FINALLY Ditching Microsoft Edge... for Zen Browser

[@Xtrems]

The lengths to people go to avoid firefox...

[@Umbralogy]

Imagine thinking mozilla is a good company. I use edge on linux and ill continue to use it

[@deetzmcsteel]

@@Umbralogy I mean, I don't know that the reason for using Firefox is whether Mozilla is a good company or not, but using that argument... Microsoft???

[@eruno_]

​@@Umbralogy Mozilla is an average company with best web browser available

[@outofsync6599]

Firefox lacks native vertical tab support. The plug-ins that offer vertical tabs are also very clunky in use

[@eruno_]

@@outofsync6599 I heard Mozilla devs plan to add native vertical tabs to Firefox. Not sure how along the way it is though.

[@tharsis]

Oh hey, Private Mode Highlighting is my theme! It got added only a few days ago, so your recording time was fortuitous.

[@NreKonkoro-vt2fo]

Unsplit the tabs by clicking the grid view button (the one looking like a link icon) in the url bar. The options are vertical, horizontal, grid and UNSPLIT.

[@danx494]

Honestly that's why i respect Firefox especially UI, Edge used to be my favorite until they start filling it with useless ads and features

[@cero-of5jj]

I never understood the argument that "Firefox is too slow" man I've used Firefox and Chromium for years and haven't noticed a percivable performance difference. Sure it may show up in benchmarks but, realistically are you going to notice in day to day usage? Moreover out of all chromium based browsers, why Edge? Why not brave, Chromium, or anything that isn't sending all of your browser history to Microsoft or Google.

[@alexanderlybak5379]

maybe because of the design and the sidebar

[@lucio-ohs8828]

edge has pretty good features despite its faults

[@tanaybhomia2784]

This is like Arc for Linux users.

[@robinquintero2351]

I actually prefer it over arc already. Because of the linux support and because the windows version is quite behind the macos one, still a lot of missing features and you can't hide the top bar like they do in mac. But zen lets you do it, in every platform, that's really nice

[@robinquintero2351]

Also tab split view is superior than arc. Another W for open source software

[@tanaybhomia2784]

@@robinquintero2351 that is right. But I don't know why I just can't get myself to use Firefox

[@whiskytangi]

@@tanaybhomia2784 The only difference I can think of is if you use a keyboard with via support you cant use the website to change your keyboard settings on firefox. But for everything else they are pretty much the same thing

[@slavsquatsuperstar]

“I use Arc btw”

[@Yes-me4pk]

I can't wait for Zen Browser to get out of Alpha. Its suitable for daily driving already but it does crash from time to time

[@MrBebobabo]

When use use split mode, there is a new button at the end of the address box and you can change the split to horizontal or vertical and to stop split view :D

[@apolloscuccumber385]

my spidersense tingles whenever an open source project has emojis looks super cool either way, reminds me of betterdiscord or vesktop

[@xBinyWolf]

To me it is an awesome project: vertical tabs being the only option made me realize i actually like them a lot; the ui is good, options are minimal but themes make customising really easy and i see the theme store is pretty active. And for all of those who say "YoU CaN DO It On Ff ToO" yes but if the average joe can skip the hussle and the reaserch let them have it, this attitude is what makes linux still niche and Valve realized it luckly

[@CripplingDuality]

Yes, that's definitely the takeaway from their wine contributions and SteamOS lmao

[@PPPH1L1PPP]

THIS is how you NEED to show a sponsorship. Its not hard. Thanks!

[@lmao01]

Zen needs profile switching in a single window like Arc does it. Also, tab pinning that is similar to arc.(you are able to reload to base pinned page URL when you - it in arc) Both of those features are so very useful.

[@joeyvpoisonfree]

This and auto Picture in Picture are what keeps me using Arc

[@F_Around_and_find_out]

I’ll just chill with Firefox ESR. Not too much new features coming every month, security updates, everything a browser needs to function.

[@Tex_Arcana]

Holy shit they brought the tab organizer back, I’m gonna cry 💜🦊😭

[@t3m3d]

I literally use edge on windows for convenience, (because it makes it easier to do my school work) and have started using zen on my windows partition some and use it strictly on linux now. Zen is a fantastic browser so far.

[@CripplingDuality]

It's 2024, you don't need to dual boot.

[@VERY_TALL_MAN]

@@CripplingDuality I dual boot with seperate hard drives instead of separate partitions on the same drive. I absolutely adore my Linux external drive, carrying it around and using it on any computer was such a game changer

[@VeggehGaming]

I'm looking forward to seeing how this browser develops. Have been trying it today and, while I don't feel like it's ready for me to make a full switch just yet, I'm likely to opt into this one once it fleshes out. It avoids the issues I had with trying Arc where its shortcuts were overriding other apps (like Visual Studio) even when Arc had not been opened after system boot.

[@hiddenlawyer]

I have been running Fedora 40 Asahi Remix on my M2 Air and it is fantastic so far and was stupid easy to install (dual boot). A few things as of now that are not ideal are: in-use battery life is about 50-75% of what I could get before, hibernation is not supported yet, touch-id is not supported yet, thunderbolt is not supported yet, and built-in microphone is not supported yet. So if none of those bother you too much, you might want to give it a try! Still worth the dual-boot if you have the space...

[@SkegAudio]

i love using Edge as well. one feature i really use is the drop feature where you can sync files, notes, etc, between my phone and system browser. I'm not sure if any other browser has that feature. but hopefully, they add something similar

[@electrology]

Vivaldi?

[@SkegAudio]

@@electrology I just installed it to check, and I do see that it has notes, which is awesome, but it appears that it doesn't sync the attachments 😞 But I do like what I'm seeing with Vivaldi. Thanks for the suggestion, though 😀

[@Deewens]

Thanks a lot! I really like the UI/UX of Zen!

[@cybernit3]

I just tried it out, feels a bit different, but just not use to it. Seems faster than Firefox, but not sure about memory consumptions, I guess it might be a little less than Firefox. Thanks for reviewing it.

[@Your_Degenerate]

A peeve of mine is that Zen Browser doesn't allow you to close the sort of getting started page.

[@mithras666]

yes it does

[@Mr3ENTLEY]

I love edging! It feels too good and looks so smooth 😂

[@jayjake]

"share here your best edges" 💀

[@Chaisz3r0]

"Oh hey, there's this new, privacy focused browser. Let me use Google as the default search engine." *facepalm*

[@TheRobot13]

I mean DDG apparently isnt as private as said, but i use it

[@luisortega8085]

considering what a search engine is used for, a private search engine might be counterproductive (and that's the reason i went back to google)

[@CripplingDuality]

​@@luisortega8085this makes very little sense

[@asandax6]

​@@TheRobot13 I use DDG for the !bang shortcuts. Saves time when I need to go into certain websites.

[@LEYTHLEGACY]

Broo DuckDuckGo is banned in my country gotta use google

[@ProjectMork]

I love firefox I tried zen before didn't care for it but after watching your video of the features I'm going to install it again

[@JoaquinVacas]

"WHY DO YOU USE EDGE OH MAH GAH" Some of us... SOME OF US... Have to use it. That's the only way (or it was, now there is a new browser extension for this) to have access to company resources using Microsoft Intune under Linux. Anyhow, forget about MS telemetry and crappy always-feel-like-they-try-to-sell-you-something feeling... I got used to it and love the vertical tabs, auto-organization, workspaces, I have sidebar with some of my most needed apps (webpages, some in mobile view, enough) and it's a pretty good browser since the "Edge" add-ons that are on top of Chromium are damn useful.

[@Faddistpej]

there is a way to unsplit when 2 tabs have been put in split view. In the url bar there is some link kind of button like this (-) after clicking that button you can see multiple layouts and unsplit option if you click the unsplit option it will unsplit the tabs

[@SitWithAnkit]

Zen browser is definitely a step in the right direction.

[@marufbepary100]

I would be very happy to see a Libadwaita theme that mimics Gnome. I currently use the patch GTK patch for Firefox and it's 90% good. I wish there was a Chromium browser with this much customisation so that I could use that too instead of Brave.

[@christ.4977]

I used Brave for awhile but found Edge to be better in many ways. I can say Zen is very close to being Edge like with customization and snappiness.

[@HackTheFox]

To unsplit there is a link icon in the adress bar...

[@soymadip]

The browser is good but i find it a bit laggy in lower end hardware where like librewolf runs very smoothly

[@eruno_]

I'll stick to Firefox for time being 😎

[@manny-]

Using plain old firefox and waterfox (heavily themed) at home. Not having issues and it is fine for everything i do. At work i use floorp and waterfox... They're all really nice.

[@CristianCYAC]

Mee too, I changed to Zen I was using Edge by the features in general, I tried Firefox but features and UI doesn’t feel good at all at least for me, I tried different forks too Mercury Floorp etc etc, but still not good as Edge, brave and Thorium. But now with Zen Jesus feels different even when is based on Firefox… and for all people out there which don’t understand the reason of using Firefox is simple to avoid monopoly, almost every Browser is based on Chromium and Safari is just for Apple, then in Linux gnome browser is based on Apple engine too, but is just for Linux, the point is that we need some competition and if we only have one option it doesn’t not is a benefit for us as users.

[@MyBrunohp]

After years using Brave and testing other browsers, this one is really neat. Feels fresh and is doing something new. I'm using in the last few days and gonna stick with it

[@katzicael]

Edge *IS* Good - people just don't give it a chance. It's just a shame it's based on Chromium lol.

[@EpiX0R]

Im a LibreWolf user, just loved the UI and and sidebar way too much to pass Zen up. Giving it a go right now, might stay here because I really enjoy the browser.

[@mr2craftymusic]

Nice video. I just swtiched the Linux. Going to check this browser. Great review and walkthrough as always.

[@karomba123]

The edging browser is not good for your health 😢

[@TechHut]

The intro of this video was "I finally stopped edging" but I cut it 😢

[@karomba123]

Haha lol

[@mble]

@@TechHut Why? Being funny is not a crime!

[@sweetmelon3365]

Being overly sexual isnt always funny

[@imbretzy]

@@sweetmelon3365pffft ok “sweetmelons69”

[@AllOSes1234]

I love edge. Especially edge dev with rounded tabs

[@umnikos]

How is this different from the Sidebery extension for firefox?

[@Cyco_Nix]

Zen looks nice, but I prefer options on vertical and horizontal, as I use both. Also, being Alpha, it has some quirks. However, the biggest problem is It is a one-man show, and he has no idea how to run a project. He will close tickets that are not fixed, versus merging them and tracking as one should. It is getting better, but I am not trusting a browser like this yet.

[@stormwolfe1267]

I like the idea of Zen, but so far, cannot find a smartphone or tablet version.

[@LucasWDCL]

7:15 Ctrl + Alt + U

[@zxcrisr]

This feels more like what Arc is to chrome, more than edge lol. But I agree that it is very interesting, especially the way you can modify the browser css with themes. I hope they go a long way because I'm switching from Firefox wtih custom css and sidebery to Zen as soon is a bit more mature.

[@yacinekcl]

Firefox's UI feels like from 2014?! ah hell nah

[@winmac2565]

Personally I feel it’s clunky. For my use cases it’s also doesn’t work right for some sites that I rely on.

[@aluisiofsjr]

Actually the UI feels like 2008.

[@DrCoolZomboi]

I Like the old UI Tho >:0

[@nitrosophelin]

if it aint broke don't fix it ​@@aluisiofsjr

[@yacinekcl]

@@DrCoolZomboi me too :))

[@Polyeith]

Ill be comfortable switching over once it has a mobile version!

[@domojestic4155]

This is cool, but I'm getting huge Floorp deja vu with all the hype Zen's been getting. Hopefully this hype doesn't die like it did for Floorp.

[@zeeweenor]

what happened with floorp if you dont mind me asking?

[@domojestic4155]

@@zeeweenor Nothing, which is exactly what I mean. It got a lot of media attention from Linux and Linux-adjacent KZbinrs, but now it's "just another Firefox fork." Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but I feel it just didn't get maintained momentum. It still gets updates, for sure, but they don't get nearly as much attention as they did when all the videos were first coming up.

[@Derpingtonshere]

Honestly I tried floorp and it was clunky so I didn't use it. Zen so far is buttery smooth and isn't proprietary like floorp is, so more people can contribute. I am actually blown away by how smooth this browser is, Floorp to me was literally just a hacky browser. Trust me when I say that this is lightyears better than Floorp, and it's still in alpha. EDIT: I may be wrong with the partially closed source stuff so take my statement with a grain of salt. I'm going to educate myself about it later when I have a chance.

[@domojestic4155]

@@Derpingtonshere Floorp isn't proprietary? I know they have some kinda sponsorship program but it's not behind any hidden code, it's pretty out in the open. And yeah, it feeling a bit mish-mashed together isn't an uncommon criticism. Last I checked it was being developed by some Japanese Uni students, so it's not super surprising.

[@gusslx]

Floorp is open source and it's far from dead, they are working to replace some UI with SolidJS for better performance.

[@Cerbskies]

The fact they made it a "philosophy" to not put horizontal tabs in as a choice made zen a hard pass.

[@elalemanpaisa]

I would love to see MS Edge as an officla Flatpak. My distro doesn't ship Edge :/ Edge has some very nice features which are very overlooked and I am using Windows mainly nowadays on my Laptop because of Edge

[@AlexanderAddams]

workspaces in linux for edge doesn't work yet. So that's a huge workflow negative

[@NothingNewNerd]

You should try the Arc Browser, it's chromium based, fast, well designed, and very practical, although customization is limited

[@v0ldy54]

Zen so far has been way better than Arc, the automatic tab discard of Arc is dumb enough to completely kill the usability for me. Also, vertical tabs take way too much space if you're using two apps side by side, Zen also uses vertical tabs but you can make them very small or hide the tabs completely.

[@tuvietnam]

Firefox is like my lifelong relationship 😂 i can give others a try but will go back to ff with betterfox configs

[@MichaelStanton]

This is great! I never heard of it.

[@RomaIX]

It really looks promising!

[@noname-dp3gn]

from 8k stars to 14.8k in a month is crazy

[@ScottManser-eu2pg]

Floorp is another good option. Very responsive.

[@jakobw135]

Have you tried the Thorium browser?

[@nothingtoseeherelolkek]

It’s like going from Celeron 667 MHz to Ryzen 9 in terms of basedness.

[@abyzzwalker]

What's with the 3-letter branding lately? Zig, Zed, Zen. It's kinda getting confusing lol.

[@asish5425]

waiting for the tab group feature in zen

[@TrustJesusToday]

Zen is a good fork. Is Mozilla paying attention?

[@yashveerrochiram4655]

It's the way things are everything is better then what ur using vice versa

[@K4rmaRules]

Love those split views.

[@Gibby_B]

i just use firefox with edge-firefox & custom css to make it basically look & behave just like arc browser

[@Knowlxdqe]

minus the compatibility of chromium

[@CosmicGameMaster]

when this comes with an ed blocker ill use it for now its brave

[@samsh0-q3a]

I don't care for the UI argument, I tend to delete 99% of the all the unnecessary features on every browser anyway, I don't need my web browser to load up youtube AND scratch my ass for me

[@reaperc]

I downloaded Zen Browser and it was flagged with a Trojan

[@tharsis]

@@reaperc If it was Windows Smart Screen (or whatever it's called) blocking you, they have a habit of doing that for 'Unknown applications' until they build up a trust score, you can usually bypass it in the/popup somewhere. If it was another antivirus, well, uh, I got nothing. The source code is fully available and I've not seen evidence of a virus, but then I'm just one internet rando and it's probably best not to trust just some guy™️

[@electrology]

Thanks for flagging this. I saw an alert when I was trying to install it. It's the windows defender alert. It may very well be a false positive alert but Zen shouldn't be flagged. Developers should ensure that it doesn't get flagged like this. We don't know if it's reliable or not. They need to give that confidence. I am not installing it and taking the risk

[@user-su3xv6yi1y]

Is there a way to install PWAs / webistes as apps in Zen? By default I'm using Brave but I have some websites that I often use and I like to have them as apps so i can easy bring them from launcher in their separate view (with icon of a particular webiste instead of browser icon). Unfortunatelly I can't do this in Brave (can install apps, but they don't act like described), and at the moment I'm able to do this with Edge. I'm looking for replacement however, but seems like Zen can't install PWAs at all?

[@LeeAnnC]

Firefox is not *that* bad 😭. Like maybe 2018 😭 he's trying his best

[@cowantom]

Is it just me or is the lighting really bad on this video. Really dark - and not helped by choosing the browser dark option

[@xgui4-studios]

on my windows laptop it take for ever to startup .... idk why but its most probably a windows related issue rather than zen itself or my hardware... but i have issue with hdmi in liinux so windows is the only good option ....

[@Ndrici]

Arc Browser if it was Firefox based

[@iamalittler]

Since when is Edge not Chromium based?

[@NitemareNode]

Tried it for a week, back to ARC i went lol

[@Johan87577]

Why would you use edge in the first place, is beyond me.

[@buddylee6203]

Lunascape Phoebe Chads Check in!

[@2017HondaCivicEX-b2vm]

Great video

[@ben65797]

Theo telling people to star it really worked huh

[@nikolakatanic]

For me Firefox is perfectly fine

[@EVanDoren]

Just switch to Firefox, Zen UI is confusing AF

[@justafreak15able]

Never listen to these linux fanboys they're toxic af. Many people are leaving linux ecosystems even developers stopped contributing to linux kernal. Just do whatever you like please.

[@adnank4458]

What's about mullvad? Is it any good?

[@poligarpi]

Looks good and all, but it doesn't have an android app to be able to sync tabs between my phone and the PC, pass

[@tonyb9864]

How does it compare to Brave? Does it block pop ups?

[@abhidatta_b9227]

you can block pop-ups or any kind of ad in any browser using an extension named uBlock Origin.

[@CripplingDuality]

Yes and it also doesn't mine crypto and injecting tracking strings into urls.

[@Apemania69]

why noone talk about vivaldi, which is private etc? ._.

[@anthonytumia]

And beats all of them for customisability and keybindings

[@v0ldy54]

Been using both lately, Vivaldi has so many features and customization, right now definitely more than Zen, but Zen feels like it doesn't really need the customization to work perfectly fine and I love the minimalistic UI. Vivaldi feels like it's almost trying to do too much without picking a clear design direction.

[@VarriskKhanaar]

"...as what Edge is to Chrome or even what Ubuntu is to Debian."

[@CheapHomeTech]

Can it filter out all advertisements like Brave does? That's the most important feature and a must have for me.

[@tomat05]

ublock origin

[@machieu]

I think they're planning on integrating Ublock in the browser with their own UI or something. They don't want to just throw in Ublock.

[@goodcitizen4587]

For an alt-chromium browser, Waterfox is great. Uses Firefox extensions.

[@s.mibrahimmuslimalhamdulil22]

Can u pls review cinelerra? It might be better than Penelope

[@s.mibrahimmuslimalhamdulil22]

Kdenlive*

[@xand.r]

firefox still solo's fam .. only downsides are extensions

[@chalkid3390]

Just lack foldering tabs like arc

[@howdoyoudoit3499]

My bet on Brave....

[@Danny_Posting]

I... literally switched from Edge to Zen..last night...

[@catto-from-heaven]

You're comparing browsers performance on macos 🤦‍♂

[@andreujuanc]

They just copied vivaldi with FF engine. not bad.

[@s6yx]

Windows?

[@alphonsealexander]

Been testing this browser for the past few days it still has some issues that are on firefox especially when it comes to playing media besides that its quite nice but for now am gonna stick with brave and wait for the official release

[@edhahaz]

I wonder how much mozzilla designers get paid...

[@Damien-km1vl]

Vivaldi for me leads the battle, so many thing that can be changed and configured

[@electrology]

It is good but the main issue is their unreliable sync between devices

[@Damien-km1vl]

@@electrology I sync between 2 Windows, 1 OpenSuse, 2 Androids, without any issues

[@electrology]

​@@Damien-km1vl that is very surprising. I don't sync across multiple devices. I only sync between my Microsoft Surface Pro laptop and my Google Pixel 9 Pro phone. It's not as smooth as say, Chrome or Brave or Edge or even Firefox. I really don't think sync is smooth. I have seen online this is one of the weakest points of Vivaldi. You probably got lucky

[@juniornunes]

i switched to Arc browser and honestly love it

[@blackstar_1069]

How did u managed to make it run on linux?

[@aluisiofsjr]

Zen is the Arc but without the Manifest V3.