i guess its a bug. but for a way to go around it is just simply select dark mode from the "Manage Zen Browser Themes Extension and Themes" option. not from the website apperence option/toggle
@@sahilsharma2867 I just installed it and it showed up as an option for default browser under KDE. It does have a generic Wayland icon which is a bit annoying but it's the only app that has the generic icon though so it's not too big a deal.
4:39 The reason the theme did not appear to apply is because you are in light mode. If you were in dark mode, the theme would apply other layers. Certain themes have different effects depending on what mode you are in. You were SO close in 5:12 but then you didn't keep dark mode enabled. Hope this helps!
As far as I could tell, dark mode didn't apply to the browser. Only the settings page. I doubt the theme would have worked even if he did have dark mode selected. I'm not sure what caused dark mode to not apply properly though. I never had any issue with it.
It has lot of potential. I loved arc but I like my bookmarks to be in horizontal folders and my tabs at the left. On Arc I need to scroll a lot top and bottom to access new tabs and my pinned tabs.
it doesn't have the main features of arc, it just has side tabs. the main point of arc for me is the pinned tabs that are a hybrid between tabs and bookmarks
Yea exactly! I dont understand why people dont see this, but arc isnt just "side bar", the pinned tabs/bookmarks are a game changer... If zen will add something like this then yea, I'll probably switch
That's not a valid reason. Zen is just better in every other way, it has better performance, better customization, and other things. That's simply one thing that doesn't really matter.
@@abook8400 better performance is questionable, browsers aren't things you can just test against each other like that anyway. It's also not quite polished yet, so I wouldn't say it is better than Arc in "every other way", the features in Arc have better UX than anything that Zen has shipped right now, you can somewhat get there due to the big customization capabilities of Firefox/Zen however it is tedious to have to do so when there's a browser that does it just right anyway.
@abook8400 but you cant work with multiple profiles in the same window on zen the way you can do on arc, thats my favorite feature that i gave up chrome for, i hated getting lost in multiple windows with it and zen works the same
Unless I'm missing something this sidebar functionality seem closer to what Safari, Orion, Vivaldi or even just Firefox with certain extension than the innovative re-thinking of tabs/favorites/pinned of Arc. So I find the comparison quite strange. SigmaOS (such a cringe name) *does* have some tab organisation functionality that seems somewhat closer to Arc.
Exactly, this is what makes Arc the winner for me and why it's the browser that I use. The fact that bookmarks ARE tabs that just have a persistent place in the sidebar is the whole selling point. In fact, if it don't have that, sidebar tabs actually feel worse to me, because their names are taking up more screen real estate without giving me any additional benefits.
I love Arc, and the way it handles workspaces, bookmarks, and multiple windows. I would just end my search there except that I use linux on my desktop, so I need an alternative. This looks like it gets closer than anything else I've found. I have been using Vivaldi, but I'll give Zen a shot and see how it goes.
Vertical tabs and a good design isn't enough to replace arc. Main feature I like about arc is that it helps me organize tabs, by allowing me to move pinned tabs to folders and keeping them around when they closed. Firefox with tree style tabs or sideberry does a better job (even better that arc in some cases, since I can put tabs inside other tabs without creating folders), but still missing a "temorary" tabs section. This browser though still has potential, and in their site they at least promised "tab groups".
Honestly Vivaldi is king of tab management my only complaints are that it is yet another chromium thing, minor one but i prefer when browsers use more interesting engines, and that the design just never works for me even with heavy modding and customization. And that it just feels slower to use than most gecko based browsers or even Chrome itself. I keep trying to replace Vivaldi but i keep coming back to it, Zen is a good browser but i still default to using Vivaldi for some stuff, Zen is more of a media center for me rn while vivaldi is more of a work browser
For me it wasn't when I tried it - It's just the same tab management for chrome with added ability to switch between workspaces, and "stack tabs" (basicly tab groups). So you only have 2 levels of nesting, and it's not the best visually It's not the same as the ability to actually organize you tabs that you have with sideberry on firefox/floorp, or the hypothetical "best" version of the arc (I'm on windows, so I don't have that "best" version). But it's been some time since I tried - maybe something changed. In theory - if you move tab bar to the side and use "2-level tabs" mode - it could work (I didn't like it when I tried it, but that was before I learned how good the vertical tabs actually are). Also - vivaldi kept crashing on me when I had a lot of tabs. Although Arc for windows is MUCH worse in that sense - it not only crashes, but makes some tabs invisible sometimes, and the scroll in the tab bar becomes laggy and unresponsive. And the design, yes, was a bit outdated.
There's one thing that ARC does that Zen doesn't do. I want to be able to stick a tab in the sidebar and have it almost act like a bookmark. When I navigate to another page, it doesn't mess up the existing bookmark/tab (I don't know what to call it because in Arc it's like it's both a bookmark and a tab)
It's avai on Firefox and is called Pinned tabs (if I understand what you're describing correctly) - I imagine Zen should have it since it seems to inherit pretty much every other Firefox features based on what's shown in this video.
@@irfanhazza Does pinned tabs allow for organisation using folders? I really think people don't get quite the value proposition of Arc's sidebar. It's a complete re-imagining of how tabs/pinned/favorites work and it *alone* makes the Arc browser as far as I'm concerned. Once you really use said functionality anything else seems barbaric by comparison. I really hope this functionality becomes common in browsers.
@@torb-no From what I can see folders is literally just tree-style tabs which has existed in extensions and in vivaldi since forever. The favourites in Arc are equivalent to pinned tabs in firefox since they open in new tabs. The only differentiating factor about arc I can see is that it has a cool skin for all of these features.
@@firestormjupiter Which extension? I'm more of a fan of that the organisation feature than I am of Arc itself and having more browser options are cool. I do expect to be dissapointed though, a lot of people don't seem to grasp the depth of Arc's tabs/pinned/etc things. Would be genuinly happy to be proven wrong though!
@@torb-no The "Tree Style Tab" extension. It's very popular and you might already know it, but from what I know it basically does the same things as Arc's folders.
Zen browser is a game changer for me. I have a laptop with limited vertical space, which makes web browsing difficult when the tabs are at the top of the screen, especially when the windows Taskbar is on the bottom. However, I have made my Taskbar appear on the left, and the left sidebar on Zen browser means that I can use all the vertical space of my laptop when browsing the web, I no longer feel cramped on my laptop, and it actually has made me consider keeping it for even longer. It's otherwise not a bad laptop, just a little cramped some times.
Nope. I can't stand sidebars either. If I were to use them, I'd prefer them on the right though. I don't know if these browsers offer that as an option.
The biggest issue for me for arc is that it isn't available on Linux. as soon as a browser can't be used on one of my devices it's a huge issue because of syncing. Zen gets around this because it uses your firefox account to sync so it works perfectly for me.
3:50 I've been using it for the past 2 months on Linux and never encountered that light UI in dark mode. maybe try restarting the browser when you enable the option?
Whether or not a browser has side tabs has become a deal breaker for me in the last few years. And because of that I haven't used Chrome in a while. The one thing about Arc that I absolutely love is combining tabs and bookmarks. A win in my opinion.
The fact Arc is chromium based was the main reason I didn't want to use it. I downloaded Zen as soon as I saw it and I've been using it since and I'm very happy with it, except for a few bugs here and there, though it's still offering better overall usability than Floorp that I used before.
@@Yawne. Different rendering engines and JS engines. Some functionalities may not be supported in either of those so it's good to develop webapps that fully work on those 2 and maybe even include safari if your clients will be using that also
People really dislike Edge because of Microsoft, but it is really the best chromium browser out there if you don't care about telemetry, which being fair, I doubt anybody using Arc does anyway lol
Zen still has several bugs, it has crashed a couple of times and I had to restart. But I liked its functionality. I am testing it together with Arc, the experience of use is similar for me.
I don't understand why Arc or this one is better than what we already have, it's just different ways of showing tabs and thats almost all, if it is for the AI it actually isn't that great feature that they sell
Become a software dev, let it sink in for about 5-7 years, try out a browser with a good sidebar and tell me how you like to search for your tabs - Of which you will have hundreds.
This feels like where arc was 1-2 years ago. There are just too many startups and projects out there that don't survive, so if they haven't already raised money or are planning to soon, it's too much risk to take to migrate there for a semi-broken experience where most of the best features will likely come in the next year (or never).
It is open source and free, the only money it has received so far is from donations, and it is mainly just one person developing it for about 2 months so far. Also, it's an Alpha, although it works pretty well as far as I've used it. Yes, several things are still missing, but the fact that it's one person running almost everything is amazing.
@@pkcarrenoyup totally agree it’s impressive as a one-person project, but it’s the same reason I wouldn’t make one of the most important apps in my work and life dependent on one person or a small team. I wouldn’t buy a phone from a 20 person team either. Just feels precarious and not a serious enterprise-level project.
It's more of a 6-7 person project now btw, and lots of bugs have been fixed the past two weeks. As for features, Tab Groups will be supported by this month according to the devs. They're also working on getting Widevine DRM now!
I was stunned by how poor the split screen functionality is. You can’t open new splits, you have to select tabs in the sidebar then split, and the sidebar doesn’t tell you which tabs are grouped.
Using it since some weeks, it's been great so far! I am on Linux so there is no Arc for me and Zen promised to be a fresh new alternative. So far I am having a great experience with it.
I used arc on windows and it was very disappointing and after the whole controversy involving data i decided to delete my arc account and move to Zen, it being a firefox-based browser was great for me since i prefer it over chromium and the mods are a nice way to customize it
I've been using it for almost a month. I really like it especially as windows user where Arc is not that good (and it's chromium) The thing that i like about it the most is it's an Alpha version There's a lot of updates (they are small about 65Mo) and you can see features been added, and bugs been fixed, UI changes. There's some annoying bugs that may a counter from time to time but it's not a big deal
Been going back and forth between this and Firefox Nightly for vertical tabs, I'm really a big fan of both. Enjoyed Arc quite a bit but seems like development is gonna halt so might as well decide on my next daily driver.
the fact that it has all the features of arc on everyy and i mean everyy OS except phones which Firefox/arc takes care of that which is a big step forward from arc on windows which keep in mind is the MOST used OS with all the features of arc definitely trying it out
i do hope this browser will become stable and last long. It fixes some of the UI/UX problem i have with Arc: opens new tab at the bottom instead of the top, and the tabs' font size looks and feels just right, not comically large on Arc. This might be a great Arc replacement for me.
I probably would've used this browser if I found out about it before I got comfortable with firefox + sidebery (though you have to tinker with firefox css to get rid of the horizontal tabs)
damn, not being able to stream netflix and other stuff is a bummer. Feels like I can completly ditch my older browser completly for this. Still, I'm gonna give it a try and see if its something I'll miss or not
I admit I started to skip through some parts of the video, but it just seems like it has parity with Arc features and they're maybe slightly more complicated to set up. It also felt like every little bit you were calling out how it's in beta or you want to show something but it has a bug right now. Not your fault, but probably good to refresh this when they have a more polished version. Interesting how you can't stream stuff in the browser. I assume because of the built in screenshots? I know if you try to screenshot DRM content it just blacks out the result. Kind of a big miss that this browser just doesn't support it at all. I love to hear about cool new apps, but TBH I think you buried the lede on this? What's your top feature, or what do you love about using this particular browser? The title says it's the most compelling one but I didn't feel like there was anything too compelling here.
💙💙💙 the Arc browser but I love even more the face that there is NO Google in this! So I will 100% giving this a go. Might be nice if you did a follow up Matt of what this is like to use month or two but with an eye on the dev side. I'm gonna assume that Zen will just use Firefoxes standard dev tools like Arc used Googles? DRM, not a deal breaker myself, bummer yes, I wonder with enough popularity in time that wont be an issue?
I have a question you may not be able to answer, but I have been in between arc, zen, and opera for my windows 11 laptop, whenever I am using zen there is this thick padding/border around the webpage that I didn't see in your video, I don't know if I did something or maybe that's how the windows version operates, but it is driving me nuts because its cutting off so much of whatever I am on. Do you maybe know how to correct this?
The biggest feature from Arc that I haven't seen replicated (fully) in any other browser is Air Traffic Control. Does anyone know how to get it for Zen? I've since switched back to Safari and there's "Open Links With Profile", although you have to have a tab open and manually go in and set it, so it's not as easy to configure up front. Would REALLY like ATC ported over so I can differentiate which sites open to which profiles more efficiently!
I don’t think Arc is an option anymore since they announced they will not be adding anything new to the browser anymore. They are now moving on to a new browser they are creating 😂
I'm never happy with browsers. I've tried other newer types of browsers but didn't take to them. Zen feels different in that it offers enough new ideas and features while still having a comfortable familiarity to it. It's quite polished for an alpha and though I've only been using it for a few hours but it has already become my favorite. Which if you know me that's really something!
Tbh i'm kind of struggling to see the point of the video (ok it's nice to show a new browser) but I don't see one good differentiation factor compared to the current ones in the market). Arc added value was clear, here i'm struggling to get it. (being built on top of Firefox, as cool as it can be is not a good added value unfortunately )
I only use arc or zen because the browsing experience is feel more "full" unlike average browsers who just put address bar and tab on top of it and you can't hide it
zen is cool i just wish it had a lot of the features arc did also the side bar for me the text is too small and it just hard to kinda read idk why and also i really wish i can get a UI that looks like edge lol
I'm pretty sure the themes didn't worked because you were in light mode. I mean it's kind of logical that dark themes would only be compatible with the dark mode so that light mode is still usable.
It looks like the alpha version of Arc without Chromium (huge negative for kost people). Well done whoever made it, but why use this instead of just using Arc, doesn't make sense. And it not allowing for DRM alone is a complete deal breaker for anyone lol
i installed it and i like it but i wont switch from chrome right now because for some reason it heats up my pc to like 70 degrees C...even though i have less tabs than on chrome. Watched the same stream with the same quality. It also used up a bit more ram like 100-150more but eh. Chrome is like 50-60C while watching 1080 60 (laptop. thats why its so hot)
the problem for me with zen right now is only about drm content, i don't want to switch to another browser just to watch drm content. and with this i still hold myself not to use zen until they support drm content
Enjoying it a great deal, still has the notorious memory leak issues that have plagued FF since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. If some intrepid soul could find a way to port the Cog extension from Chrome it would completely have Us. All of Firefox's tab management extensions are lacking.
Not sure I'm fond of anything on Firefox. They're always the last to get certain web features that devs use to build their web applications. And as a web developer, I can't have that.
3:45 Zen does have proper complete DARK MODE, for that First, select dark mode in, look and feel page in the settings page And then, select the dark theme in the extensions and themes page in the settings page
3:40 That's a bug, the UI is supposed to become fully dark when you select dark mode. Check if you don't have a Zen Mod affecting it.
as of date Fully dark works on Windows
i guess its a bug. but for a way to go around it is just simply select dark mode from the "Manage Zen Browser Themes Extension and Themes" option. not from the website apperence option/toggle
Yeah that doesn't happen with mine
I’ve been using it as my personal browser (with FF for work) for months now. I’ve had no issues on Fedora 39 and 40
The DRM functionality works on Linux which is probably why it works best there.
@@terminallyonline5296oh
I haven’t tried lately but Netflix wasn’t working on earlier windows build
Since it is only available as a flatpak on fedora, how you make applications direct to zen browser as your default browser
@@sahilsharma2867 I just installed it and it showed up as an option for default browser under KDE. It does have a generic Wayland icon which is a bit annoying but it's the only app that has the generic icon though so it's not too big a deal.
@@sahilsharma2867 There's a copr repo I use. sneexy/zen-browser. You want the zen-browser-avx2 package.
The other problem with DRM is even if you have the money, you have to be an actual company and even then you might not get a license
Sigma OS is a small browser (and company) and has DRM support.
4:39 The reason the theme did not appear to apply is because you are in light mode. If you were in dark mode, the theme would apply other layers. Certain themes have different effects depending on what mode you are in. You were SO close in 5:12 but then you didn't keep dark mode enabled. Hope this helps!
As far as I could tell, dark mode didn't apply to the browser. Only the settings page.
I doubt the theme would have worked even if he did have dark mode selected.
I'm not sure what caused dark mode to not apply properly though. I never had any issue with it.
@@temanor happened with me when i first downloaded. i think you need to restart the app
It has lot of potential. I loved arc but I like my bookmarks to be in horizontal folders and my tabs at the left. On Arc I need to scroll a lot top and bottom to access new tabs and my pinned tabs.
Yeah, that's why switch back to Chrome. The scroll is not good.
@@oxyht Try Thorium, it's a highly optimised fork of Chrome 👍
@@oxyht What? Did you say you just switched to Chrome? Please tell me you didn't switch back to Chrome.
Edge is the one browser that does this right, vertical tabs and horizontal bookmarks
it doesn't have the main features of arc, it just has side tabs. the main point of arc for me is the pinned tabs that are a hybrid between tabs and bookmarks
Yea exactly! I dont understand why people dont see this, but arc isnt just "side bar", the pinned tabs/bookmarks are a game changer... If zen will add something like this then yea, I'll probably switch
That's not a valid reason. Zen is just better in every other way, it has better performance, better customization, and other things. That's simply one thing that doesn't really matter.
@@PaoloLunardon People don't see this because it's not a big deal. You're nitpicking over one feature so much that it seems like you're glazing Arc.
@@abook8400 better performance is questionable, browsers aren't things you can just test against each other like that anyway. It's also not quite polished yet, so I wouldn't say it is better than Arc in "every other way", the features in Arc have better UX than anything that Zen has shipped right now, you can somewhat get there due to the big customization capabilities of Firefox/Zen however it is tedious to have to do so when there's a browser that does it just right anyway.
@abook8400 but you cant work with multiple profiles in the same window on zen the way you can do on arc, thats my favorite feature that i gave up chrome for, i hated getting lost in multiple windows with it and zen works the same
Unless I'm missing something this sidebar functionality seem closer to what Safari, Orion, Vivaldi or even just Firefox with certain extension than the innovative re-thinking of tabs/favorites/pinned of Arc. So I find the comparison quite strange. SigmaOS (such a cringe name) *does* have some tab organisation functionality that seems somewhat closer to Arc.
SigmaOS really has like the worst name of any browser every
Exactly, this is what makes Arc the winner for me and why it's the browser that I use. The fact that bookmarks ARE tabs that just have a persistent place in the sidebar is the whole selling point. In fact, if it don't have that, sidebar tabs actually feel worse to me, because their names are taking up more screen real estate without giving me any additional benefits.
You guys know that the word sigma doesnt only have that one meaning made up by young people recently, righ?
@@corvacopiaoh not you too
@ Hah, fair fair. I still don’t think SigmaOS is a great name though.
I love Arc, and the way it handles workspaces, bookmarks, and multiple windows. I would just end my search there except that I use linux on my desktop, so I need an alternative. This looks like it gets closer than anything else I've found. I have been using Vivaldi, but I'll give Zen a shot and see how it goes.
Same me, need a browser that can run on Linux and macOS, and I used tovifun/VivalArc theme to make Vivaldi like Arc browser.
I don't see anything here that Vivaldi can't do already.
@@torb-no0 aura name tho
Zen is available for Linux.
You use Vivaldi, your opinion is not valuable, here.
Vertical tabs and a good design isn't enough to replace arc. Main feature I like about arc is that it helps me organize tabs, by allowing me to move pinned tabs to folders and keeping them around when they closed. Firefox with tree style tabs or sideberry does a better job (even better that arc in some cases, since I can put tabs inside other tabs without creating folders), but still missing a "temorary" tabs section.
This browser though still has potential, and in their site they at least promised "tab groups".
Is enough for windows
Honestly Vivaldi is king of tab management my only complaints are that it is yet another chromium thing, minor one but i prefer when browsers use more interesting engines, and that the design just never works for me even with heavy modding and customization. And that it just feels slower to use than most gecko based browsers or even Chrome itself. I keep trying to replace Vivaldi but i keep coming back to it, Zen is a good browser but i still default to using Vivaldi for some stuff, Zen is more of a media center for me rn while vivaldi is more of a work browser
For me it wasn't when I tried it - It's just the same tab management for chrome with added ability to switch between workspaces, and "stack tabs" (basicly tab groups). So you only have 2 levels of nesting, and it's not the best visually It's not the same as the ability to actually organize you tabs that you have with sideberry on firefox/floorp, or the hypothetical "best" version of the arc (I'm on windows, so I don't have that "best" version).
But it's been some time since I tried - maybe something changed. In theory - if you move tab bar to the side and use "2-level tabs" mode - it could work (I didn't like it when I tried it, but that was before I learned how good the vertical tabs actually are).
Also - vivaldi kept crashing on me when I had a lot of tabs. Although Arc for windows is MUCH worse in that sense - it not only crashes, but makes some tabs invisible sometimes, and the scroll in the tab bar becomes laggy and unresponsive.
And the design, yes, was a bit outdated.
ngl its enough to replace Arc on Windows lmao Arc on Windows is shit
I think zen is better simply because it is based on gecko
There's one thing that ARC does that Zen doesn't do. I want to be able to stick a tab in the sidebar and have it almost act like a bookmark. When I navigate to another page, it doesn't mess up the existing bookmark/tab (I don't know what to call it because in Arc it's like it's both a bookmark and a tab)
It's avai on Firefox and is called Pinned tabs (if I understand what you're describing correctly) - I imagine Zen should have it since it seems to inherit pretty much every other Firefox features based on what's shown in this video.
@@irfanhazza Does pinned tabs allow for organisation using folders? I really think people don't get quite the value proposition of Arc's sidebar. It's a complete re-imagining of how tabs/pinned/favorites work and it *alone* makes the Arc browser as far as I'm concerned. Once you really use said functionality anything else seems barbaric by comparison. I really hope this functionality becomes common in browsers.
@@torb-no From what I can see folders is literally just tree-style tabs which has existed in extensions and in vivaldi since forever. The favourites in Arc are equivalent to pinned tabs in firefox since they open in new tabs. The only differentiating factor about arc I can see is that it has a cool skin for all of these features.
@@firestormjupiter Which extension? I'm more of a fan of that the organisation feature than I am of Arc itself and having more browser options are cool.
I do expect to be dissapointed though, a lot of people don't seem to grasp the depth of Arc's tabs/pinned/etc things. Would be genuinly happy to be proven wrong though!
@@torb-no The "Tree Style Tab" extension. It's very popular and you might already know it, but from what I know it basically does the same things as Arc's folders.
Zen browser is a game changer for me. I have a laptop with limited vertical space, which makes web browsing difficult when the tabs are at the top of the screen, especially when the windows Taskbar is on the bottom. However, I have made my Taskbar appear on the left, and the left sidebar on Zen browser means that I can use all the vertical space of my laptop when browsing the web, I no longer feel cramped on my laptop, and it actually has made me consider keeping it for even longer. It's otherwise not a bad laptop, just a little cramped some times.
FF also has this option but you need to go to about:config to set it up
Am I the only one who just doesn't like these browsers with sidebars?
It's not for everyone and that's ok. I'd say most people prefer horizontal tabs.
Nope. I can't stand sidebars either. If I were to use them, I'd prefer them on the right though. I don't know if these browsers offer that as an option.
@@paladintom Zen does offer that from my time using it, although I stuck with using it on the left
Tabs in the sidebar take up significantly more screen real estate
Well sidebar has its pros and cons though
You might have a Firefox theme applied along with the Zen theme. I had that issue, and turning it off fixed things.
I was an arc user on windows, but recently switched to linux and zen has saved me (i was obsessed with arc)
The biggest issue for me for arc is that it isn't available on Linux. as soon as a browser can't be used on one of my devices it's a huge issue because of syncing. Zen gets around this because it uses your firefox account to sync so it works perfectly for me.
3:50 I've been using it for the past 2 months on Linux and never encountered that light UI in dark mode. maybe try restarting the browser when you enable the option?
Whether or not a browser has side tabs has become a deal breaker for me in the last few years. And because of that I haven't used Chrome in a while. The one thing about Arc that I absolutely love is combining tabs and bookmarks. A win in my opinion.
The fact Arc is chromium based was the main reason I didn't want to use it. I downloaded Zen as soon as I saw it and I've been using it since and I'm very happy with it, except for a few bugs here and there, though it's still offering better overall usability than Floorp that I used before.
So brave browser for chromium and Zen for firefox underneath? Ok. As a developer, I have no choice but to use both.
Why would you want to use both? Asking as a learning developer
@@Yawne. Different engine rendering. Different behaviour on the same code. Browser Support. Look into that keyword.
@@Yawne. Different rendering engines and JS engines. Some functionalities may not be supported in either of those so it's good to develop webapps that fully work on those 2 and maybe even include safari if your clients will be using that also
People really dislike Edge because of Microsoft, but it is really the best chromium browser out there if you don't care about telemetry, which being fair, I doubt anybody using Arc does anyway lol
Thanks for not being a scummie ignoring firefox
Zen still has several bugs, it has crashed a couple of times and I had to restart. But I liked its functionality.
I am testing it together with Arc, the experience of use is similar for me.
No crashes on my Win11, bro
Thank you for that video man! It's my main browser for 1.5 months now and it's just destroying all my previous browser experience
I don't understand why Arc or this one is better than what we already have, it's just different ways of showing tabs and thats almost all, if it is for the AI it actually isn't that great feature that they sell
Become a software dev, let it sink in for about 5-7 years, try out a browser with a good sidebar and tell me how you like to search for your tabs - Of which you will have hundreds.
This feels like where arc was 1-2 years ago. There are just too many startups and projects out there that don't survive, so if they haven't already raised money or are planning to soon, it's too much risk to take to migrate there for a semi-broken experience where most of the best features will likely come in the next year (or never).
It is open source and free, the only money it has received so far is from donations, and it is mainly just one person developing it for about 2 months so far. Also, it's an Alpha, although it works pretty well as far as I've used it. Yes, several things are still missing, but the fact that it's one person running almost everything is amazing.
@@pkcarrenoyup totally agree it’s impressive as a one-person project, but it’s the same reason I wouldn’t make one of the most important apps in my work and life dependent on one person or a small team. I wouldn’t buy a phone from a 20 person team either. Just feels precarious and not a serious enterprise-level project.
It’s also really extensible, it’s basically obsidian with plug-ins vs notion
It's more of a 6-7 person project now btw, and lots of bugs have been fixed the past two weeks. As for features, Tab Groups will be supported by this month according to the devs. They're also working on getting Widevine DRM now!
I think Arc Windows is where Arc was 1-2 years ago so I don't mind lol
Which Zen Mods you are using mate?
Really like the UI of your Zen Browser!
I was stunned by how poor the split screen functionality is. You can’t open new splits, you have to select tabs in the sidebar then split, and the sidebar doesn’t tell you which tabs are grouped.
You should check montly new things they improve
Nice to see another browser with the profile container thingy. It should be standard on all browsers.
Using it since some weeks, it's been great so far! I am on Linux so there is no Arc for me and Zen promised to be a fresh new alternative. So far I am having a great experience with it.
I used arc on windows and it was very disappointing and after the whole controversy involving data i decided to delete my arc account and move to Zen, it being a firefox-based browser was great for me since i prefer it over chromium and the mods are a nice way to customize it
I've been using it for almost a month.
I really like it especially as windows user where Arc is not that good (and it's chromium)
The thing that i like about it the most is it's an Alpha version
There's a lot of updates (they are small about 65Mo) and you can see features been added, and bugs been fixed, UI changes.
There's some annoying bugs that may a counter from time to time but it's not a big deal
Been going back and forth between this and Firefox Nightly for vertical tabs, I'm really a big fan of both. Enjoyed Arc quite a bit but seems like development is gonna halt so might as well decide on my next daily driver.
the fact that it has all the features of arc on everyy and i mean everyy OS except phones which Firefox/arc takes care of that which is a big step forward from arc on windows which keep in mind is the MOST used OS with all the features of arc definitely trying it out
Dudes with studio/podcast microphones go crazy for a web browser with vertical tabs
i have been using it for a while and the new update is actually amazing
i do hope this browser will become stable and last long. It fixes some of the UI/UX problem i have with Arc: opens new tab at the bottom instead of the top, and the tabs' font size looks and feels just right, not comically large on Arc. This might be a great Arc replacement for me.
I probably would've used this browser if I found out about it before I got comfortable with firefox + sidebery (though you have to tinker with firefox css to get rid of the horizontal tabs)
I aint switching to another sensational browser. still on firefox with treestyle tabs
damn, not being able to stream netflix and other stuff is a bummer. Feels like I can completly ditch my older browser completly for this. Still, I'm gonna give it a try and see if its something I'll miss or not
Nightly have lateral tabs, and waterfox have DRM and work all
The DRM issue is a bummer. Quest continues to find a alternate browser.
I tried Zen Browser for a while but it wasn't for me, I'll just stick to Firefox.
I bet you didnt disable the spyware
My security app blocks zen from downloading. It says it's infected. 🤷♂🤷♂
It seems don't have many differences with the Arc browser, maybe I will try to use this browser in the feature
I wanted to like Arc so badly but for whatever reason I kept going back to Safari so I just gave up.
Arc is already a dead project
I admit I started to skip through some parts of the video, but it just seems like it has parity with Arc features and they're maybe slightly more complicated to set up. It also felt like every little bit you were calling out how it's in beta or you want to show something but it has a bug right now. Not your fault, but probably good to refresh this when they have a more polished version.
Interesting how you can't stream stuff in the browser. I assume because of the built in screenshots? I know if you try to screenshot DRM content it just blacks out the result. Kind of a big miss that this browser just doesn't support it at all.
I love to hear about cool new apps, but TBH I think you buried the lede on this? What's your top feature, or what do you love about using this particular browser? The title says it's the most compelling one but I didn't feel like there was anything too compelling here.
💙💙💙 the Arc browser but I love even more the face that there is NO Google in this! So I will 100% giving this a go. Might be nice if you did a follow up Matt of what this is like to use month or two but with an eye on the dev side. I'm gonna assume that Zen will just use Firefoxes standard dev tools like Arc used Googles? DRM, not a deal breaker myself, bummer yes, I wonder with enough popularity in time that wont be an issue?
I am dailying zen and I am loving it, one thing I would like is when I open new tab, It should open ont top or tha tablist instead of at the bottom
“Not based on Chromium” I’m in.
I have a question you may not be able to answer, but I have been in between arc, zen, and opera for my windows 11 laptop, whenever I am using zen there is this thick padding/border around the webpage that I didn't see in your video, I don't know if I did something or maybe that's how the windows version operates, but it is driving me nuts because its cutting off so much of whatever I am on. Do you maybe know how to correct this?
Zen is amazing. Using it as primary browser for 2 months
The biggest feature from Arc that I haven't seen replicated (fully) in any other browser is Air Traffic Control. Does anyone know how to get it for Zen? I've since switched back to Safari and there's "Open Links With Profile", although you have to have a tab open and manually go in and set it, so it's not as easy to configure up front. Would REALLY like ATC ported over so I can differentiate which sites open to which profiles more efficiently!
dude what is this recording software the mouse animation and the command overlay is so so nice wow
I was wondering too, and I found out it’s called Screen Studio, so cool
I don’t think Arc is an option anymore since they announced they will not be adding anything new to the browser anymore. They are now moving on to a new browser they are creating 😂
Is this Lightweight? Light on Ram?
I need folders, until I get folders, I use Firefox with Arc theme. Arc itself sadly isn't available on Linux
I'm never happy with browsers. I've tried other newer types of browsers but didn't take to them. Zen feels different in that it offers enough new ideas and features while still having a comfortable familiarity to it. It's quite polished for an alpha and though I've only been using it for a few hours but it has already become my favorite. Which if you know me that's really something!
Lost interest in Zen the moment I learned that Firefox will feature vertical tabs in the future
Tbh i'm kind of struggling to see the point of the video (ok it's nice to show a new browser) but I don't see one good differentiation factor compared to the current ones in the market). Arc added value was clear, here i'm struggling to get it. (being built on top of Firefox, as cool as it can be is not a good added value unfortunately )
Now that it seems Arc is being abandoned, essentially, I guess it's time to give this one a try.
Compressed browser tabs can't be easily closed which is annoying but it's been good!
I only use arc or zen because the browsing experience is feel more "full" unlike average browsers who just put address bar and tab on top of it and you can't hide it
zen is cool i just wish it had a lot of the features arc did also the side bar for me the text is too small and it just hard to kinda read idk why and also i really wish i can get a UI that looks like edge lol
It's sad for not being able to see the same UI in the Windows version
would i be able to integrate it with an android phone?
I'm pretty sure the themes didn't worked because you were in light mode. I mean it's kind of logical that dark themes would only be compatible with the dark mode so that light mode is still usable.
Is beta now and the drm issue is resolved
Isn't anything better than Arc considering all its security holes
There was one issue, it was fixed quickly, and their response was pretty incredible.
What @jzetterman said. There are reasons to dislike it, that isn't one.
yeah they even made an update to disable boosts to deal with possible privacy issue so, not bad...
*ALLLLL* the security holes. people can really say whatever they want on the internet
Arc is a dead project
i use arc on windows and zen on arch linux i love them both.
3 months later, the themes still aren't fixed.
your tshirt is super cool dude
Whenever you’re showing a new software, most imperative is its performance and energy efficiency! Pls discuss more on this
Am I tripping or does his cursor move ultra smoothly? Is that a program?
It looks like the Firefox kernel version of arc, doesn't seem to be a big difference
It looks like the alpha version of Arc without Chromium (huge negative for kost people). Well done whoever made it, but why use this instead of just using Arc, doesn't make sense. And it not allowing for DRM alone is a complete deal breaker for anyone lol
I would be happy to move to Zen...
If not for the fact that each time I close a window it completely burns all my f'ing tabs out of existence.
i found an extension that solve that in zen website
i installed it and i like it but i wont switch from chrome right now because for some reason it heats up my pc to like 70 degrees C...even though i have less tabs than on chrome. Watched the same stream with the same quality. It also used up a bit more ram like 100-150more but eh. Chrome is like 50-60C while watching 1080 60 (laptop. thats why its so hot)
It's firefox based and firefox usually uses more resources then chromium/chrome
Does it still take a lot of ram?
How do you record your videos ?
Zen is great for beta. I wish it had lock tabs
the problem for me with zen right now is only about drm content, i don't want to switch to another browser just to watch drm content. and with this i still hold myself not to use zen until they support drm content
what if i dont want side tabs
finally firefox based browser ...... i will try definetly
My windows PC is asking if I should trust the source to install this zen.exe. Is it safe to install this browser?
It's fine dude!
It's fine. It's literally open source, if there was any issue someone would've spotted it ages ago.
I prefer wavebox
I am getting use to it , I really like the concept
The "web panel" thing is really confusing and you didn't explain it.
Enjoying it a great deal, still has the notorious memory leak issues that have plagued FF since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. If some intrepid soul could find a way to port the Cog extension from Chrome it would completely have Us. All of Firefox's tab management extensions are lacking.
I'm using Zen browser because Arc browser is not available for Windows 10. :(
Interesting
The themes and keyboard shortcuts work for me
I’m using it on windows though
Being built on Firefox is my dealbreaker for me to consider it over librewolf 1:59
How does that make sense?
@@TheRobot13 I just prefer the privacy I get from librewolf, zen doesn’t seem to be anywhere near that so I’ll probably pass
@aiham_awd still more private than normal Firefox
Default preferences are based off Betterfox if you wanna look into it
Why not use Tor?
Also you could make it more private with some extra configuration
@@TheRobot13 How can I make defaul Firefox faster? My is slow but Zen is fast I like it.
Battery performance?
now that arc is going down i will prolly replace it with this after few months
I use mobile more and so I will stay with Arc browser for now plus they have a great Ai features . Good video 🎉
Zen user for several weeks. It's a good one.
Not sure I'm fond of anything on Firefox. They're always the last to get certain web features that devs use to build their web applications. And as a web developer, I can't have that.
It's more like the Firefox analog to Brave than to Arc
This is video aging like fine wine with Arc essentially abandoning their browser only to create a new browser? lol
We got Netflix killer before GTA 6 💀
3:45 Zen does have proper complete DARK MODE, for that
First, select dark mode in, look and feel page in the settings page
And then, select the dark theme in the extensions and themes page in the settings page
most mods only work on windows I think
How secure is it?
I used it and found it ok but then found it had too many shortcomings.