Thoughts on Arc Browser • Hacker News Board

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#11

Post by darinf » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 1:01 AM UTC

yukirock wrote: post #10

nateberkopec wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the most important job for a browser is to stay in the background and let the user focus on the website. Actually, this is my favorite part about Arc. Most of the time when using Arc I'm working in fullscreen mode with 100% of the UI hidden. There is literally zero on my screen except the page itself. If I mouseover to the left (or hit cmd-S) I can see the sidebar/addressbar etc. It's absolutely wonderful a…

If you haven't tried, after you use Cmd-Ctrl-F to make Chrome fullscreen you can use Cmd-Shift-F to toggle the UI elements (tabs, search bar & bookmark bar). Although it doesn't follow your mouse hover which is somehow annoying.

fullscreen != fullwindow

Cmd+s in Arc just hides all the UI of the browser but does not change the size of the window frame. This is more akin to Chrome's add shortcut to desktop feature, except that it is easy to toggle on/off with a keyboard shortcut. So if you have a web app you want to just focus on, you can just do so.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#12

Post by sf4lifer » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 1:13 AM UTC

I absolutely love Arc. The way I used chrome was I had a separate window with tabs for relevant workflows instead of one tab with 30 windows. I'd always lose where the tab was and just open a new tab basically until my computer required a reboot. With Arc I have 5 spaces each with the 10 most used tabs pinned. I now have 3 windows, Arc + Slack + Zoom. I know where everything is...

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#13

Post by dang » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 1:13 AM UTC

Arc Browser Company: Chrome and Safari face a new challenger - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31544988 - May 2022 (125 comments)

Others?

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#14

Post by rhaway84773 » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 1:30 AM UTC

chrishannah wrote: post #4

jimlongton wrote: post #2

Giving all my passwords, bookmarks and possibly browser history and credit card information to a closed source browser from an unknown company sounds too risky for me. How do they even plan to make money?

That's a good point about monetisation. I did wonder how they plan on making money, but to be honest, I didn't do much research on that topic.

I would suspect the easiest way would be the way Mozilla does.

Search engine kickbacks and clearly defined ads on the new tab/page links.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#15

Post by satvikpendem » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 1:44 AM UTC

I've used it, it's fine I guess, nothing super outstanding. I don't want to be that guy on HN, but the way they market themselves as being some revolution in browsing while simply wrapping Chrome like others like Vivaldi (which also has a lot of customization), Edge, Opera etc is not that interesting. It's even less so when I would lose adblocking due to Manifest v3 because, really, how long will these browser makers continue keeping a fork around before eventually giving up?

A true browser revolution would be something written from scratch like the recent SerenityOS one. Of course, the average person won't use it, but that's what it would take to truly be revolutionary. In the meantime I'll continue using Firefox.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#16

Post by soulofmischief » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 1:57 AM UTC

satvikpendem wrote: post #15

I've used it, it's fine I guess, nothing super outstanding. I don't want to be that guy on HN, but the way they market themselves as being some revolution in browsing while simply wrapping Chrome like others like Vivaldi (which also has a lot of customization), Edge, Opera etc is not that interesting. It's even less so when I would lose adblocking due to Manifest v3 because, really, how long will these browser makers…

I envision a browser inspired by the likes of foobar2k in which core engines are open source and interchangeable, and any browsing experience is achievable through a rich plugin and layout system. The browser itself would be little more than scaffolding and an SDK.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#17

Post by nbzso » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 1:57 AM UTC

Tested it. Moved back to Brave. Wish I can hide the url field on chrome based browsers. This is the only thing that I like in Arc.

In my view the problem with Arc is the UX. It is hidden and complex and as a result lacks a natural discovery flow.

It seems targeted towards the small audience of specialists which will have no problem giving a lot of their data.

And I hate the size of the borders:) Make them small or remove them completely.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#18

Post by wahnfrieden » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 1:57 AM UTC

Is there interest in a similarly innovative/functional browser that wraps WebKit for iOS/iPadOS/macOS? I see people complain about wrapping Chrome but don't know if the Apple ecosystem community values this.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#19

Post by CharlesW » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 1:59 AM UTC

satvikpendem wrote: post #15

I've used it, it's fine I guess, nothing super outstanding. I don't want to be that guy on HN, but the way they market themselves as being some revolution in browsing while simply wrapping Chrome like others like Vivaldi (which also has a lot of customization), Edge, Opera etc is not that interesting. It's even less so when I would lose adblocking due to Manifest v3 because, really, how long will these browser makers…

From where I sit, browser engines are commodities. There's not notable differentiation to be had there. Are four actively-developed, open source, mainstream browser engines enough? I think so, given that we haven't seen a downside to a relative monoculture in open source operating systems.

Re: Thoughts on Arc Browser

#20

Post by satvikpendem » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 2:00 AM UTC

CharlesW wrote: post #19

satvikpendem wrote: post #15

I've used it, it's fine I guess, nothing super outstanding. I don't want to be that guy on HN, but the way they market themselves as being some revolution in browsing while simply wrapping Chrome like others like Vivaldi (which also has a lot of customization), Edge, Opera etc is not that interesting. It's even less so when I would lose adblocking due to Manifest v3 because, really, how long will these browser makers…

From where I sit, browser engines are commodities. There's not notable differentiation to be had there. Are four actively-developed, open source, mainstream browser engines enough? I think so, given that we haven't seen a downside to a relative monoculture in open source operating systems.

Which are the four? I count Chromium, Gecko and WebKit.