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Thoughts on Arc Browser

chrishannah.me

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Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#71

Post by dmitriid »

AgentME wrote: post #63
dmitriid wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are four actively-developed, open source, mainstream browser engines enough? I think so, given that we haven't seen a downside to a relative monoculture We have a near-monopoly with Chrome, a very distant second Safari, and a nearly non-existent Firefox. Anything else (like Goanna or Flow) have literally zero impact. Chrome's outsized influence is such that it no longer even pretends to care about consensus or proc…

What features is Chrome shipping that it shouldn't?

The question isn't "should or shouldn't". The question is how.

Web standards are supposed to be based on a) consensus and b) at least two independent implementations.

As an example, let's take a recent Chrome-only non-standard that made HN frontpage, WebTransport: https://web.dev/webtransport/

The status of this API? "Editor's Draft". That is, scribbled on a napkin [1]

--- start quote ---

These drafts have not received formal review and are not endorsed W3C.

These drafts MUST NOT be cited as W3C standards and may or may not become W3C standards.

--- end quote ---

Guess what its status is in Chrome? Already shipped, and advertised as available.

As with other such non-standards expect HN comments decrying other browsers as being "the new IE" because they are in no rush to develop this.

[1] https://www.w3.org/standards/types#ED

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#73

Post by nbzso »

FractalHQ wrote: post #47
nbzso wrote: post #17

Tested it. Moved back to Brave. Wish I can hide the url field on chrome based browsers. This is the only thing that I like in Arc. In my view the problem with Arc is the UX. It is hidden and complex and as a result lacks a natural discovery flow. It seems targeted towards the small audience of specialists which will have no problem giving a lot of their data. And I hate the size of the borders:) Make them small or re…

On MacOS I use the fullscreen window shortcut (followed by browser fullscreen shortcut) to hide the UI for a more Vivaldi-esque experience.

On a laptop. On a 30" display, full-screen apps are unusable.:)

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#74

Post by K0nserv »

Fnoord wrote: post #43

Command palette is a feature I miss in my current browser. Though there's probably some Alfred extension for it, I use Firefox on macOS, Linux, Android, and Windows. There's Plotinus [1] for Gtk3 (Linux) but that won't work on Gtk4, nor is it cross-platform. Firefox also has a sidebar (I use TTS extension) and permanent pages (Pins) as well as containers e.g. against FAMAG tracking. TTS has themes. Its a bit annoying…

> Command palette is a feature I miss in my current browser.

Vimium[0] has something like it with `shift+T`(searches active tabs) and `shift+O`/`o`(searches bookmarks, history, and active tabs).

0: https://vimium.github.io/

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#75

Post by graftak »

dmitriid wrote: post #71
AgentME wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What features is Chrome shipping that it shouldn't?

The question isn't "should or shouldn't". The question is how . Web standards are supposed to be based on a) consensus and b) at least two independent implementations. As an example, let's take a recent Chrome-only non-standard that made HN frontpage, WebTransport: https://web.dev/webtransport/ The status of this API? "Editor's Draft". That is, scribbled on a napkin [1] --- start quote --- These drafts have not recei…

And the worst thing is when you call out Chrome for being the new IE instead[1] you get jousted by your web development peers because their dev tools are so great and other browsers are too slow to implement.

[1] Pushing through (user hostile) apis without consideration about others

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#76

Post by ndimares »

I knew I was a distractible person, but I never realised the degree to which having the URL and tabs at the top of my browser was a drag on my productivity until I began using Arc. Now, I basically always keep Arc in focus mode and it has had a really positive impact on my concentration. There are definitely things about the browser that bother me, but this one benefit has been enough to make it my new default.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#77

Post by chrishannah »

ndimares wrote: post #76

I knew I was a distractible person, but I never realised the degree to which having the URL and tabs at the top of my browser was a drag on my productivity until I began using Arc. Now, I basically always keep Arc in focus mode and it has had a really positive impact on my concentration. There are definitely things about the browser that bother me, but this one benefit has been enough to make it my new default.

That's interesting. Not seeing the address bar and tabs were a negative for me.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#78

Post by hiidrew »

soulofmischief wrote: post #16
satvikpendem wrote: post #15

I'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.

I can see Arc somewhat doing this with their "boosts" feature. I imagine they will eventually have something like a marketplace for these, e.g. youtube/twitter without the distracting sidebars.

But to your point the core browsing experience would remain the same. Would be cool if they opened that up to variability though.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#79

Post by hiidrew »

The command palette is a feature I've been enjoying and wishing I could use in chrome on my work laptop. Another is using 'shift-cmd-c' to copy the current URL, small feature but one of my favorites!

I don't use easels because I'm afraid of the company folding and me losing all my notes/easels. I wish they had something like Obsidian's set-up where it auto-generates .md files in a folder.

I'll always welcome new browsers, even if they are just wrapped versions of Chromium. Another similar concept is https://sail.online/, they're doing the superhuman type onboarding but it's interesting, would describe it as a collaborative browser on a spatial canvas.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#80

Post by bananarchist »

thatloststudent wrote: post #35
bananarchist wrote: post #9

I 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...

I don't use extensions
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