Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

zen-browser.app

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 427 posts

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

#161

Post by bloopernova »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #129

I've been wanting split view in FF for a long time, so I'm going to try this right now And I know somebody, somewhere, is going to argue that it should be the job of the desktop. I disagree. I don't want to have to create each context I want things to exist in, and manipulate that carefully. I like automatic context. That's why I like tabs in my browser and not a thousand windows. And that's why I enjoy my split view…

I use vertical tabs, so I don't want 2 windows with tabs, I want 1 window with tabs-1stview-2ndview

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

#162

Post by mionhe »

gexla wrote: post #143
wccrawford wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Imagine having an artist who does paintings and an architect both come up with a concept for a building. Then have each explain their design decisions and why you might select that concept. Each are going to use much different language, though each concept might still be described as beautiful by a judge. Of course, you still need to craft your language to appeal to the buyer, but an architect can probably still do t…

I think you be comparing an amateur artist with a professional architect (which isn't surprising; amateur architects are very rare and professional artists have less visibility.) Only amateur artists would actually describe their work as "beautiful".

If you go to a gallery or museum and read what a professional artist says about their own work (usually found on little cards next to paintings/scriptures/etc.) their descriptions tend to be about much more focused on what they were trying to convey and how they used that medium to do it.

This is also what I've seen from professional architects.

That doesn't mean you would be any more swayed by the professional artist, but it's at least more apples to apples.

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

#163

Post by josh-sematic »

dao- wrote: post #57
widdershins wrote: post #55

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…

Agreed. I work at Mozilla as an engineer for Firefox, and I'm generally happy to see this. I currently work on tab groups, and I'm curious to see what their implementation will look like or whether they'll try to fast-track our work-in-progress once that's somewhat viable. For the sidebar and vertical tabs, they seem to have implemented their own thing rather than using what our team has been working on. At a first g…

Glad to hear Mozilla is working on adding this. I switched to a chrome-based browser for a while and the only thing I miss after going back to Firefox is tab groups.

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

#164

Post by DHPersonal »

netbioserror wrote: post #141
mrweasel wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In their own comparison Brave is not even considerd If their target audience is disgruntled Firefox users that makes a ton of sense. I would not consider replacing Firefox with a browser based on Chrome/Chromium. It's not that I think it a bad rendering engine, it not, but I don't like the mono-culture that has been promoted and would like to avoid contributing to it, if I can.

I still don't understand this "browser engine monopoly" argument. Engines are the most difficult part to build and coordinate around. WebKit is open source and gets contributions from across the industry. It would make sense for most people to coalesce around that single target. The browsers built around the engine are the feature-filled interfaces people care about and where competition should happen. The engine has…

The issue with a single browser having dominance is that the largest contributor to that project doesn’t just control the project, they control the Web.

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

#165

Post by 1oooqooq »

cma wrote: post #137
1oooqooq wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox defaults lately are awful and out of touch... gestures for reload/back/forward? really? several decades and still not incorporating uBlockOrigin as a native feature? really? a convoluted only-4-containers shenanigans that not even the author understand instead of simply isolating private tabs per window like everyone asked over the years? using on android? too bad now you don't have half the settings availabl…

> several decades and still not incorporating uBlockOrigin as a native feature? really? How much less will Google pay to be the default search if this is added?

but they will never say that out loud ;) so what is the official position? they don't even have one. nobody touch tickets mentioning these things. so sad how open source is so easily coopted.

i remember when google and Microsoft had to do the w3c misdirection, now they don't even pretend.

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

#166

Post by vagab0nd »

layer8 wrote: 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…

Speaking of marketing, whenever I see a comparison chart where "our product" ticks all the boxes, I immediately think "what criteria did you not include in the comparison?"

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

#167

Post by Perz1val »

NayamAmarshe wrote: post #44
Kokouane wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They only compared to Firefox-based browsers which does make sense. Most people are already firmly on one side of the Chromium vs FF engine debate. Compared to Brave in what terms? Speed, not sure, but Chromium is known to be better. As far as I know, Brave doesn't allow split tabs or workspaces though.

Brave now has split tabs in the latest nightly iirc. Not sure about workspaces, is it like profiles?

Seems like workspaces are just a different UI for tab grouping, some ppl may prefer it. For me both are usable, but both are just a partial remedy for people that keep too much tabs opened

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

#168

Post by rchaud »

danpalmer wrote: post #20
weikju wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably isn't notarized. Right-click the app and open, or use the terminal: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/app edit: turns out they are describing this process here from a link on the macos download page: https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/issues/53

The link is titled "Download Zen for macOS" which seems superfluous when the DMG starts downloading immediately, perhaps it needs a better title. Also while I understand some people have moral objections to the 100 dollar/euro registration fee, clearly a lot more than that has been spent in time to get the application to this stage, almost all apps for macOS distributing like this are notarized now, and with such a s…

If you are downloading a new browser app in 2024, it's a fair bet that you know how to get around MacOS' nanny state policies around un-notarized apps.

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

#169

Post by miah_ »

KingMob wrote: post #97
jay_kyburz wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understand the need for tab groups, once you get above 4-5 tabs you are actively working in, whats wrong with bookmarks?

Bookmarks are perceptually longer-term than open tabs, so there may be more reluctance to save to a bookmark. (E.g., if planning a trip to Italy, do you want to bookmark some blogger's food recs for Rome, forever?) But worse is, it relies on recalling the text in the bookmark's title to resurface it. You might not remember the page title, but you can always scan through open tabs.

I wrote love the ability to associate a TTL with bookmarks. Let me bookmark for 3 hours or 2 days or forever. Of course the 3 and 2 are user choices.

Mostly the way I deal with this now is sharing the tab to another Firefox on a different computer then use it there and decide it's fate.

Post reply on HN