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)
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?
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
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.
This is fantastic. Thank you. I didn’t know EFF provided this service.
Neat, wasn’t familiar with cover your tracks, super useful!
Shoutout librewolf i b on that whenever the site i want loads lol
Some sites don’t load because of some features disabled in Librewolf. You can enable them and have the sites load, but it defeats the purpose of the Librewolf configuration choices. Nonetheless this is still an option :)
With the current browsers panorama, it’s important to use more than 1 browser. My main browser is Librewolf, then Brave for work, and Mullvad for all the rest. The reason being that almost every site is made to work first on Chrome and everything else is an afterthought (so I use Brave for those).
I am using it as my main browser right now, and I really like it. It replaced Arc Browser on both windows and macOS.
I’m liking it but I’m fully ready to jump back to my faithful Librewolf if Zen proves untrustworthy.
How to prove that you can trust the browser? I’m genuinely asking. It is open source, and people can review the code on GitHub.
But do they?
No.
Generally they don’t and I’m still wary of Zen but as long as they’re staying on the latest FF version and not adding any telemetry of their own then I’m gonna use it.
So, the whole xz backdoor saga was merely a figment of my imagination?
Would be great if there was an arm64 Linux build 🥲
Check out the official website, it explains many more features https://zen-browser.app/
Always like to test out default installed browsers against browseraudit.com.
Score :
- Passed : 396
- Warning : 35
- Critical : 0
- Skipped : 0
Not too shabby
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
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.
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?
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.
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)
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.
I’m on LibreWolf. What made you switch?
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.
I also went from LibreWolf to Zen and I just accepted that my privacy profile is not that harsh; I just hope it’s safe enough.
There is no need to hope! Luckily all firefox based browsers can be hardened, Librewolf is just hardened by default. I recommend using Arkenfox. It can be applied to your default profile or an additional profile.
I would say Zen by default is a bit more private than default Firefox but not by a lot.
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)
Huh, I’m the opposite! I feel like vertical (and tree-style) tabs are useful precisely when you have more tabs
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.
Great, it breaks all the interface conventions. How convenient.
I don’t think the sarcasm is warranted here, it offers a standard interface too but augments it with split browsing as an option
It starts with a full screen window, no window controls… so sorry, it pretty much breaks the expected interface.
I was going to write a snarky comment about how that can’t possibly be true… but then I tried it, and well, yep, really not ideal for non-tiling window managers. I liked the general look and feel, but the fullscreen by default does seem to be a big “no” from me.
signature look of bspwm superiority
Yeah the first run experience really needs to be tweaked so it’s a normal window.
It’s an alpha, so I guess a number of things can still change.
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