It’s an Arc-Browser clone WIP which uses Firefox as base. It’s everything I would want from a browser.

Pros:

  1. Open Source
  2. UI-First Approach means it’s working towards a modern browsing experience like Arc
  3. Firefox as base so all Firefox Extensions like Adnauseum/Ublock work on it
  4. No threat of MV3. Arc has stopped blocking ads for me hence I will no longer be using Chromium at all. Adblocking works like a charm on Zen.
  5. Highly customizable with a very fast development cycle.

Cons:

  1. It’s in Alpha so expect Bugs and less features
  2. Still missing some features from Arc like Peek and Command Bar

I would recommend trying out this browser @ https://zen-browser.app/

    • Chronicon [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      The stars hypothesis is interesting but I think it was genuinely caused by that youtuber recommending it. The reason it started 2 days before the video’s release is because he gives early video access to his patrons, if I had to guess. And that’s the only genuinely sus thing about it.

      It is worth waiting for some commit history and consistency to be shown before recommending it on the privacyguides site though

      • jackmarxist [any]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
        8·
        2 months ago

        It’s also a very interesting project since it’s basically Arc but on Firefox which runs on all Operating Systems.

        I think it’s unfair to compare it to Brave which is literally just chrome with an adblocker and crypto. If Arc was open source then it would easily have a lot more stars.

        • Chronicon [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          5·
          2 months ago

          yeah I’m glad it exists, people are a bit too eager to shit on things sometimes. Plus the context is kinda “should we recommend this project now” not “is this any good”

          I’m perfectly happy with firefox though, never tried any of these alternative/productivity browsers

    • pop@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      just because the domain name has privacy in it and a forum to discuss, doesn’t make them experts at privacy.

      • RION [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        It’s good to be skeptical but I think they know what they’re talking about. It’s the forum for privacyguides which has been around since 2021, and previously as privacytools since 2015. Many of the people in the thread are active maintainers of the recommendations and knowledge base, where they apply a pretty rigorous set of standards. In fact, I think the only thing you can reasonably knock them for is being too cautious with new tools, but I think that’s a good instinct in this case, especially since you don’t really lose much by waiting to make sure something is legit and not a honeypot or flash in the pan