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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

#121

Post by rswerve »

thewebguyd wrote: post #45
XorNot wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man that really hits me for a killer app for LLMs: headline identification and summarization. Rewrite "could X be Y?" headlines with the answer.

Safari's reader mode summaries aren't too bad for this. They are usually short, under a paragraph. It'd be nice if you could "3D touch" the headline to just load that summary in the little preview window instead of having to click, and then open in reader mode though. I can see that being a really nice built-in browser feature, to load a summary on hover over a link.

Arc has this, though I used it less than I thought I would, mostly because the summaries were too short to be helpful.

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

#122

Post by eviks »

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.

The invisible part sucks as well. Since you do fullscreen often, you might need a convenient way to switch it on and off. F11 isn't convenient Similarly, can you see your tabs momentarily without shifting the page layout as happens if you exit fullscreen? Can you change the tab switching keybinds in-browser? Can you press C to copy the current page url in fullscreen mode? Can you have more fitting vertical tabs without the tab close button? Etc., etc., etc. Some of the issues are hacked around with various extensions, but then some have inpenetrable barriers coded in the awfulness that is the browser UI itself...

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

#123

Post by cassianoleal »

SigmundurM wrote: post #52
monkey26 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want profiles. For example, work and personal. Different bookmarks, different plugins. Even some different settings.

Firefox now has improved Profile mangement https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-management

I'm on Firefox 142 and the "account icon" menu only has "Sign in", "Monitor", "Relay" and "Mozilla VPN". No mention of profiles.

Edit: found it: it's hidden behind the browser.profiles.enabled setting in about:config

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

#124

Post by cassianoleal »

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.

Your experience matches my early days with it. That said, it's been pretty solid in the last few months.

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

#125

Post by mariusor »

Vinnl wrote: post #66
mariusor wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox does have profiles, to use them well one only needs a little UX sugar in the form of the Profile Switcher extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/profile-switc...

Firefox proper is getting the ux sugar too, as the article mentioned: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profile-management

Cool, looking forward to that. The extension needs a host application that needs to be installed on the machine to be able to perform some actions.

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

#126

Post by wink »

_345 wrote: post #118
SigmundurM wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox now has improved Profile mangement https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-management

Firefox profiles are still janky and I had a lot of issue switching and managing two profiles effectively. Specifically the biggest problem I had was that clicking on work links would not open them in my last used profile (work profile). They would always open in a default profile (non-work). I ended up keeping chrome just for work, and using firefox for personal life. Then I grabbed Browser Tamer and set up an AHK v…

OK, that mental overhead of "last used browser" would drive me nuts.

My solution is: The system has a default browser that opens default links. On my work machine I have a different browser where I am for example logged in to my private github account I just never want to open a clicked link there anyway. Copy/pasting 2 times per day is fine.

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

#127

Post by monkey26 »

SigmundurM wrote: post #52
monkey26 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want profiles. For example, work and personal. Different bookmarks, different plugins. Even some different settings.

Firefox now has improved Profile mangement https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-management

This initially excited me, but its pretty poor compared to what Chrome and Chrome based browsers provide.

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

#128

Post by _345 »

wink wrote: post #126
_345 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox profiles are still janky and I had a lot of issue switching and managing two profiles effectively. Specifically the biggest problem I had was that clicking on work links would not open them in my last used profile (work profile). They would always open in a default profile (non-work). I ended up keeping chrome just for work, and using firefox for personal life. Then I grabbed Browser Tamer and set up an AHK v…

OK, that mental overhead of "last used browser" would drive me nuts. My solution is: The system has a default browser that opens default links. On my work machine I have a different browser where I am for example logged in to my private github account I just never want to open a clicked link there anyway. Copy/pasting 2 times per day is fine.

so youre just manually doing what i automated but that 1% of the time when it opens in the wrong browser is too much mental overhead? if youre at work and you tap a link you were almost certainly last using your work profile so its nearly always right and its not something i ever have to think about

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

#129

Post by gxonatano »

As a student of Zen Buddhism, I'm always a little bothered to see yet another thing called "Zen" that has virtually nothing to do with Zen, or Buddhism. The authors seem to think that "Zen" is a synonym for "calm," even though calm abiding is only one small aspect of Zen. If you read any of the classic Zen literature, like the Gateless Gate or the Blue Cliff Record, you'd come away with the impression that Zen is very active, vital, and vigorous.

But with a name like Zen, I at least expected the browser to be one of those tabless ones that encourage you to focus your attention on the present task, by enforcing one web page at a time. Or a text-based one, like w3m, that removes graphics to allow you to focus on the words. While the Zen browser interface is a little cleaner, with fewer buttons and things, that doesn't necessarily translate to "calmer." Calm is what you bring to the browsing experience, not what you take away from it.

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