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

zen-browser.app

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

#241

Post by grounder »

justinclift wrote: post #118
raffraffraff wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Firefox on Linux and in general it's fine. Only really dreadful stuff like Microsoft Teams will outright fail. I've found that using NextDNS or an adblocker is more harmful on certain sites. I've had situations where a website completely fails until I change my DNS provider to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 or wherever. But I tend to avoid sites like that if I have a choice. I'm sticking with Firefox. I like the account fe…

Have you seen the thing were Mozilla officially bought an advertising company recently then started adding advertising friendly features near silently?

Can you provide more info about this?

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

#243

Post by causal »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #89

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

Reading the discussion, I see the developers intend to never sign their OSX package. This is a pretty big red flag for me, shows that the developer isn't really serious about supporting OSX.

Too bad, I was excited by the idea, but this is just unprofessional and I really need to trust my browser.

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

#244

Post by explosion-s »

I've recently made a similar (more modular) project which compiles various features and patches them into a Firefox profile. It can compile themes, hardening, userscripts, userstyles and more into a clean firefox profile, basically removing the bloat from firefox while still being fully customizable: https://github.com/explosion-scratch/firebuilder

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

#245

Post by joshmarinacci »

gorgoiler wrote: post #21
commercialnix wrote: post #6

I use Sway (an i3 clone for Wayland), so these "split views" and "workspaces" are not appealing to me. Zen makes serious claims about performance and sandboxing, but do not forwardly present writings on how they do these things, leaving us with the impression there are some tweaks here and there but not much more.

I’ve been using the sway family of window managers for nearly 20 years! (First ion2, then ion3, then i3, and now sway.) In all this time I’ve briefly used native tabs but mostly now use windows without title bars or any other decorations in split mode all of the time. Most of the day I simply have a terminal running tmux on the first workspace with vim in the first tmux window, shells in the others, and a browser on…

Could you provide some screenshots? I’d love to see what your desktop looks like with this configuration.

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

#246

Post by nosioptar »

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…

Also, beauty is in the eye of the beerholder. I don't consider the screenshots of Zen to be beautiful by any measure. It's a mess of grey on grey, none of the buttons look like buttons, and I'm getting a headache from all the moving crap on the home page.

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

#247

Post by joshmarinacci »

bee_rider wrote: post #233
ertucetin wrote: post #226

Why are there so many new browsers these days? Is there really that much demand for them? Considering that creating one is very hard and requires a team.

The situation is pretty bad, where there are only two browsers: an ad-company controlled one that is making life harder for ad-blockers, and Firefox which is… fine, but somehow both stagnant and unfocused. So, the opening is there, can’t blame people for trying to fill it. OTOH this is just a Firefox fork advertised as a new browser.

Don’t forget Safari. Essentially there are three browser engines that all browsers are built on. The only engine that is truly new in the last 15 years is Servo. (And maybe Ladybird)

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

#248

Post by wpwpwpw »

Thank you for your work! I believe it's not ready for daily driving, but I was happy to try it out and, maybe, to check again later so it replaces firefox. Loved all the new features and look and feel. However, there are some quirks I'll describe here, maybe they'll be useful. The sidebar is missing some hover popups so one can know what the buttons mean; animations, in general, are not very good, making the interface look rough; some parts of the regular firefox interface are just "glued in", and they feel a bit alien / missing integration (bookmarks, history...); tab bar at right side not working, although there is a button for it (useful for wide monitors in which you pin the window to the right side). Keep going!

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

#249

Post by bearjaws »

chown wrote: post #208

I've recently started using Arc mostly out of FOMO and there are parts that I like and parts I don't. I have been a Firefox user for a long time before that so glad to see something similar that's one of the major priorities is the aesthetics and I very much appreciate that. I tried to use it on my macOS Apple Silicone and got an error about it being broken and macOS suggested to trash it. Not sure if it is a bug iss…

Pretty sure this is the invalid signature error, not just unsigned which usually works via right click -> open.

Not that it helps, but its kind of an easy error to make. I want to try it too but I guess I'll wait.

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

#250

Post by bearjaws »

bogwog wrote: post #239

I hope a sustainable Firefox fork emerges soon because it seems Google's illegal default search deals (aka the only thing keeping Mozilla afloat) are coming to an end. That's a great thing in general, but it would really suck if FF died and we all got stuck with Chrome derivatives. Personally, I wouldn't mind paying for my web browser if it's good. I wouldn't pay for Mozilla's FF, but I would pay for a fork of it by…

Mozilla could keep building FF without Google, but it would require that 90% of the C suite get laid off and dedicated focus from the company...
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