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Helium Browser

helium.computer

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Re: Helium Browser

#461

Post by cyborgrising »

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #131
ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #107

Can someone explain to me why most browser forks are based on Chromium? If the goal is to make a privacy focused browser which is independent of Google, isn't it then a bit counterproductive to put all your eggs in a basket which only exists due to the goodwill of your main competitor? Why not webkit or Gecko? There might be a good argument for it, but as a person concerned with privacy and the future freedom of the…

Everyone mentions compatibility and performance as the main reasons, but this still doesn't make any sense to me. If I switch to a browser which has a stated goal of protecting my privacy and protecting the freedom of the web, then performance and web site compatibility is much further down my list of priorities.

Even if you have personal priorities for privacy, surely you can understand that many user's first expectation for a web browser is for websites to work correctly.

We've kind of lost the plot if we get too far away from the core notion that a web browser is for correctly and completely rendering websites. The user population don't use web browsers to hide, they use it to look at the internet and do internet work. If a browser has any problems doing this, it not going to be relevant.

Re: Helium Browser

#462

Post by GoblinSlayer »

cropcirclbureau wrote: post #293
JoshTriplett wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So what, our choices are Firefox (Gecko), Don't forget Servo. People are actively working on it, and it could use more help.

It's not just anyone, it's the folks at Igalia. I think people disregard Servo since it's no longer under Mozilla but Igalia aren't just random contributors picking up the slack, they're browser experts that also work on Chromium.

Won't servo thus become just a translation of chrome?

Re: Helium Browser

#463

Post by jrm4 »

lynndotpy wrote: post #440
lelanthran wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On desktop (multiple Linuxes, Windows 7 and 10, and MacOS) I run into problems which I spend hours trying to fix, until I give up and go back to a Chromium browser. On iPadOS and iOS, it would crash when using arrowkeys to navigate URL history(or something like that, if I remember correctly. Been awhile). I had another issue with it on Android, the details of which I'd forgotten. I don't even use the sync features-…

> If it's only breaking for you, and you alone, you can see why the rest of us are skeptical that it really is that broken. There are several problems here. Before anything, I want to note that we don't have to fight, we aren't enemies. We're on the same ideological side, even. This tastes like an angry and bitter internet argument. Do you taste it too? We're just two people talking about web browsers. We don't need…

I'm going to generally side with with ops "bitterness" here.

Sure, I don't want bad blood -- but like, I get why their tone is this way; this ain't just McDonalds vs Burger King.

Op is correctly frustrated at the "consumer is always right" mindset folks like you show. This is more important than consumer choice and (as someone who uses Firefox as a daily driver and will just bounce to Chromium as needed) "fixing a billion little bugs that you see" isn't as near as important as promoting the ideology more?

Re: Helium Browser

#464

Post by Gud »

matwood wrote: post #259
pjmlp wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is revisionism, IE only stagnated because they kind of wipedout the competition, like Chrome is today, and Microsoft withdraw most of the development resources from the team. WPF XAML was originally designed by ex IE team members, and they were the same that a few years later proposed XAML Grid concept as CSS Grid initial design. Many JavaScript devs have to thank their abuse of JavaScript in the browser to XMLH…

> IE only stagnated because they kind of wipedout the competition Yeah, people forget that IE was a great browser. It was easily the most performant, I think driven by the Outlook web (I believe the first web app to make use of XMLHttpRequest) team demanding IE team make it so. The issue, like you said, is they won and then stopped updating.

Maybe for a short period. Honestly Firefox(phoenix) was my browser of choice.

Internet explorer became the dominant browser for one reason only: it came by default.

Re: Helium Browser

#465

Post by GoblinSlayer »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #372
homebrewer wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is perfectly safe behavior, would you prefer it slightly corrupting the destination address when transferring money through online banking?

Yes it's safe but undesirable, like Java's NullPointerException. A more interesting question is why it was not possible to use compile time borrow checking in this particular case. It shows how valuable the borrow checker is when you can use it.

Well, yeah it's a bug just like the NullPointerException. You see how a buggy program behaves.

Re: Helium Browser

#466

Post by DavideNL »

pparanoidd wrote: post #274
jitl wrote: post #49

This is neat, and reminds me of Kagi's browser Orion, since their hero image features Kagi search. Orion is WebKit based, so it uses less battery and feels faster to me compared to Chromium browsers, yet it largely supports Chrome extensions via a compatibility layer; like Helium uBlock Origin is included by default. It also has vertical tabs which is essential for me, and open-url routing between profiles. However,…

Would use it 100% if it was open source, such a solvable dealbreaker. Zen browser is eating their lunch at the moment.

Note that Zen Browser is (yet another) Firefox fork. Might as well just use Firefox, with better settings (like Arkenfox user.js, customized how you like it). Would be better security & privacy wise.

Orion is a WebKit based browser (like Safari).

Re: Helium Browser

#467

Post by ruszki »

butlike wrote: post #457
lynndotpy wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you here. I want a viable non-Chromium browser. But even if that existed, I also think a practical Chromium browser is important to have access to. I'm a developer and I use the web, so sometimes I just need Chromium. I think that will continue to be necessary for at least 10 years. And I think the landscape of Chromium browsers is very bad. As a minimum, I want adblocking, low- or no-telemetry, timely s…

I like Arc browser by The Browser Company. As far as I understand it, it's made by a bunch of jaded ex-google employees, so the Google stuff is also stripped-out. The features are next level, and I feel it's a very forward-thinking browser. Maybe it will work for you

That’s dead: https://browsercompany.substack.com/p/letter-to-arc-members-...

I didn’t know either until a few weeks ago.

Re: Helium Browser

#468

Post by klibertp »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #336
lunarcave wrote: post #32

In the "choose a default search engine" page, it has a slightly amusing summary for each. > Google > Your personal data fuels its monopoly. Market-dominant due to anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices. > Qwant > Based in Europe. Uses Bing results. Sends tracking data to Microsoft. > DuckDuckGo > Privacy-focused. Relies on Bing results but never tracks or profiles you. > Ecosia > May plant trees for clicking ad…

> Kagi should be changed to > Openly and proudly collaborates with russian government

Kagi uses Yandex to improve search results for relevant queries. That's all they do.

As a company providing the service of web search, Kagi should do whatever it takes to improve search results. I imagine Yandex is the biggest and most complete index of Russian-language content - not using it would make the search results worse. The fact that Kagi still cross-references other indexes and allows users to downgrade specific results provides a check on propaganda content.

It's OK to have an opinion, and it's OK to dislike Kagi because it doesn't have the same opinion. It's wrong to mischaracterize what Kagi does, using wording that strongly suggests actions way more nefarious than giving a few dollars to a Russian company in exchange for some (anonymized) API calls.

Re: Helium Browser

#469

Post by DavideNL »

jitl wrote: post #49

This is neat, and reminds me of Kagi's browser Orion, since their hero image features Kagi search. Orion is WebKit based, so it uses less battery and feels faster to me compared to Chromium browsers, yet it largely supports Chrome extensions via a compatibility layer; like Helium uBlock Origin is included by default. It also has vertical tabs which is essential for me, and open-url routing between profiles. However,…

The biggest problem with Orion is the Firefox & Chrome extensions; Many don't work properly, but you don't see any errors, so you have no idea what parts are working and aren't.

Like using a content blocker and "hoping for the best". It might work, or not.

That's one of the reasons i stopped using Orion...

Re: Helium Browser

#470

Post by fkyoureadthedoc »

lima wrote: post #444
reaperducer wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

leading standards support Except no support for: CSS Canvas Drawings CSS filter() function Video Tracks Audio Tracks FIDO U2F API SPDY protocol JPEG XL image format HTTP Live Streaming HEIF/HEIC image format SVG fonts CSS hanging-punctuation And broken support for: CSS font-smooth CSS Initial Letter Speech Recognition API CSS -webkit-user-drag property CSS3 Multiple column layout CSS text-indent Synchronous Clipboard…

Your copy&paste does not support your argument. Just looking at the top items on your list, it's basically a bunch of Safari-only features which no other browser vendor ships: - CSS Canvas Drawings is not a web standard. It's a WebKit-specific feature, only Safari implements it. Chromium removed it in order to replace it with an actual web standard (CSS Painting API). - Likewise, the CSS filter() function is Safari-o…

Considering there's 2 browsers, 3 if we're being generous, basically every new feature is a bunch of X-only features that Y doesn't support.
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