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Helium Browser

helium.computer

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Re: Helium Browser

#71

Post by esafak »

GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #61
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,…

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.

If they open sourced it maybe they could get those pesky bugs fixed...

Re: Helium Browser

#72

Post by WorldPeas »

slimebot80 wrote: post #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.

I just wish there were a browser that would use their webview technology with better tabbing, video playback, etc. Apple is often minimal to a fault.

Re: Helium Browser

#73

Post by setsewerd »

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,…

I love Kagi as a search engine but the Orion UI feels too similar to Safari to really enjoy it as much.

I do enjoy vertical tabs, faster browsing, better privacy obviously. But "largely" is doing some heavy lifting in your mention of chrome extension support. I use about a dozen chrome extensions typically and about 4 of them are supported by Orion last I checked. Although of course #12 in Chrome is the Kagi search extension itself :)

The bookmarks bar seems consistently wonky though, with bookmarks showing the wrong logos (like Google Sheets showing up with the Google Docs logo, or ChatGPT showing some weirdly cropped version of itself), inability to rearrange bookmarks in a folder without opening the dedicated bookmark manager page.

If some basic usability things like this were fixed, along with adding tab groups (also big for me when I have 50 tabs open), I'd probably give it another go. Kagi search engine has largely replaced google search already for me so I'll definitely give it another go once these things are updated.

Re: Helium Browser

#74

Post by sbinnee »

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,…

Tried Orion on mac for a week or two. I also had a few bugs when using google docs and sheets. I gave up because I couldn’t work. However I keep using the iOS app. It’s quite good although I need to restart the app from time to time because of some bugs.

Re: Helium Browser

#75

Post by brcmthrowaway »

tyre wrote: post #9

How will they make money? Or is this always meant to be OSS community supported? The challenge is that people have to get paid and infrastructure to build things costs money. Looks like there are only two people full-time at the company right now, though even then eventually they’ll need some revenue stream. I love this project, but to have confidence that it stays that way it would be nice to see how they’ll replace…

Why does a browser need to be continually updated?

Is Google/W3C adding more features and busy work to keep browser developers employed?

Re: Helium Browser

#76

Post by derefr »

indiebat wrote: post #44
Daedren wrote: 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…

Feels like we need something like early versions of Edge, where it was using Chromium but could be told to open individual tabs (or configured to always open links to certain origins) in an IE webview.

Except, instead of Chromium, Firefox, and instead of IE, Chromium.

Re: Helium Browser

#77

Post by setsewerd »

_def wrote: post #55
barbazoo wrote: post #20

I just can't go back to horizontal tabs anymore.

vertical tabs never really worked for me. What would you say are the biggest benefits for you?

Not the parent commenter but

1. Great if you have a wider screen (could never do it on my old 13" Macbook Air, for a 15" it's pretty good but for a 24" iMac it's perfect). But if you need the space youjust have it set to minimize by default, maximize on hover.

2. See the titles of your browser tabs, which is great when you are like me and never have fewer than 30 tabs open at once.

3. Easier to select browser tabs when you have many of them open (ie they don't get squished unreadably small)

Re: Helium Browser

#78

Post by superasn »

xnx wrote: post #41

Make an Android version that supports extensions (preferably MV2) like the now abandoned Kiwi Browser did and I'll be very interested.

Yes I'd be interested too. I'm still using Kiwi browser but afraid it will stop working anytime soon.

I did recently see this browser is unsafe when trying to open Gmail in it, so any chromium based update to date alternative there would be amazing!

Re: Helium Browser

#79

Post by blackqueeriroh »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #75
tyre wrote: post #9

How will they make money? Or is this always meant to be OSS community supported? The challenge is that people have to get paid and infrastructure to build things costs money. Looks like there are only two people full-time at the company right now, though even then eventually they’ll need some revenue stream. I love this project, but to have confidence that it stays that way it would be nice to see how they’ll replace…

Why does a browser need to be continually updated? Is Google/W3C adding more features and busy work to keep browser developers employed?

Lol yes
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