Zen Browser: A New Privacy-Focused Browser(Firefox)
Zen Browser: A New Privacy-Focused Browser(Firefox)
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When developers consider their project at "alpha" stage, users should really be wary of the consequences.
So much hype around this browser and everyone touting it, but then, if something breaks and their profile is messed up, then people lose their mind and start cursing the devs.
tldr; It's an alpha build software, and users should treat it as such. Latest build is Alpha build - 1.0.1-a.17 (2024-10-31)
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I'm always skeptical when something is called privacy focused and the article lists no privacy features.
Does this actually provide any new unique privacy features or is it something akin to arkenfox where it is just getting everything upstream from firefox?
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Privacy wise it very much is still Firefox with different defaults (telemetry disabled, do not track enabled), the changes to upstream are mainly the UI and some performance enhancements
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When I first heard about Zen, I've tested it with EFF like I do for all web browsers I experiment with (from most mainstream to most unknown). Unfortunately, it doesn't offer a full privacy.
Not everyone cares, but if this is something important for you, Librewolf has been the only one to come up with a full privacy protection result. Maybe you could achieve a good result if you use Arkenfox with Firefox... I didn't try it.
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I am using it as my main browser right now, and I really like it. It replaced Arc Browser on both windows and macOS.
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Check out the official website, it explains many more features https://zen-browser.app/
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Would be great if there was an arm64 Linux build 🥲
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Always like to test out default installed browsers against browseraudit.com.
Score :
- Passed : 396
- Warning : 35
- Critical : 0
- Skipped : 0
Not too shabby
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First I've heard of browseraudit, thanks for sharing!
EDIT: For comparison I got the same scores on Firefox (duh) and the following on Edge.
Score :
- Passed : 392
- Warning : 39
- Critical : 0
- Skipped : 0
Bonus! Browserbench.org speedometer 3.0 scores:
- Firefox; version 132.0.1 (64-bit)): 13.9
- Firefox nightly; version 134.0a1): 18.6
- Zen; version 1.0.1-a.17 (Firefox 132.0)): 17.6
- Edge; version 130.0.2849.68 (Official build) (64-bit): 19.8
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So keep using Firefox with some addons unless you really really want inbuilt customization? Zen seems to be more about customisation first and privacy second.
So far I'm gonna pass. My librewolf keeps me happy.
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The split view seems really useful. I was actually just fiddling with that on my laptop with two browser windows.
How does this compare to LibreWolf or other Firefox derived projects?
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It is not security hardened from what I can tell. Most of Librewolf's patches could be applied to build Zen with security hardening. Alternatively, patch Zen browser with Arkenfox user.js (upstream project to Librewolf's security hardened default profile)
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I like the idea of split tabs in Zen, but you can't drag and drop tabs to split view like in a canvas, so I just started using compact mode hiding everything and opening 1 tab per window.
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Been using zen for the last month or so and it has been pretty good. I went from using super locked down librewolf to using zen. It is not as private by default but can still be tighten down and with proper support for profiles you can compartmentalize it.
It does break and change a lot since it is in alpha but I used to be an arch user so honestly it doesn't bother me too much.
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I'm on LibreWolf. What made you switch?
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On top of making an effort to be less paranoid, I have also been trying to organize my ADD and having multiple workspaces with vertical tabs really helped me. I have a profile that is manually locked down like librewolf so I am still pretty secure when I need to be.
I do still have librewolf as a backup as my secure clear web browser.
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Been using this as my daily driver for a couple of months now. I really like the vertical tabs for home use (not work where I have far more tabs)
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Huh, I'm the opposite! I feel like vertical (and tree-style) tabs are useful precisely when you have more tabs
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I find vertical tabs to be more useful specifically when I have more tabs. Currently using vertical tabs on Vivaldi and I can see 28 and a half tabs without scrolling, which is pretty alright if you're asking me. And Workspaces are quite helpful for the same reason.
For anyone curious, I currently have 2 workspaces at 8 tabs, 1 at 20, 1 at 25 and one at 82, which comes up to 143 tabs , plus 1 more tab in the default Workspace Vivaldi creates, coming up to 144 tabs.
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Great, it breaks all the interface conventions. How convenient.
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When I first heard about Zen, I've tested it with EFF like I do for all web browsers I experiment with (from most mainstream to most unknown). Unfortunately, it doesn't offer a full privacy.
Not everyone cares, but if this is something important for you, Librewolf has been the only one to come up with a full privacy protection result. Maybe you could achieve a good result if you use Arkenfox with Firefox... I didn't try it.