Is there interest in a similarly innovative/functional browser that wraps WebKit for iOS/iPadOS/macOS? I see people complain about wrapping Chrome but don't know if the Apple ecosystem community values this.
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Thoughts on Arc Browser
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Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#32I've used it, it's fine I guess, nothing super outstanding. I don't want to be that guy on HN, but the way they market themselves as being some revolution in browsing while simply wrapping Chrome like others like Vivaldi (which also has a lot of customization), Edge, Opera etc is not that interesting. It's even less so when I would lose adblocking due to Manifest v3 because, really, how long will these browser makers…
I envision a browser inspired by the likes of foobar2k in which core engines are open source and interchangeable, and any browsing experience is achievable through a rich plugin and layout system. The browser itself would be little more than scaffolding and an SDK.
Isn't this what XUL was? Admitedly I'm aware its arch was too complex to compete with Chromium's speed and security features, but way before Electron, I was using desktop apps built with XUL like Songbird for my music app, as well as a Twitter client whose name I can't recall now (of course, Thunderbird as well). Maybe they threw the baby out with the bath water a little bit by electing to concede to WebExtensions API since now Electron (read: Chromium) is filling exactly the niche that XUL provided.
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#33I keep waiting for the invite... it's becoming pathetic, honestly! Why would desktop software want to use an invite system?! It makes zero sense! And worst of all, to make people wait for months!
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#34Is there interest in a similarly innovative/functional browser that wraps WebKit for iOS/iPadOS/macOS? I see people complain about wrapping Chrome but don't know if the Apple ecosystem community values this.
As I understand, everybody shipping a browser for ios and ipados is wrapping webkit because apple requires that it be that way.
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#35I love that it deletes all the tabs I've opened and not interacted with recently. I needed that in my life. When FF incorporates that and putting tabs on the side, I'll switch back. I don't really care about the rest Arc's got going on.
Tree style tab [0] exists, and you can change Firefox's userChrome.css [1] to hide the tab bar. To make old tabs sleep (not quite delete, but close), use Auto Tab Discard [2].
0 - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta...
1 - https://gist.github.com/akersten/8fa7d36960b10c5ae18c01ada3d...
2 - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/auto-tab-disc...
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#36I've 5 invites left: https://arc.net/gift/c5adb5f4
Edit: Gone
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#375 invites if anyone need:
edit: gone
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#38Have never tried arc. Commenting on the article, not the browser. > For a moment I was mesmerised by its features, how it behaved, and the quirkiness of it. I think the most important job for a browser is to stay in the background and let the user focus on the website. Chrome does this beautifully. It's elegant, but not eye-catching. It takes up little space for its own UI, and leaves most space to the website. > At…
> I think the most important job for a browser is to stay in the background and let the user focus on the website.
Incidentally, this is why I love the macOS Safari "Compact Tabs" feature [0] -- this is the most compact browser UI I've come across.
[0] https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/21/22686070/apple-macos-safa...
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#391. You may find interesting https://beamapp.co/. Browser + hypertext note-taking tool (webkit based)
2. I was first engineer at https://meetsidekick.com you may find it interesting too. (as engineer with 14 years of experience in this area ready tell you about best way to architect js app in isolated environments like main/render process of electron, background/view pages in chrome extensions)
3. > I am a big fan of relatively-small websites, personal blogs, and any website that is free of the usual bloat. I'm indie/solo making linkkraft browser (to make a living from it). To let myself observe intensive web in a non-intensive way. It could be useful for someone who make decisions (and money) from processing a lot of information from mass of tabs. (product managers, hr head hunters?)
Linkkraft visualizes your steps as tree and auto-makes html snapshot for your each step. So, you can pause your research confidently (or part of it to free CPU/memory) and restore full context even offline. (Ping me if this would make you effective)
linkkraft tree vs chrome tabs https://arestov.github.io/linkkraft-notes/comparing/linkkraf...
offline snapshots for each step in twitter SPA https://arestov.github.io/linkkraft-notes/trails-tree-plus-o...
Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I envision a browser inspired by the likes of foobar2k in which core engines are open source and interchangeable, and any browsing experience is achievable through a rich plugin and layout system. The browser itself would be little more than scaffolding and an SDK.
Isn't this what XUL was? Admitedly I'm aware its arch was too complex to compete with Chromium's speed and security features, but way before Electron, I was using desktop apps built with XUL like Songbird for my music app, as well as a Twitter client whose name I can't recall now (of course, Thunderbird as well). Maybe they threw the baby out with the bath water a little bit by electing to concede to WebExtensions AP…
Yeah, Electron and Chromium fill a close enough niche that I don't think the market is really demanding what I envision.
Try giving foobar2000 a spin or checking out some screenshots to get an idea for what I mean. Unlike Chromium, the browser should be extendable, at runtime, via a component system and editable layout tree. Runtimes, backends, common libs, fonts etc should be managed using a repository system.
Chromium requires recompilation (and know-how) in order to make any big change. Comparatively, a user should be able to completely reskin their browser, switch JavaScript engines, etc. on a per-domain, per-group or per-tab basis in seconds without restarting the browser.