I tried a new browser. I think I LOVE IT

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Zen browser: www.zen-browse...
zen is a new browser based on firefox that is supposed to be performant, secure, reliable, and awesome. I wanted to give it a shot, and everyone in chat in twitch told me to. so hey, I did it. Zen is really great and I suggest you check it out if/when you can.

[@RazoBeckett.]

i am in video! i am famous !!

[@typecraft_dev]

You did it!!

[@rtheben]

kudos!!❤

[@omgboy4939]

​@@typecraft_devtry tridactyl extension

[@cabbage2329]

congration 🎉

[@okanakyuz]

and you are on the top of the comments

[@Baulers]

I was worried he wouldn’t say “arch btw” but then he said it and balance was restored.

[@Topyy]

One of zen's killer features is the compact mode imo. It hides the sidebar by default and displays it on hover. You can also enable this for the top bar too, really cool on smaller screens or when giving presentations

[@ratio6677]

also you can set a custom shortcut to hide/unhide the sidebar, meaning you dont even need to drag your mouse to the side

[@shahriaar0]

@Topyy exactly. I love the clean look and the maximum utilization of screen real estate, plus the shortcuts are so easy to configure.

[@zoro_065]

Its also present in brave

[@ratio6677]

@@zoro_065 afaik you cannot hide the sidebar, and you dont have a compact mode

[@zoro_065]

@@ratio6677 bro it can be hidden, and shows up on hover bcs i use it (vertical tabs), and as per compact mode it will get sooner or later as its chromium based, and chrome has started testing it

[@gewdvibes]

There’s a catppuccin theme for it so it’s already the goat

[@typecraft_dev]

agreed

[@ottergauze]

Me and you must've literally been on the same wavelength. I've been trying it for a few days and I honestly really like it.

[@Pandacier]

it literally just feels like arc but better in every aspect

[@typecraft_dev]

thats what I was getting too!

[@UntilDot]

The only thing I’m missing is the AI features 😕 Hope they add the ability to use at least local models at some point

[@Sub0x-x40]

@@UntilDot just added perplexity in the sidebar, ai solved

[@kyledavis8054]

In my experience it's been the opposite. Just arc but way less polished, and riddled with bugs.

[@Lazymanzoid]

@@kyledavis8054 It's in alpha

[@ManjaroBlack]

Oh my. I need to Zen if anything just for split tabs

[@silmelumenn]

You might also look up Vivaldi, had same feature for some years now.

[@rugisis1]

this dude just likes everything that starts with Z

[@Aceptron]

Lmaooo

[@ieatlunchanddinnerforbreak7456]

Zick

[@st.armanini9521]

My top priority in a browser is Vim-like keybindings. Heck, my top priority in any application is Vim-like keybindings...

[@syahfiqalarby6175]

Whats that?

[@RaishmiYoru]

Same bro

[@asg8813]

So what do you use vimium?

[@RunningRay9]

i used to use qutebrowser for a while because of that vim-like keybinding. After a while, it's clear that the browser lacks a lot of feature. Now, i think i'm good with just using Vimium extension.

[@RaishmiYoru]

@@asg8813 yessir

[@jjdizz1l]

Oddly enough, it looks exactly like how my Edge & Arc browser are.

[@josef6126]

I love the ui and the fact that is based on firefox, but kinda feels like a firefox vivaldi to me...

[@Kokurorokuko]

What's wrong with that? That's Vivaldi but better.

[@Andvii]

And Arc, anyway, so what? Vivaldi and Arc are good browsers.

[@zSion]

firefox vivaldi is called floorp

[@josef6126]

@@zSion nah, it feels like a slightly better firefox

[@MetrolMC]

Tried it out via Flatpak on my Kubuntu machine. It does feel faster and lighter than FF. There are a lot of nice directions these folks are going with the UI. It's still pre-beta quality in a lot of ways though. Splitting the view kind of works. Mostly, it feels like a proof of concept. Can't resize them, or really even decide which tabs might go into which split. Controls aren't quite where you might expect them to be. Like the tab listing that's not near where the tabs are. That aside, I certainly hope they get some of these details worked out. Looks like the start of something that could be a serious contender.

[@jomascarbProc]

I'm loving Zen but there's one thing I'm missing, the workspaces should be isolated from one another. I know I can use containers for this purpose, and I do, but it sucks having to chose which container to open for every new tab

[@rigbone1337]

You can configure websites to open in a specific container by default. This setting resets with a new browser installation, but once configured, it will automatically open that way. I’ve set it up this way for my work and personal accounts to keep them separate. For example, anything I open related to Microsoft admin panels defaults to my work profile, while sites like KZbin open in my personal profile container. Additionally, you can enable Firefox Sync to carry this configuration over to any new browser installations. On the first load of a page, it will give you the option to always open it in that container or just for that one time.

[@이정빈-o2d]

Profile

[@renaldyhaen]

From the features, this looks like Vivaldi. I'm glad more browsers now have side panel because it is really useful and fun. I will try it.

[@mjscpr]

The issue with verticals tab is when you use two windows side by side on, say, a 27" monitor. It becomes a bit narrow.

[@jefferyosei101]

I love it too!, IMO it's as arc browser to new chrome comparison ❤.

[@tomdringer985]

Will take a lot to replace Arc, but already the vertical tabs is a good start. Zen and Zed are the future 😀

[@zaskaf2]

have you tried EDGE browser? mit has vertical tabs too.

[@CommissarChaotic]

​@@zaskaf2 If Microsoft didn't put all that bloat and kept messing with my settings and resetting it to their defaults at times, I probably wouldn't have left! Edge has most of the functionality I need in a browser. Right now my current browser is Mercury which is essentially Thorium Firefox.

[@DigitalisRex]

the only reason I want this is the spilt/grid screen. alas, none of the keyboard shortcuts work on my macos. none. i'll just have to put Zen back on the shelf and try again in 6 months

[@zaskaf2]

why don't you try ARC/Edge browser then? it a very similiar browser

[@ベロラ]

i have been using it for about a week, it is cool but it's really not that crazy, it's practically just a beautified firefox with sidebery, with some sprinkles on top like split and grid view and whatnot...

[@zaskaf2]

yeah, just use Edge actually.

[@Thenitefly-hm2vi]

It’s WAY better than Arc! All the good stud and none of the bloat.

[@zaskaf2]

Try EDGE browser

[@dabster291]

​@@zaskaf2edge is owned by microsoft + it's proprietary so that's probably not the best idea

[@MarceloLimaXP]

It's a Vivaldi Lite for Firefox 😛

[@BradArnst]

Thank you. I will consider it. I might use it for when I want to test Firefox compatibility. But, for me (and you as well I think) I can just go back and forth between a tab/stack layout in i3 and the regular tiled layout to get two tabs side by side.

[@savagepro9060]

Interesting, the hidden default search engine for Zen is . . .Buddha!

[@chizuru1999]

😂😂

[@jwilbruns]

I enjoy browsers with minimalist style, I love it

[@fpigeonjr]

looking forward to the full review. Zen def has some potetial.

[@MikeBrady68]

Bing rocks, BTW. In addition, I've been enjoying the vertical tabs on Edge for quite a while. I agree that they are preferable.

[@1plus68hehe]

I come from using firefox, and I prefer it for its privacy, extensions/add-ons store, and customizability. I tried switching to arc, but I didn't like that it's chromium based... zen is the perfect middle ground that I've wanted from a browser for a long time! The whole reason I was looking for a new browser is because firefox doesn't support side tabs, at least not right now, and not natively. I also love the workspaces. I'm sure the container tabs in firefox are plenty similar, but I like the ease of use of Zen's Workspaces.

[@HarrisonGould]

I'm usually pretty hesitant about swapping browsers (especially with the bugginess of Arc on Windows), I am super excited to see a project this promising in the Alpha that supports Linux and aids my Arc-minimal-style-itch

[@ManjaroBlack]

I always setup the left side tab bar in my browsers. So win off the back for me!

[@sunyfilip]

Especially those features you are mentioning is already in popular browsers like ms edge / chrome (split view, vertical tabs, grouping them, bar with favourite apps,.....) What i would raise mainly in browsers like this one is privacy....I would change to this kind of browsers from leaders only for this one particular reason....other features are in edge or chrome extremely fast after any other browser create some new cool feature, so features are mostly not the reason to migrate all data And last thing really important for me in choosing browser is multiplatform support and synchronization between devices...this is where most of really nearly perfect browsers are failing :)

[@zaskaf2]

The layout is actually just a microsoft edge vertical tabs layout

[@chromatic_color]

Also Vivaldi, who has long been able to do everything:😮😮

[@truesadmug]

THERE IS NO WAY LMAO,i know zen for a while now but i never thought of using it, installed it two days ago and not even the day after this vid comes out

[@mohamedboutarbouch8074]

That google chrome ad though 7:21. Convenient!

[@typecraft_dev]

lol

[@AhmadMughal1]

For those working with web dev are ya'll using firefox based browser cause i've had a few issues go into prod in the start as i was'nt using chrome and the behaviors were very different on both.

[@maxreuv]

Zen is certainly promising but not quite there yet. On the example of two side-by-side panes, they could not be resized even at the time I tried it. Grid layout I did not manage to even get going. On the Mac I had to change around a bunch of shortcuts as default ones did not seem to work - completely messing them up eventually. But then there was no way to reset the shortcuts to defaults in the settings. I will keep an eye on Zen, but so far it is nowhere near Arc (on the Mac, by the way😁)

[@jzetterman]

I just discovered it as well. Looking forward to seeing the progress they can make. It's already better than vanilla FF for sure, but I feel like it wants to be Arc and I can't wait for that....or for Arc to come to Linux....either or lol.

[@kabadayus]

The one thing that kills it for me is the lack of tab folder support

[@aytviewer2421]

Yea, I miss my old 21" CRTs with 4x3 aspect ratios. 1600 x 1200 for the win!

[@kenrtx]

That dual pane feature better have focus follow mouse option.

[@iamhritikpawar]

That 2 tab thing is the selling point

[@s0n0f4L1ch]

I caught the tail end of my gift sub at 0:10

[@Cheester247]

Yes! He’s the guy that keeps wasting all my time trying out these cool new tools instead of actually working!

[@ml_serenity]

I'm glad to see more browsers adopting features of MS Edge: vertical tabs, split view etc

[@reduxflakes]

I mean the browser that probably invented both is Vivaldi which is great as well. Edge is just copying others.

[@ml_serenity]

@reduxflakes before Firefox was redesigned, we had Tab Mix Plus addon for managing tabs. It was amazing. Actually, one of the reasons I jumped off Firefox is because tabs became unmoddable.

[@noahjoyner8232]

CSS is a thing...

[@kamien5509]

have you tested tridactyl extension for vim like keybins?

[@josh6657]

I’ve been using SigmaOS browser and have it configured to work with vim bindings. It uses Safari under the hood so it is very fast. I will give this one a fair shot though.

[@garolstipock]

Kicking the tires on this. Great experience so far. I have Kagi set as my default search engine (paid subscriber).

[@TheTastefulThickness]

There is no unpaid tier of Kagi.

[@dkursada]

Zen Browser is to Firefox what Vivaldi is to Chromium. So customizable, so cool, so power-user dream.

[@murtaza6464]

For me the biggest incentive to switch from base Firefox would be full customizability of keybindings. For example, let me rebind the new tab key or the find in page key! Does Zen have this kind of flexibility?

[@aryanmadan]

Yes

[@Th1nk1n6]

"We are constantly tweak firefox's engine [...]" - Zen's webpage, @4:35

[@builtbywalsh]

BTW - DuckDuckGo uses bing under the covers.

[@vsadrn]

Zen looks promising, thanks nerd

[@tonit6113]

Looks interesting, was waiting for some cross-platform Arc lookalike. Thanks for sharing edit: new profile is a new window :/

[@Viken43]

While side bar is a good idea, why so I need the top bar? So used to Firefox, could not find a way to hide sidebar or top bar [guessing only in F11] ....

[@naranyala_dev]

zen browser + zed text editor (or cursor text editor)

[@typecraft_dev]

hell yeah

[@irlshrek]

btw im pretty sure yay isnt being maintained. paru is the replacement!

[@typecraft_dev]

I'm going to have to check that out!

[@sunbro9744]

​@@typecraft_devIt's still maintained

[@cahva2]

Eh.. what?! Where did you read this? Seems pretty maintained to me :)

[@l4rkdono]

Me when I spread easily verifiable information

[@masashiyeo]

Been using it since this week and kinda like it.

[@iChrisBirch]

Downloaded with brew just now to try it out. None of the keyboard shortcuts work on MacOS. Couldn't intuitively drag and move the settings button. It hesitated to load every web page I typed in. Maybe it's not mainstream for MacOS yet.

[@JChen7]

Left tabs is so annoyingly missing from Chrome. Might have to try this new option now...

[@waffles3782]

tabs on the side + split tabs? same as Edge lol

[@readyplayer2197]

I'm using zen to watch this video right now!

[@ryomensukuna9513]

Windows Defender is not happy.

[@BrentMalice]

looks cool but Edge's Bing Copilot in the sidebar is too nice to get rid of. made arch usable for me

[@Younex]

I made it my default browser It's Arc but better, more customizable, light weight, and not *Chromium* Edit: and it works great on windows

[@Tony_Indiana]

If chat is excited I am excited AF! I do not even know who you are. However, I have in the past been contributing member of chat. For example world of warcraft race to world first. I was there! I was chat! So if chats excited I am excited.

[@ChryptoCrystal]

Really excited for this browser to get out of alpha so it stops crashing all the time 😭😭

[@uhcuhc.]

for those who hops a lot of browsers or is what someone call a browser maniac. is this better than vivaldi? for linux and android?

[@omertaprimal6913]

I say I use arch btw even tho its just my gf's steam deck sometimes. But thats technically arch based variant. Yes I know, a programmer with a gf so it must be fake.

[@Leo-sd3jt]

Why is the default layout on the left? It needs to be on the right. The right side of the screen tends to have nothing on it yet everybody puts things on the left side of the screen so that if you click on something then text gets covered up

[@nishantbhaskar7685]

I've had some ptsd from Brave tabs on the right. When you hover your cursor on the tabs on the right there, the tab bar opens up to show the details, and the point where your cursor originally is, is replaced by the cross button to close the tab. So if you accidentally click it, the tab just.. closes. Very bad ui design.

[@zaskaf2]

well, scroll wheel mostly put on the right side, and some user already adapted with the left vertical side because of Edge browser

[@frydac]

aw, it didn't see my firefox to import from.. I guess because it itself is firefox, but maybe using a different profile or something I can probably export and import I'm guessing, though couldn't find anything about that quickly.

[@frydac]

Ah I could just login with my firefox account(s).. Great! lol and I already had tree style tab (which puts the tabs on the side in a tree), now I have 2 columns of tabs :D

[@kuma8030]

@@frydac sideberry did that for me too. i just deactivated the extension

[@heroclix0rz]

As someone who's already using a tiled wm on linux, idk if this adds anything new.

[@SiCrip09]

I don’t wanna give up on my chrome extensions so I will stay with Opera GX with my custom mods 🚀

[@meroinheroin]

Opera GX is spyware though. /: really don't recommend anyone use that browser

[@eol251]

@@meroinheroin Well if you got nothing to hide what's the issue?

[@meroinheroin]

@@eol251 it's literally Chinese spyware. I have nothing to hide but that doesn't mean that I want the CCP to have access to my browser usage.

[@meroinheroin]

@@eol251 I don't want to have the CCP to have access to my browser. it's not about having anything to hide.

[@cool_scatter]

It's true that we have more horizontal real estate than vertical on modern screens, but web pages flow from top to bottom. Scrolling vertically is a much more natural action and horizontal screen space ends up being much more valuable as a result. It's still subjective, I see why people would like the horizontal tabs and I'm sure those few little pixels aren't making anything too cramped on big displays though.

[@kuma8030]

you also have compact mode which just makes everything full page. no tabs on the left nor url bar on top. you would only see them on hover and the rest of the time you just have full screen realstate

[@plasticflower]

I like the idea of having more vertical space by putting the tabs on the left or right. But in practice it has a lot of issues. Either you have only icons, but then if you have multiple pages with the same favicon, you can't distinguish them visually. But if you have a wider tab bar that can display the title of each tab, that means as long as you have only 2-3 tabs open all the space below them will be completely wasted. Then again, arguably most sites "waste" space anyways by only being displayed as a column that fills about 60-70% of the screen's width, such as the KZbin page you might be looking at right now... Ah all this agonizing over a few more pixels that will never make a difference :D

[@kuma8030]

@@plasticflower that's why compact mode exists.

[@plasticflower]

@@kuma8030 Mmh, yes but then you'd have to switch each time by pressing a key combination, isn't that annoying as well? Anyways I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt and trying it out right now. Always fun to try out new "toys". But it seems the split panes can't be resized ... :(

[@kuma8030]

@@plasticflower that's just the average neovim user workflow changing everything with a combination of keys. xD

[@tinmank]

I'm waiting for Ladybird, until then ARC is my to go.

[@rymdie]

So, It's firefox based arc then

[@alxt111]

Nice video. I'm definitely gonna try Zen. Btw, as long as it's not in the official arch repo, I would prefer a flatpak, packaged by the developer, over an install script from the AUR that some random dude put there.

[@GiovanniSantini]

Sir, please, config for your launcher app. It looks gorgeous 😍 Currently on Wofi but it is not that fancy.

[@typecraft_dev]

Its just ulauncher with catppuccin!

[@amack77]

Seems very similar to the floorp browser.

[@cahva2]

I switched from Floorp (I use vertical tabs on that) and in practice, they are not the same. Zen feels more polished and snappy even in its alpha state. Sure, Floorp is more customizable in many ways but it feels many of the features are "glued" in a hacky way.. or atleast it feels that way.

[@amack77]

@@cahva2 Good to know, going to give Zen a try.

[@zvoidzy]

@@cahva2I’m using floorp as a daily driver and yeah, it does look like most features (mainly workspaces) are just glued together. I had to edit my workspaces file many times to get them back because they just disappear sometimes

[@ash1kh]

Honestly I was happy with brave... super fast and if you tweak it you don't have to go for mouse ever again... But missing the edge browser tab side by side layout so much. Zen browser filled the need... I think it has the potential to become widely favorite.. Currently on a marathon of testing it if i can switch from brave. but i think it needs more time to improve....

[@BigElleDee]

Will you publish a video about zellij setup? I was trying to implement some things for go testing but i can't figure out one moment so i would like to see your config one more time

[@_Holy_Lance_]

Great video, thank you.

[@balonm]

Ram usage is ridiculous, I wanted to switch from ARC but the ram usage on ZEN is doubled+.

[@NoNames_tv]

Heeey, what’s your app launcher? It looks incredible!

[@NaethliN]

Until you get a confirmation, it's probably Rofi

[@manutddred]

Bro sold me with CTRL ALT V, I've been searching for a browser that could do that that isn't EDGE. You know where I'm going with this...

[@stormwolfe1267]

Watching the video, I thought I could love Zen, BUT it seems there's no mobile app for it and I really need one since I do lots of work using my tablet and phone. :(

[@darvin3711]

that's so crazy how your voice looks like Joel (Pedro Pascal) from the last of us series

[@JayPancholi]

Zen is arc for linux!

[@izzikora6751]

I don't think Firefox or Chrome can do tabs on the left. I've seen it in Vivaldi

[@chizuru1999]

one thing i didn't like about zed when I tried it was rounded border

[@BendyLemmy]

Wow, you held off on 'import data' - and that's good, it looks like it can't import from Firefox - only Chrome.

[@RKStrider]

You can just sync everything with your Firefox account

[@ShinSpiegel]

The problem with this browser for me is the battery consuption.

[@tomhiggins9242]

Nothing out there comes close to Vivaldi browser! In my humble opinion:)

[@sevos]

This doesn't feel like a nerd video ( I really hope that this channel doesn't become yet another content grind

[@alexventuradev]

What about ads blocking? That is the most important thing to me over everything else that's why I love Brave

[@zaskaf2]

Brio what? sometime i start to think that this browser trying to copy edge browser. the workspace, the blue line when you go into split mode view, the vertical tabs. and then it showed you the url on top of screen when using fullscreen mode. at this point every vertical tabs browser is just a worse version of EDGE.

[@DonClark]

Why DDG over Startpage?

[@Mywifeleftme3]

My wife left me

[@noedits5543]

But why

[@nishantbhaskar7685]

🤣

[@maurycy_gnc]

Left you where?

[@Mywifeleftme3]

@@maurycy_gnc In a state of loneliness and severe melancholy

[@Daoist_Oak]

What's a "wife"?

[@AlexanderAddams]

I still don't see anything that Vivaldi doesn't already have. Besides being FF based, and less features.

[@MikaelNguyen]

Thank nerd What is the App Launcher that you're using?

[@JWH89]

I downloaded this on my work computer and my company IT got big mad.