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My Thoughts on the Zen Browser (popcar.bearblog.dev)
submitted 2 months ago by popcar2@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] harryprayiv@infosec.pub 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Nixpkgs has been working on packaging it for more than 6 months now. That is a damning timeframe for both Zen and nixpkgs in IMO equal parts. In Zen’s case, that means that they are packaging their app in a very unconventional way and lagging with security updates, breaking standards (which usually means they are amateurs). In nixpkgs case, that means nixpkgs needs better

buildMozillaMach

support.

I used it in an appImage and came away unimpressed. Using it in a tiling WM, I loved the minimalism….but I just wish it had better security and rendered webpages better. On Brave, websites literally look sharper than on Zen.

Edit: most of my concerns were addressed by the dev themself just down the page a bit.

[-] priapus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That comment about their security updates is a couple of months old. Zen has made significant changes to how they handle releases to stay up to date with Firefox, some of which were mentioned in the thread.

The Nix package is functional. Nixpkgs sometimes chooses not to add beta software that is receiving very frequent updates, especially if the package takes a lot of resources to build. In those cases, it makes more sense for the package to be maintained outside Nixpkgs for the time being. NixOS users can get Zen from this Flake, which patches the official binary. COSMIC Desktop is another example of this.

Pages not looking sharp sounds like it's probably a font or scaling issue.

[-] harryprayiv@infosec.pub 3 points 2 months ago

Thanks for the update. I did read down the page and saw that. The dev looked really receptive, cooperative, and pro about it.

[-] geography082@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

It's just... A browser...

[-] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

With an opinionated way of how to navigate the internet, it's maybe the most important app you can use

[-] BugKilla@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I concur. I don't want stylish. I want functional, compliant and for it not to harvest my fucking data. All that fucking flair and visual wankery can get in the bin if it's not gonna do the essentials.

[-] Myro@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Cool to see a possible replacement for Arc coming up now that The Browser Company put it aside. I loved it's way of kind of forcing you to use a single window, but multiple instances of it, as well as Little Arc. Will keep monitoring Zen to see how it develops.

[-] shiftymccool@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago

Looks just like Arc

[-] ff0000@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

Except Arc is basically abandoned by the company. Also Zen runs on Linux. Looks are somewhat similar but 🤷‍♀️

[-] shiftymccool@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

Looks are somewhat similar but 🤷‍♀️

It's a straight up copy. Somewhat similar.... JFC

[-] rfr_Foglia@feddit.it 1 points 1 month ago

But open source and built from Firefox

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

True. The biggest difference seems to be that Arc is based on Chromium and Zen is based on Firefox. Given the two, I'd pick Zen just for the engine diversity.

[-] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 0 points 2 months ago

Not even that. In addition to being proprietary, it requires an account to use.

[-] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Should clarify that you're talking about Arc there

[-] saga@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Been my daily driver for a WHILE now. Works fine for most things. Every now and then I run into some oddities.

[-] biofaust@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Zen browser is my daily browser since many months now. Most of your fair criticisms I have solved with Zen Mods and playing around in the settings.

The Widewine limitation is really why I will always keep another browser to fall back to: I recently discovered that all of Udemy is non-playable in Zen.

[-] async_amuro@lemm.ee -1 points 2 months ago

Been using it for a while, I like it, but they do push out some questionable updates every now and then. Bugs I can understand, but forcing design changes on people aren’t great. Calling out the new tab change they made, I ended up changing a setting to deactivate it. Right now it’s my preferred browser, but I’m still open to looking into alternatives (Mac/Linux).

[-] rfr_Foglia@feddit.it 1 points 2 months ago

It's still a beta, I think it's unfair to complain about drastic changes until it comes out

[-] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It's in beta, so large changes are to be expected. I don't think it's fair to blame them for design changes right now.

[-] JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Like the other person said, beta software is expected to go through pretty large design changes. It's not a matter of "forcing it on the user" it's a matter of "my software isn't ready yet, I'm not certain what my vision is, and if you're not willing to put up with me figuring out what I want out of this software then wait for it to release and I'll keep it stable from there"

this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025
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