Arc Browser - Changing focus when the main product isn't even finished? (www.theverge.com)
from laserkaspar@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 07:42
https://lemmy.world/post/21241885

Just switched to arc on windows. It’s really buggy but I wanted to still give it a chance because it feels really nice when it does what it should. I hoped it will get better over time. Still hope so but I don’t believe anymore…

#technology

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BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com on 25 Oct 07:49 next collapse

If you want an experience similar to Arc without the AI nonsense, there is Zen Browser, a Firefox fork with vertical tabs, profiles and side panel.

brrt@sh.itjust.works on 25 Oct 10:16 next collapse

Have been using it on the side for a couple of weeks now and it’s pretty nice. Hope they don’t fuck it up, I could see myself using it as my main browser in the future.

WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 13:47 collapse

Honestly, it sounds like Arc doesn’t add much beyond firefox + an extension that utilizes the built-in sidebar. I signed up for the beta then never got round to testing it. After reading about its amateur security flaws I was glad for my laziness.

I’ve been switching between sideberry, tab stash, tab session manager, and tree style tabs for years. All of them feel like they fulfill most of what was described in this article, except you get container tabs, which are superior to workspaces.

My main complaints with Firefox are Mozilla corp, and profile/config management. I’m not dumb enough to think switching to “the browser company” corp will solve the first problem, and it doesn’t sound like Arc is anywhere near solving the second.

ivn@jlai.lu on 25 Oct 08:11 next collapse

Why would anyone use a browser that requires you to login, especially after that: kibty.town/blog/arc/

solsangraal@lemmy.zip on 25 Oct 09:26 collapse

i tried it with bogus accounts just to see what all the hype was, and yea… it’s just bloatware pretending to be something “new” and “innovative” just to get suckers to sign up with their actual info

SMillerNL@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 10:43 collapse

I really like the vertical tabs, the split profiles, the quick notes and the mini windows for links from other applications. If there is a prior product with all these features I’d love to try it. Please send a link.

solsangraal@lemmy.zip on 25 Oct 13:35 next collapse

how cheaply our data is bought…

WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 13:53 collapse

All of those are problems which extensions already mostly solve. Firefox has tree style tabs, sideberry and tabstash. You can hide the horizontal tab bar with css. You can create multiple profiles in Firefox, and you can open separate isolated windows for each. Notes depend on your chosen software, but simple browser-only extensions exist. I don’t care about mini windows; that is a non-issue already solved with tab mgmt keyboard shortcuts.

SMillerNL@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 13:59 collapse

What I’m reading here is that it is new for a browser to offer all those features. You’d need to do a bunch of customisation to reach a similar result otherwise. It’s fine that people don’t care about it, but that doesn’t make it less new.

dustyData@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 21:48 collapse

Firefox has all those things already (albeit vertical tabs are experimental still). Just without the AI marketing and the built-in identity theft.

Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 08:24 next collapse

The plan this time is to build not just a different interface for a browser, but a different kind of browser entirely — one that is much more proactive, more powerful, more AI-centric, more in line with that original vision.

Who could have thought? These goons are so predictable…

GreenEngineering3475@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 09:45 collapse

AI is the magic word, if you need loads of VC money.

PrivacyDingus@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 08:36 next collapse

the arc of browser is long, and bends towards techbro nonsense

todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee on 25 Oct 09:26 next collapse

The plan this time is to build not just a different interface for a browser, but a different kind of browser entirely — one that is much more proactive, more powerful, more AI-centric, more in line with that original vision.

lol

strawberry@kbin.earth on 25 Oct 09:37 next collapse

yeah I saw ai centric and stopped reading

MagicShel@lemmy.zip on 25 Oct 10:05 next collapse

I’m trying to figure out what that means. Like if I were to imagine a wishlist of things AI might do in a browser:

  • generate user-scripts to modify styling and perhaps even layouts through natural language.
  • Use AI to automatically detect and remove advertisements, nsfw, etc. as desired
  • identify spoofed websites and prevent them from opening
  • search through browser history by natural language so that you’ll always be able to find that one page where you read that thing
  • scan through a massive website (Wikipedia, corporate confluence or sharepoint) to find pages relevant to a natural language search
  • identify fake content (lies, veiled advertisements, seo spam, satire)

Okay that’s all I can think of off the top of my head. Those would in theory be nice features to have, although I’d be worried about the ability to reliable deliver.

I also think all of that could be offered as a plugin for a regular browser. So I’m at a loss as to what would make the whole browser AI-centric.

Also I’m only reading the quote here, but I’d they are referring to the original vision of the web, it has nothing to do with any of this shit. But if that’s not the original vision being referred to then never mind.

DarkThoughts@fedia.io on 25 Oct 13:34 next collapse

You'll just get a shitty hallucinating search engine assistant and you'll be happy about it!

MagicShel@lemmy.zip on 25 Oct 13:48 collapse

I’ve already got that without a new browser. I’m good, thanks.

lime@feddit.nu on 25 Oct 15:26 collapse

one thing i know it does from GitHub issues is it changes the names of files you download to make them “clearer”, which breaks some tools for flashing firmware and lead to a spike of reports.

EngineerGaming@feddit.nl on 25 Oct 12:04 collapse

I still cannot get over the fact that a browser requires an account to use.

apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 09:43 next collapse

Another Chrome-based browser of shit.

xep@fedia.io on 25 Oct 10:29 next collapse

Hopefully Servo gets a good UI soon.

asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 11:13 collapse
vastard@lemmynsfw.com on 25 Oct 11:53 next collapse

I want the premium vertical UI and ease of switching spaces in Arc but without the AI slop and venture-backed rhetoric about reinventing the browser.

The browser is fine. We need more companies that can fork the good parts of successful browser engines and remove the tracking and AI hype bloat. Those companies won’t make VC-level money but they could make decent year-over-year profit with a strong community following.

c0smokram3r@midwest.social on 25 Oct 12:43 collapse

Take a look @ Zen browser! Been using it for a while & it’s pretty good, so far!

solsangraal@lemmy.zip on 25 Oct 12:13 next collapse

ITT: arc shills

SatyrSack@feddit.org on 25 Oct 13:34 collapse

Is there even one positive comment here?

weststadtgesicht@discuss.tchncs.de on 25 Oct 13:55 collapse

Yeah that is absurd. I’ve found exactly one comment that is at least not negative.

alphapuggle@programming.dev on 25 Oct 15:49 next collapse

I’ve been using the Zen fork of Firefox and have been enjoying it greatly. It’s still pretty early, and a lot of the Firefox issues are still there, but regardless it’s felt better than any other browser I’ve used lately.

And since it’s Firefox, it’s unaffected by he Mv3 bullshit

darkevilmac@lemmy.zip on 25 Oct 16:24 next collapse

Yeah Zen is really nice, was going to try Arc one time but was immediately turned off by the account requirement.

itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 25 Oct 22:05 next collapse

This looks great, how have I not heard of that?

Can you install Firefox addons? How is keyboard navigation?

Codilingus@sh.itjust.works on 25 Oct 22:10 collapse

It can install addons like any other FF fork, and there’s an entire settings tab with a long list of keybinds.

itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 25 Oct 22:25 collapse

Nice, that’s great to hear! I’ll give it a try

Codilingus@sh.itjust.works on 25 Oct 23:02 collapse

I hope you like it! Zen with AVX2 finally ended my years of browser hopping.

itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 25 Oct 23:11 collapse

I’m not sure I’ll stick to it yet, since I really heavily on vim bindings through Tridactyl, and I got a feeling they won’t play nice (yet?). Zen is also not packaged on nix yet, so configuring it declaratively is going to be a pain

But I like what I see, so I’ll give it a shot! If it’s not for me, I can still recommend it to others, some of my friends are newly moving to Linux and I’ll take that chance to get them to ditch Opera, this might replicate some of the features quite nicely. Cheers!

laserkaspar@lemmy.world on 26 Oct 10:14 collapse

Just switched to it and really liking it so far. But it’s missing folders for now… But they say they will push them the day Mozilla releases them to stable Firefox. I hope this project survives!

irotsoma@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 17:42 next collapse

I stay away from proprietary stuff when there are great open source alternatives out there. A proprietary system will always be more driven by those funding it, than the needs of the user and nearly always turn users into products, selling their information.

I’ve been using Firefox variants for a while. I use LibreWolf on desktop and Mull on mobile and a self hosted sync server so it works seamlessly. But there are others, or just use Firefox and disable or block telemetry. There are a few sites here and there that I don’t have the choice not to use and don’t like the privacy features or don’t render properly, so I keep Chrome around for emergencies. But that’s rare, mostly government sites.

xenoclast@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 22:32 next collapse

Made for and by people with ADHD

potentiallynotfelix@lemmy.fish on 26 Oct 00:21 next collapse

What is the appeal of Arc? I’ve just seen it like opera gx but for normal people.

MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 29 Oct 12:50 collapse

If you want that style of UI use Zen browser, it’s based on Firefox and doesn’t require an account to use it.

Arc is just another crappy browser based on Chrome. The account requirement was and is a huge red flag.

laserkaspar@lemmy.world on 30 Oct 13:24 collapse

Already switched to Zen. It’s great! Much better community, less buggy, and the dev actually knows what they’re doing. Split tabs still need improvement tho.