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Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

zen-browser.app

151–160 of 427 posts

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#151

Not many straightforwardly positive comments here so far, so I will write one. I'm a Firefox user but I've recently been tempted by Arc primarily because of its 'workspaces' feature and its minimal UI that gets out the way. I used Arc for several weeks and really got a taste for these features, so I'm really happy to see them come to a Gecko-based browser. Thank you, and keep it up! My advice would be: don't advertis…

I might be willing to try it because of these workspaces.

How does It differ from Firefox Profile Manager?

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#152

I got a weird error when trying to run the app from within the .DMG on ARM Mac, in case anyone who can look into it is reading. It said "Zen Browser" is damaged and can't be opened, you should reject the disk image. edit: it's a known thing to do with Apples security, workarounds in step 3 here: https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/issues/53

I hate this about MacOS. It happens seldom enough for me to forget about it and every time I have to search the web for the solution. Thanks for posting the steps.

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#153

I have been using Firefox since after 2004 (I'm not sure if it was 2005 or 2006) and while I love the browser, I wish they would invest moreso in just making it less cluttered. One of the first things I do when I install Firefox is get rid of the stupid gaps next to the URL bar. Every. single. time. It really angers me. Who wanted that? Do people leave it on because they can't figure out how to remove them? We had a…

> One of the first things I do when I install Firefox is get rid of the stupid gaps next to the URL bar. Every. single. time. I THIS! This is the first thing I do after installing firefox. Nice to see I'm not the only one :)

I can't go 1 minute with that thing turned on, it drives me crazy.

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#154
post #117

Whenever I read “beautiful” in marketing copy, I’m immediately put off. It’s so presumptuous and conveys vanity. Moreover, users may prefer their software to be utilitarian, and in any case are likely to have different opinions on what constitutes “beauty”. For that aspect: Show, don’t tell. If people do find it beautiful, then they don’t need to be told. And if they don’t, then telling them is unlikely to change tha…

I read it the opposite way: - I feel more passion from the author. - I value the pride they show in their work. - I know many people actually care about beauty. In fact, with the same amount of bugs, the users of the most beautiful software will actually report it's less buggy. The problem is when someone makes appearances more important than being useful. But I want to give this project the benefit of the doubt. We…

How do you know it was one of the developers who wrote this? Maybe they hired someone to create the site and the content. Granted, the site is in the repo and you can see who committed the assets. But that still doesn't tell you who originally wrote it.

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#155
post #117

Whenever I read “beautiful” in marketing copy, I’m immediately put off. It’s so presumptuous and conveys vanity. Moreover, users may prefer their software to be utilitarian, and in any case are likely to have different opinions on what constitutes “beauty”. For that aspect: Show, don’t tell. If people do find it beautiful, then they don’t need to be told. And if they don’t, then telling them is unlikely to change tha…

I read it the opposite way: - I feel more passion from the author. - I value the pride they show in their work. - I know many people actually care about beauty. In fact, with the same amount of bugs, the users of the most beautiful software will actually report it's less buggy. The problem is when someone makes appearances more important than being useful. But I want to give this project the benefit of the doubt. We…

This is based on Firefox, so it doesn’t really help with browser diversity.

Ladybird does, but it’s not really ready for prime time yet

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#156
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read it the opposite way: - I feel more passion from the author. - I value the pride they show in their work. - I know many people actually care about beauty. In fact, with the same amount of bugs, the users of the most beautiful software will actually report it's less buggy. The problem is when someone makes appearances more important than being useful. But I want to give this project the benefit of the doubt. We…

How do you know it was one of the developers who wrote this? Maybe they hired someone to create the site and the content. Granted, the site is in the repo and you can see who committed the assets. But that still doesn't tell you who originally wrote it.

You're suggesting one of the developers went through all the trouble to create a browser, then allowed someone to add assets to the repo without the developer reviewing them first?

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#157
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read it the opposite way: - I feel more passion from the author. - I value the pride they show in their work. - I know many people actually care about beauty. In fact, with the same amount of bugs, the users of the most beautiful software will actually report it's less buggy. The problem is when someone makes appearances more important than being useful. But I want to give this project the benefit of the doubt. We…

This is based on Firefox, so it doesn’t really help with browser diversity. Ladybird does, but it’s not really ready for prime time yet

Of course it does.

Right now FF shares are so low devs are ignoring it.

If more browsers use this engine, more devs will test with it.

Also, if it reaches success, it make FF future more robust, which also helps with future diversity.

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#158
post #117

Whenever I read “beautiful” in marketing copy, I’m immediately put off. It’s so presumptuous and conveys vanity. Moreover, users may prefer their software to be utilitarian, and in any case are likely to have different opinions on what constitutes “beauty”. For that aspect: Show, don’t tell. If people do find it beautiful, then they don’t need to be told. And if they don’t, then telling them is unlikely to change tha…

I don't like it either. It's the language popularised by Apple and it makes me cringe every single time.

But is it really the most important thing you have to say about a new browser?

It's just marketing language after all. A lot of great products are marketed using this repulsive language. I couldn't care less.

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which contributed to it being used only by a relatively small share of our user base. And that's why telemetry is such a brain dead idea. People then actually make decisions based upon "number of people using feature X" which is incredibly... lets just say "unwise".

wonder if we should just accept it as "voting" and monitor their telemetry experiment and spam the option we would like

Might be more accurate. ;)

Re: Zen, a Arc-like open-source browser based on the Firefox engine

#160
post #117

Whenever I read “beautiful” in marketing copy, I’m immediately put off. It’s so presumptuous and conveys vanity. Moreover, users may prefer their software to be utilitarian, and in any case are likely to have different opinions on what constitutes “beauty”. For that aspect: Show, don’t tell. If people do find it beautiful, then they don’t need to be told. And if they don’t, then telling them is unlikely to change tha…

I feel the same, and not just about "beautiful". Any time a marketing person tells me how to think about their product, it pushes me away. Tell me what it is, now how I should think about it.

That's my instinct when people describe themselves, too. e.g in dating profiles when people remark about how "I'm smart, funny", etc.

They may be both of those things! But I can't help that my first conceit is always to think "that's not yours to decide here".

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