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Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

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Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#71

Post by throwawayswede »

Suggestion: don't do marketing gimmick like "psst. want to know a secret?" it's very clickbaity and makes me (probably unreasonably) aloof to the whole thing.

I commend the attempt at coming up with a "better" browser, but like others have said, this is too expensive. One time purchase expensive is ok as long as I own a copy of that version forever, but subscription and cloud crap, I'm out. I like the idea of keyboard first and workspaces (haven't tested yet, but hopefully something almost as good as savestate on a VM), but these are things that make me want to try it at least, but not at this price.

Edit: just realized it's only mac OS? Can't use Linux makes me even more out. Good luck though, I don't know who your target market, but it's not people to whom "the browser is a primary tool", but only a minor subset of them.

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#72

Post by sauravmitra »

neurotrace wrote: post #59
sauravmitra wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good points! We're working on extensions and Adblock right now, so should be out soon! For CMD-W, we're trying to change how you think about pages to something you "mark as done" as opposed to just "close", and changing the shortcut helps make that change for users. Try it out and let me know if you think it's necessary to support CMD-W :)

Are you planning to adopt an existing browser extension API or will extensions need to be rebuilt for Sigma?

I'm working on building it from scratch for SigmaOS :P. Should have it out in a couple weeks!

edit: implementing Chrome extension API. All Chrome extensions will be available :)

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#73

Post by tusharpandey13 »

Honestly, this just seems like a cheap rip-off of Vivaldi. All of the features(yes, all of them) are already present in Vivaldi, including the split screen, tree style tabs, sync, global search, full keyboard support. Slapping some UI makeup on top of an already existing product does not warrant a hefty fee of $15 in my view. Also, I don't see any proof that my data is secure. For all I know, you guys will sell off my data after 3 years when this doesn't work out.

>We charge $15 per month, no ads, and no data monetization. Isn't it kinda strange that a browser is promising us no ads in the UI, for a price? Like, wasn't that already established? I don't see any other browsers that show ads in the UI(regarding the new tab content, you can easily turn them off). This looks like snake oil the more I look at it.

>You can quickly find pages in your history and already-open pages across workspaces. Have you ever typed anything in a chromium address bar?

Apart from the snooze and done features, tell me one thing that this browser achieves that isn't already available through free, open-source, trustworthy extensions whose code I can see and audit.

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#74

Post by sauravmitra »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #21
pseingatl wrote: post #3

No Linux? No Windows? No 32-bit? No thank you.

This makes me feel rickrolled. I clicked and only see a Mac version download link. The title should mention the platform if it's single-platform. In fact I even have a Mac but it's High Sierra and I'm not updating to Big Sur with all the questionable changes just to try a new browser.

Oh, sorry about that!

Hopefully you give it a try when you update eventually :)

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#75

Post by MahyadGhassemi »

threatofrain wrote: post #51
sauravmitra wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point, can't convince you we're trustworthy just by telling you, but I can still say it anyways :P We don't use keyloggers. We don't sell your data. If we did, it would be a breach of our privacy policy and you could sue us, right? (Don't know if I should be suggesting you sue us, but since you won't have a reason to, think we're safe :p)

Is this how you defend your marketing claims on privacy? Sue us if we have a data breach?

Well it is not a marketing claim, everything is stored locally on your device for now, and later would be using Apple’s cloud system for cross device syncing. A data breach is very different from us misusing your data or monetizing it to be clear

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#76

Post by atttali »

cube2222 wrote: post #41

Could you describe what you are actually adding on top of the new Safari? Tab groups are there, sync of them too, keyboard operation too, sharing as well (your improved sharing does only seem to work when both the sender and receiver have your browser, so for a niche tool, it probably won't be useful that often). Which would mean, based on your landing page, that I'd be paying 15$ per month for split-screen. Don't ge…

Hey there! Thanks for your comment :)

Here’s my take on tab groups (Safari) vs workspaces (SigmaOS): they seem similar, but they feel very different.

e.g.

• you don’t always see all your tab groups = no behaviour change, people will still pile up tabs they don’t need. Think of Slack: when you’re done with a workspace, you delete it. But if you’re done with a tab group, you just leave it there to clutter your browser, like many people do with Bookmarks.

• you don’t need to work from tab groups = most people won’t organise their work, and still feel overwhelmed

We’re trying to rethink the UX of how to work on browsers. It’s not just about the indidividual features. So what are you missing?

• Every page / web-app is like a task on a to-do list. You can mark it as done, snooze it for later, or move it to another workspace

• SigmaOS' keyboard shortcut system is designed to make you feel fast and still allows you to use shortcuts on web-apps

• When you do research and command-click on pages, they open as "sub-pages" showing you where you come from

• You can rename your pages to organize yourself and find them faster

• Split screen is really awesome for multitasking (but you knew that) :)

All in all, it can be difficult to explain how different it is, without trying it out. It would be great if you could try it out and give us feedback :) Really curious what you think!

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#77

Post by sauravmitra »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #33
sauravmitra wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! It's based on WebKit directly. We definitely want to support Windows and Linux eventually, but for now we're focusing on MacOS.

Chromium also includes the V8 Javascript engine; what do you use for JS?

I think it's called JavaScriptCore? It's Apple's and works with WebKit.

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#78

Post by neurotrace »

sauravmitra wrote: post #72
neurotrace wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you planning to adopt an existing browser extension API or will extensions need to be rebuilt for Sigma?

I'm working on building it from scratch for SigmaOS :P. Should have it out in a couple weeks! edit: implementing Chrome extension API. All Chrome extensions will be available :)

What made you decide to build it from scratch? By following a different system you're leaving a lot of free work on the table. For example, I extensively use Vimium, Dark Reader, Stylus, TamperMonkey, and LastPass. By doing it from scratch, all of those extensions would need to be re-implemented in the SigmaOS API. I love the idea of SigmaOS but I can't abandon Chrome/Firefox if I can't have LastPass, for example.

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#79

Post by sauravmitra »

WA wrote: post #34
simonvc wrote: post #2

Been beta testing this (full disclosure, angel invester) and i can honestly say i miss it when i'm not on my Big Sur machine. Vim keybindings are such a win, and Sigma does it better than all previous attempts at a vim-like browser because it's properly modal. You hit i to Insert (interact) with a page and escape to go back to controlling the browser. Or you can ignore all that and just use it as a tabs-on-the-sed br…

I'm probably not in the target market, but the slowest thing in a browser these days, for me, is the obnoxious closing of cookie banners and newsletter popups. Hence, uBlock Origin + cosmetic filter list. The productivity boost is more than any keyboard assignment can ever do I guess.

Yes, they're very annoying. I'm working on implementing extensions ASAP so you can use those on SigmaOS (or maybe even built-in natively? ;p)

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#80

Post by MahyadGhassemi »

wazoox wrote: post #66

I'm not the target (I use almost only Linux professionally) but from a quick glance this looks very much like my firefox setup (grouping tabs: tree style tabs + sharing quickly through many apps: share backported + split screen: Nifty Split). I know it sounds like the famous Dropbox rebuttal comment, and I'm obviously not the target demographic, but I'm puzzled :)

Heya, no thanks very much for mentioning this. There a lot of pro users who have great set ups which we take a lot of inspiration from. The fact of the matter is a lot of teams don’t use linux necessary and it won’t make sense for those people to have complicated setup. we make that productive set up for them just easier to do
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