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Helium Browser

helium.computer

511–520 of 561 posts

Re: Helium Browser

#511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Okay, let's get back to your original assertion, that FF isn't viable. It clearly is , with hundreds of thousands of daily users. Maybe it's broken on some specific sites[1]; can you recall which sites those were? Because it works, right now , on all the mainstream and popular sites, including every banking site I use it on, every shopping site, every wordpress site, every forum, subreddit, LLM/webchat, search engine…

It's not specific sites. See my previous comments about crashes, and about captchas. Like you said, when I use Firefox, I get to a site that doesn't work and then I start Chromium. I'm not going to use Firefox again, that's just silly.

Re: Helium Browser

#512

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Google The noun, not the verb

Do you have any evidence that a chromium derivative browser is less "private" than a Firefox derivative?

There's a lot of comments around this in the main thread. Mostly about how Google gets to dictate standards of the internet and how these aren't always privacy friendly.

I'll also add that it's easy for bad features to sneak in without users knowing. We happened to be talking about this issue in a related thread just the other day [0]. This one the Brave devs were even aware of bot users weren't... so it's kinda a good example of both points

[0] just check out the linked GitHub issue https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45364533

Re: Helium Browser

#513
post #185

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Because at the time IE6 was a terrible browser with poor standards support, while Chrome is an excellent browser with leading standards support. It is a gilded cage.

> Chrome is an excellent browser with leading standards support. Google learned it can be "standards compliant" if it submits a draft spec to WHATWG/W3C, and while the comment and revision process is still ongoing, roll out those features in Chrome and start using them in YouTube, Gmail, Google docs, and AMP. Now Firefox and Safari are forced to implement those draft specs as well or users will leave in droves becaus…

If people want specifics:

https://xcancel.com/rich_harris/status/1220412711768666114

Re: Helium Browser

#514
post #487
post #379

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Gemini protocol: https://geminiprotocol.net/ . Harder to search up these days due to Google using the brand too.

Gemini is way too simplistic. You can’t even white math articles in it.

They do however have the right idea. Document sharing and applications are completely different things that require different architectures. I like their start with Gemini though I’d bring over non video images and CSS3, html5 tags that make html more intuitive. I’d just strip the browser way way down back basically to what it was with some enhancements and lessons learned. The application part is much more complex though I’m working on it and will share my research if when ready.

Re: Helium Browser

#515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally the first thing I looked for...(if it is based on chromium). When can we get a new kind of browser that doesn't use html/css/js...? Build one from scratch with a common design language (but modifiable by the user)

This is a gargantuan task, I can’t even articulate how much work this would be.

Depends on your goals but I think a minimal and useful browser with completely new APIs wouldn't be so hard to do if you leverage the huge amount of existing open source libraries. The hardest part would be getting people to actually use it.

Re: Helium Browser

#516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The real problems with Gecko is just that it’s harder to fork That goes contrary to my experience. I'm a maintainer of a Firefox fork (with rather extensive changes to a lot of the internals), and it is pretty manageable to maintain. We manage to keep it roughly up to date and add new features without financial backing or folks working full-time on it. If all you do is change the branding and apply some superficial…

I think you're conflating the Engine, Gecko, with the browser, Firefox. The Browser, Firefox, is easy to fork, judging by the multitudes of soft forks a la Libre Wolf, Zen, etc... The Engine, Gecko, however, is hard to fork since it's tightly coupled to the browser itself. I also think that when the parent mentioned "forking Gecko", it might be in the sense of extracting the engine and putting a new browser on top of…

That's fair but most of these browsers simply fork chromium and make their changes there instead of genuinely building something new off of blink.

Re: Helium Browser

#517

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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.

Personally, I disregard Servo because I've been hearing about it for 10 years. I'll start paying attention again when they remove the "don't log into your bank with Servo" warning.

Done. Now you can use it.

Re: Helium Browser

#519

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…

I wish we could just add our own default search with a search string template like when the Internet was still alive. That being said, I like using the slightly more obscure presearch.com and Swisscows.com, for what it’s worth.

The only major browser that I can think of that doesn't support custom search URLs, including making one the default, is Safari.

Re: Helium Browser

#520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you using instead?

Edge for me, since it has the single best implementation of vertical tabs on the market, with smooth expand on hover. Every time I try other browsers, I am immediately put off by how lacking in polish vertical tabs feel in comparison and go back.

Vivaldi has an excellent implementation of vertical tabs.
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