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Helium Browser

helium.computer

61–70 of 561 posts

Re: Helium Browser

#61
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,…

Might’ve worth giving it another shot. It’s still somewhat buggy but usually just with UI things. I haven’t had a lot of actual functionality issues in the last couple months of use on iOS or macOS.

Re: Helium Browser

#62
post #33
post #17

Why did anyone think it was a good idea to put tabs in the title bar. How the hell am I supposed to easily drag a window if I have 100 tabs open? Who the hell thought this was a good idea? Why do I feel like the only sane human being left on Earth? Why is this project continuing to use this horrible UI convention? How are they going to make money or enshittify this in the future or sell it off to an evil billion doll…

I would hate to have a 40px title bar doing nothing except wasting space on my screen. I've been using this layout for years, and I didn't even consider that anyone could have an issue with this until I read your statement. I'm not saying that you are wrong to disregard it due to your personal preferences, but please consider that this might not be such a horrible design as you make it out to be. Also, you can be cer…

Just because it is not doing anything at the moment doesn't mean it doesn't serve an important, necessary purpose. For a windowed application environment to be functional and usable, there needs to be an easy way to drag windows around the screen. When you start moving things into that space, it makes the system harder to use.

A once-simple action which required minimal thought now requires you to parse an arbitrarily populated area of the screen and find a tiny gap within a litany of buttons and controls and carefully drag that part of the window. If you make a slight mistake and click on a tab or button, the unwanted activation of that control (e.g. switching to a new tab) serves to needlessly penalize the user.

This is not just an issue with web browsers now, but seemingly everywhere. It's been a big issue in the macOS Finder for a while now.

At the very least, Firefox still gives me the option to show the native window title bar, which I very much appreciate. It's certainly not the sexiest part of the UI, given the native element clashes a bit with FF's controls, but at least it's usable! This is an issue that could be solved by giving people a choice via a simple toggle... Most often, the option isn't there.

I'm sorry people have downvoted my post here a bit, and I agree it was a bit strongly worded, but I won't apologize for venting some frustration at what I see as the perpetuation of user-hostile design choices like this.

Re: Helium Browser

#63
post #25

>We'll keep support for MV2 extensions for as long as possible. This doesn't particularly give people any confidence in your product if even the devs don't know how long they can hold the line. Why not fork Firefox like Zen?

I know this is unfair to firefox, majority of enterprise software now (including and starting with Microsoft teams) outright say do not support firefox or have ‘limited’ support whatever that means. For anyone working remotely like me, teams is a crucial piece of software (however bad it is). So as much as I like Firefox and legends that started it and religiously developed it over the years, bottom line, I can’t use…

I work every day with Firefox and the only problem I have is with Citrix.

Citrix has always been shit, so is not surprising.

Re: Helium Browser

#64
post #3

Can someone explain to me how this differentiates itself from (ungoogled) Chromium with a few tweaks? How does it compare to Firefox privacy wise being based on chromium?

What privacy concerns do you have with Chromium?

Re: Helium Browser

#65

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.

Re: Helium Browser

#66
post #7

It's based on ungoogled-chromium and about 3 people are working on it. https://github.com/imputnet/helium

I'm guessing it doesn't support certificate revocation very well as ungoogled-chromium has/had some issues with that.

removing every google url in a browser without replacements will have such downsides

Re: Helium Browser

#67

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.

> I wish we could just add our own default search with a search string template like when the Internet was still alive.

Can't we? The %s thing works in Vivaldi. Worked in Chrome last time I checked.

Re: Helium Browser

#68
You have my attention!

But in this day and age, I need to understand more about intentions, and what sustains projects like this.

For the moment I've settled on Safari simply because Apple makes its billions elsewhere, even if I am increasingly disappointed with how they are playing along with politics right now.

Re: Helium Browser

#69
post #18

What makes me a bit uneasy about the project is that the website doesn't explain who is building it. For most open-source, I think that would be fine. But browsers auto-update, so their vendors essentially have the continued ability to run code on your machine. You want some confidence that they won't get owned and won't sell the access to bad actors down the line, so there is an element of personal trust. All the we…

It really isn't hard to find. I went to the browser's github page and then the repo author. https://github.com/imputnet I now found who exactly manages this (and it turns out colbalt, too! awesome downloader) https://github.com/wukko https://github.com/dumbmoron

Oh..that's crazy. I just assumed it was the makers of Kagi search.

Re: Helium Browser

#70
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really isn't hard to find. I went to the browser's github page and then the repo author. https://github.com/imputnet I now found who exactly manages this (and it turns out colbalt, too! awesome downloader) https://github.com/wukko https://github.com/dumbmoron

Oh..that's crazy. I just assumed it was the makers of Kagi search.

That's https://kagi.com/orion/
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