Deep in a conversation about tabs, I replied detailing some of the stuff I really love about Zen browser, a browser built on Firefox all about helping declutter your internet experience. I've been...
Deep in a conversation about tabs, I replied detailing some of the stuff I really love about Zen browser, a browser built on Firefox all about helping declutter your internet experience. I've been using it for about six months and love it; as someone with ADHD and a whole host of executive dysfunction it really helps in tools to avoid spiraling into 100+ tab balls of doom. I figured others might not have heard of it or might be interested in hearing from someone who's used it, so I figured I'd share it.
I'd be interested to hear about your experiences with Zen or other browsers.
I've been using Zen for a similar amount of time. I do contract work, usually for multiple clients at a time, and having a workspace per project (+ one for not-work and one for my actual business)...
I've been using Zen for a similar amount of time. I do contract work, usually for multiple clients at a time, and having a workspace per project (+ one for not-work and one for my actual business) is a pretty huge boon for context switching. Feels a lot easier to switch back to a project when I can just swipe over to exactly the state of my tabs from when I left off.
I've been using Zen daily (no idea when I started! 6 months ago? A year? Really not sure!) and the remarkable thing is that I just don't even think about using it. It's so good, and does...
I've been using Zen daily (no idea when I started! 6 months ago? A year? Really not sure!) and the remarkable thing is that I just don't even think about using it. It's so good, and does everything I want it to so effortlessly, that I totally forget that I ever used anything else, or even that I'm using an unusual browser at all! I switched from Firefox so under the hood everything works the same way it always did which probably helps that, but even so, now that you mention it, it's impressive how stable and well-made it is for such a small project!
This in contrast to e.g. Qutebrowser which I use on a hobby laptop, where I constantly have to find ways around problems and have to consult documentation to work out how to do things. Which isn't surprising given how very different that particular browser is – but I suppose I want to emphasise that Zen isn't just a wacky bleeding edge experiment for developers and enthusiasts with ideological browser preferences, but rather something I could recommend to a great many people.
I used Zen for a few months as well and have had a positive experience. I love the minimal UI and it satisfied my desire to have an Arc-like browser without the Chromium. My browser usage now is...
I used Zen for a few months as well and have had a positive experience. I love the minimal UI and it satisfied my desire to have an Arc-like browser without the Chromium.
My browser usage now is all over the place haha. On my iPhone, I now use Safari directly. I've actually gotten used to its Liquid Glass minimalist UI and actually prefer now to the, frankly clunky, Firefox UI on iOS. On my personal laptop, I've found myself using Chromium as it plays YouTube videos the best on the Thinkpad hardware. On my work laptop, on the occasion I need to do some personal browsing, I also use Safari here. It's functional enough, the only complaint I have is I find the tab management a bit lackluster. I'd much prefer everything be in one line like the Orion browser does.
I used to exclusively use Firefox on all platforms but I've found things to load noticeably slower on FF for some reason.
I started using Zen on my home laptop back in maybe December, so three months or so? Found out about it on a recommendation somewhere here on Tildes. It's been great. It took some time to get used...
I started using Zen on my home laptop back in maybe December, so three months or so? Found out about it on a recommendation somewhere here on Tildes. It's been great. It took some time to get used to the side-oriented tabs, but I really like the workspace organization and multiple levels of pinned-ness.
I have a couple gripes, but they're minor.
While I have a few workspaces for specific projects, I have a "general" workspace for random / everyday / fun things, and I wish there was a way to organize those better.
Bookmarks are a bit of a pain to get to. I wind up just typing addresses most of the time.
The big empty space on the bottom-left (under the tabs) can be used to drag the whole window around the screen, and I wind up doing that by accident all the time. (Maybe I need to get more used to compact mode.)
Yeah, I've found a similar thing with workspaces. I set up a few different ones but I rarely if ever actually switch between them, I find I mostly just work from my general one and use folders...
Yeah, I've found a similar thing with workspaces. I set up a few different ones but I rarely if ever actually switch between them, I find I mostly just work from my general one and use folders instead.
I'm someone who needs things visible or I forget about them, and so tab folders work a lot better for me than bookmarks, I've found
Is Zen any good for development? I assume it’s got Firefox’s dev tools baked into it? I’m also curious if it supports userChrome.css UI customization (or something equivalent).
Is Zen any good for development? I assume it’s got Firefox’s dev tools baked into it?
I’m also curious if it supports userChrome.css UI customization (or something equivalent).
Yep, full access to Firefox dev tools. I was doing some fairly intense UserScript injection (Tampermonkey and the like) around the time I switched from firefox and didn't really notice a change in...
Yep, full access to Firefox dev tools. I was doing some fairly intense UserScript injection (Tampermonkey and the like) around the time I switched from firefox and didn't really notice a change in capability.
I'm afraid I can't comment on userChrome.css, I haven't heard of that before, but I know that it has Zen mods, which are kind of like browser extensions but exclusively CSS. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any information on the inner workings and limitations of mods at the moment, but you can see some of the stuff people have made here: https://zen-browser.app/mods/
Cool, thanks for confirming. Looks like userChrome.css is supported with some kind of live-editing feature, which sounds useful. I’m tempted to switch but it’s hard to overcome the momentum of my...
Cool, thanks for confirming. Looks like userChrome.css is supported with some kind of live-editing feature, which sounds useful. I’m tempted to switch but it’s hard to overcome the momentum of my current browser. I use Firefox Developer Edition and have a lot of things dialed in just how I like them. Tons of open tabs I would lose too, but of course that’s part of the problem and the reason why Zen looks interesting.
I'd suggest not trying to ship over, but instead keep your existing browser and just port stuff across as you use it; I initially tried to bring all of my existing open stuff in and it was a nasty...
I'd suggest not trying to ship over, but instead keep your existing browser and just port stuff across as you use it; I initially tried to bring all of my existing open stuff in and it was a nasty experience.
Two browsers during a transition period could be a bit of a pain, but if your experience is anything like mine the benefits of Zen will massively outweigh the cost of the friction of changing and you'll quickly only want to use Zen.
Deep in a conversation about tabs, I replied detailing some of the stuff I really love about Zen browser, a browser built on Firefox all about helping declutter your internet experience. I've been using it for about six months and love it; as someone with ADHD and a whole host of executive dysfunction it really helps in tools to avoid spiraling into 100+ tab balls of doom. I figured others might not have heard of it or might be interested in hearing from someone who's used it, so I figured I'd share it.
I'd be interested to hear about your experiences with Zen or other browsers.
I've been using Zen for a similar amount of time. I do contract work, usually for multiple clients at a time, and having a workspace per project (+ one for not-work and one for my actual business) is a pretty huge boon for context switching. Feels a lot easier to switch back to a project when I can just swipe over to exactly the state of my tabs from when I left off.
I've been using Zen daily (no idea when I started! 6 months ago? A year? Really not sure!) and the remarkable thing is that I just don't even think about using it. It's so good, and does everything I want it to so effortlessly, that I totally forget that I ever used anything else, or even that I'm using an unusual browser at all! I switched from Firefox so under the hood everything works the same way it always did which probably helps that, but even so, now that you mention it, it's impressive how stable and well-made it is for such a small project!
This in contrast to e.g. Qutebrowser which I use on a hobby laptop, where I constantly have to find ways around problems and have to consult documentation to work out how to do things. Which isn't surprising given how very different that particular browser is – but I suppose I want to emphasise that Zen isn't just a wacky bleeding edge experiment for developers and enthusiasts with ideological browser preferences, but rather something I could recommend to a great many people.
I used Zen for a few months as well and have had a positive experience. I love the minimal UI and it satisfied my desire to have an Arc-like browser without the Chromium.
My browser usage now is all over the place haha. On my iPhone, I now use Safari directly. I've actually gotten used to its Liquid Glass minimalist UI and actually prefer now to the, frankly clunky, Firefox UI on iOS. On my personal laptop, I've found myself using Chromium as it plays YouTube videos the best on the Thinkpad hardware. On my work laptop, on the occasion I need to do some personal browsing, I also use Safari here. It's functional enough, the only complaint I have is I find the tab management a bit lackluster. I'd much prefer everything be in one line like the Orion browser does.
I used to exclusively use Firefox on all platforms but I've found things to load noticeably slower on FF for some reason.
I started using Zen on my home laptop back in maybe December, so three months or so? Found out about it on a recommendation somewhere here on Tildes. It's been great. It took some time to get used to the side-oriented tabs, but I really like the workspace organization and multiple levels of pinned-ness.
I have a couple gripes, but they're minor.
Yeah, I've found a similar thing with workspaces. I set up a few different ones but I rarely if ever actually switch between them, I find I mostly just work from my general one and use folders instead.
I'm someone who needs things visible or I forget about them, and so tab folders work a lot better for me than bookmarks, I've found
Is Zen any good for development? I assume it’s got Firefox’s dev tools baked into it?
I’m also curious if it supports
userChrome.cssUI customization (or something equivalent).Yep, full access to Firefox dev tools. I was doing some fairly intense UserScript injection (Tampermonkey and the like) around the time I switched from firefox and didn't really notice a change in capability.
I'm afraid I can't comment on
userChrome.css, I haven't heard of that before, but I know that it has Zen mods, which are kind of like browser extensions but exclusively CSS. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any information on the inner workings and limitations of mods at the moment, but you can see some of the stuff people have made here: https://zen-browser.app/mods/Cool, thanks for confirming. Looks like userChrome.css is supported with some kind of live-editing feature, which sounds useful. I’m tempted to switch but it’s hard to overcome the momentum of my current browser. I use Firefox Developer Edition and have a lot of things dialed in just how I like them. Tons of open tabs I would lose too, but of course that’s part of the problem and the reason why Zen looks interesting.
I'd suggest not trying to ship over, but instead keep your existing browser and just port stuff across as you use it; I initially tried to bring all of my existing open stuff in and it was a nasty experience.
Two browsers during a transition period could be a bit of a pain, but if your experience is anything like mine the benefits of Zen will massively outweigh the cost of the friction of changing and you'll quickly only want to use Zen.