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Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

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Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#101

Post by aspenmayer »

gbrindisi wrote: post #23

I can't use Google Meet on firefox/zen, I tried every setting combination I could find but the video call quality is still not comparable to chromium based browsers, so at work I reluctantly switched to Vivaldi. If you figure this out please let me know!

Have you tried switching your User Agent (with or without a helper extension) to Chrome/Chromium/Edge to see if that makes a difference? I have heard that some G sites that are clunky or broken seem to work better under Firefox when it identifies itself as Chrome.

Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#102

Post by wuhhh »

zamadatix wrote: post #99
wuhhh wrote: post #86

I've been trying All The Browsers lately and Arc is definitely still my favourite; I actually had no idea that development had stopped on it, that's a shame. Zen looks good, but they are off the charts on this graph! https://sizeof.cat/post/web-browser-telemetry-2025-edition/ What is going on there? Their Privacy Policy says no telemetry, but then they have a section on those connections made at startup which apparen…

> Among the connections made (according to the report) are x.com, google.com (plus a bunch of other google domains). reddit.com and notion.com, discordapp.com, cloudflareinsights.com Reddit, X, Discord, and Notion are all part of the default sites in the sidebar. Perhaps it's loading them to grab the favicons and such, leading to all of their calls to CDNs, analytics, etc being called.

Thanks for calling that out, I had not got as far as installing the browser so had no idea they were default favourites / shortcuts. Seems like that telemetry report has given a couple of browser vendors the kick they needed to reduce initial connections. I wonder how much of an effect this stuff has on how snappy it feels to actually open these applications. In my dock I currently have FF and FF nightly, Chrome, Ungoogled Chrome, Arc and Safari. Ungoogled loads in the blink of an eye, the rest are all shades of sluggish. I guess this is the price of having a few extensions and “quality of life” features :shrug:

Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#103

Post by steve_adams_86 »

> And ironically, The Browser Company now charges $20/month, the same amount I would gladly have paid for Arc.

As crazy as this probably sounds, I would have been content to pay for Arc to continue being developed as well. It had real energy behind it, some great ideas, and it was improving a tool I use daily.

I'm using Zen as well, now.

Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#104

Post by BoredPositron »

ur-whale wrote: post #96
ewf wrote: post #80

feels like people keep wanting more and more from the browser. I just want it to stay out the way. Lightweight, good dev tools, good privacy settings.

> feels like people keep wanting more and more from the browser. The browser is the new OS, so no wonder there.

The browser is the new paper you still need a desk.

Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#105

Post by BoredPositron »

xnx wrote: post #70
eviks wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2025 we still largely fail at the very basics of good UI in many apps, browsers included, so we're nowhere near the point where these extra features you describe are the only way to make a meaningful difference

Genuinely curious about where browser UI is falling short. I often run Chrome fullscreen, so there's barely any visible UI at all.

Chrome settings are abysmal.

Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#106

Post by steve_adams_86 »

eviks wrote: post #65

> way; it was superpowered with keyboard shortcuts that just made sense No, that's under-powered. Powered is when you can define multiple simple custom shortcuts (as far as I understand, at least Zen allows 1 shortcut change for some commands (unlike 0 in the dumb FF), so halfway there, not sure about Arc). Super powered is when you can add key sequences and keys without modifiers depending on context in addition to…

> Powered is when you can define multiple simple custom shortcuts

You nailed it. It drives me insane that FF and Zen are unable to be customized. A huge appeal for me with Arc was that suddenly I could use my keyboard more using shortcuts that made sense.

Arc does allow customization as well: https://resources.arc.net/hc/en-us/articles/20595231349911-K...

I'm off of Arc due to the lack of maintenance and decreasing efficiency; it kills my laptop's battery remarkably quickly and it's kind of crazy to bother with it anymore.

edit: I'm an idiot. Zen has a settings pane for keyboard shortcuts. This is great: https://docs.zen-browser.app/user-manual/shortcuts

I think I tested Zen in early 2024 and it looks like shortcuts were revamped in mid-2024. Time flies.

Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#107

Post by prinny_ »

codepoet80 wrote: post #29
cycomanic wrote: post #28

It's weird how people always complain about lack of easy profile switching in Firefox. If one tells them that what they are really looking for is containers, they dismiss containers, but then proceed to complain that profiles don't have the same features. If you want sync across browser instances, manage them with one Firefox account... You really want containers not profiles.

Agreed. Containers are the reason I use Firefox -- they are a much better fit than profiles. But I've not been able to successfully communicate that to Chrome users. Its like their mental model is stuck, and they can't grasp the differences.

As a Firefox user I could also say the same for other Firefox users. Every time profiles are mentioned and people mention containers it feels like they don’t get the use case. I want a dev profile with dev book marks and a daily profile with my non dev bookmarks. And I would also like dev plugins on one profile and different themes between these profiles. I believe this is something containers can’t offer.

Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#108

Post by amanzi »

tummler wrote: post #43

Oh, to be new to Zen again. That lovely honeymoon phase. Give it a few weeks/months. Bugs, random UI changes, odd development priorities. I wanted to love it, I really did.

Yep, I switched back to Firefox after loving Zen for a while. The latest UI change that tipped me over the edge was to remove the ability to use Firefox themes.

Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#109

Post by coldtea »

cycomanic wrote: post #28

It's weird how people always complain about lack of easy profile switching in Firefox. If one tells them that what they are really looking for is containers, they dismiss containers, but then proceed to complain that profiles don't have the same features. If you want sync across browser instances, manage them with one Firefox account... You really want containers not profiles.

>It's weird how people always complain about lack of easy profile switching in Firefox. If one tells them that what they are really looking for is containers, they dismiss containers, but then proceed to complain that profiles don't have the same features.

I don't see anything weird in people asking for profiles. If anything your suggestion sounds weird.

Re: Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

#110

Post by joquarky »

eviks wrote: post #67
grim_io wrote: post #7

What does it even mean to be all-in on a browser? You can switch any time, multiple times per day even.

No, not if you are "all in" and spend enough time customizing it or getting used to the UI/features uniquely available to a specific browser. You won't be able to switch multiple times a day without noticing a lot of friction as you common workflows break down

How is switching between a couple different web browsers any way cognitively different from context switching between a browser, code IDE, database client, and terminal windows?
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