as Firefox (160MB) despite offering significantly less features. Part of that is because of Electron. From the day Electron was released, I knew somebody will build a Web Browser upon it. Now that day finally came, again. LOL

That day came a while back: Brave.

OK, I ... adjusted my comment :D

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#16

Post by cocktailpeanuts » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 4:42 AM UTC

I think the main reason people are hating on this is because it's selling itself as something it's not: A smarter browser.

Should stick with its original goal. I think they created it as a "minimal" browser, hence the name.

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#17

Post by colept » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 5:18 AM UTC

Competition is good. This also looks like a neat browser for staging designs.

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#18

Post by Gaelan » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 5:19 AM UTC

darklajid wrote: post #6

Ignoring the general 'Electron seems a waste of resources' (with which I partially agree with) comments: Requires 'Ubuntu' or 'macOS'? I seem to know a lot of Electron based apps that run on other Linux distributions or - gasp - even Windows. Clicking on the 'Download anyway' link brings up the GitHub release tab. With, among others, a file called 'Min-v1.6.3-win32-x64.zip'.

Pure speculation, but I bet it's a combination of:

* Lack of a windows machine to test on

* Forgetting to update the site when a Windows build became available.

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#19

Post by _Codemonkeyism » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 5:32 AM UTC

I think the only way to make a dent into the browser market is to create the most secure browser and market it that way.

Re: Min – A smarter web browser

#20

Post by jijji » Mon, Oct 09, 2017, 5:42 AM UTC

so its basically chrome-headless with a different UI and 20% slower because it is running via an interpreted nodejs rendering that is then compiled into a binary. why not just use chrome? If you're going to use an existing browser, why not use Dillo or Lynx as the backend, which really are minimalist in terms of memory usage.