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Comment by brokenkebab | Hacker News Reader

All extensions in this field are very limited by all major browsers' security policies which prohibit, for example, user-defined keybindings on a blank tab. I found more satisfying mouseless experience only with specially crafted browsers like qutebrowser. But they come with their own troubles :( Would be really great for FF, and Chrome(ium) to make keybinding assignment more flexible instead.

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> All extensions in this field are very limited by all major browsers' security policies which prohibit, for example, user-defined keybindings on a blank tab

This is the correct answer. Attempts like these futile.

You can not properly control the UI while a page is loading which makes the UX godawful. Try closing a tab or switch while the current tab is loading. Sometimes it works, other times not. With legacy VimFX you coulf also access all buttons in the browser UI toolbar.

Was a VimFX user and the switch to WebExtensions was the greatest step back in browsing I've ever experienced. Tried to remedy this by running legacy extensions in Pale Moon. But that's not a way forward as these alt browsers are not secure. Actually, I'm toying with the idea of sandboxing alt browsers to be able to browse fast with my fingers on the keyboard again.

I am btw still maintaining VimFx[1], and you can run it in current versions of Firefox with a shim[2].

[1]: https://github.com/akhodakivskiy/vimfx/releases [2]: https://github.com/girst/legacyfox

Ha, you're here! I ran your updated versions in WaterFox for awhile. Was very happy and it worked perfectly. Thanks! I believe I read something back then about WaterFox eventually also phasing out XPCOM extensions.

Did not know about the shim. Will give it a try. You just gave me some new hope. Thanks again!

> Try closing a tab or switch while the current tab is loading.

Simple: use the default shortcuts for this. The normal shortcuts coming with the browser out of the box are always available. Yes, they are not as nice to use as vim-bindings, but they are working.

"Doctor, my arm hurts when I do X"

"Then don't do X"

I'm running Pentadactyl in Waterfox[0], which is a fork of the last good Firefox incorporating security updates from new Firefox. I can't vouch for how secure this really is in practice--perhaps the whole plan is a fool's errand--but it certainly works fine.

[0] https://www.waterfox.net/

Vimperator / Pentadactyl gave a fantastic experience on Firefox. But the recent transition to WebExtensions killed them, which is really sad.

It's the only major regression I have ever experienced in my computing workflow. There's no good replacement, as browsers that provide a good keyboard-driven experience come with their own troubles as you explained.

Tridactyl is currently the best (Vimperator / Pentadactyl)-like extension around. It seems to be nicely done and is in TypeScript (and Python for the application (native messaging) part). You might want to give a try, if not already.

https://github.com/tridactyl/tridactyl

I use tridactyl and it isn't bad. I use the standard hotkeys to navigate forward/backward or to switch between tabs (unless I want to move to a far-away tab then i'll use 'b' so I can type in it's name to select). Because, as you said, the extension hotkeys don't work while the page is loading.

However, it works great for what I mainly use it for-- navigating up/down a page, and using f/gF/F to select links and open them or open in a new tab.

It seems that a lot of people are upset at browsers limitation's with custom keybindings. I thought I'd mention qutebrowser (https://qutebrowser.org/) which is a browser built using Qt (blink behind the scenes) around custom keybindings.

I'm using it right now and it's pretty great.

> It seems that a lot of people are upset at browsers limitation's with custom keybindings. I thought I'd mention qutebrowser (https://qutebrowser.org/) which is a browser built using Qt (blink behind the scenes) around custom keybindings.

> I'm using it right now and it's pretty great.

Is it your daily driver or do you use it in addition to Chrome/Firefox?

Problem with the smaller browsers like Qutebrowser is there are no real extensions.

If I could run Qutebrowser with uBlock it would be perfect.

Not the perfect solution, but I use NewTabTweaker [1] in FF set to redirect new tabs to DuckDuckGo. It works pretty well in combination with SurfingKeys, although I do occasionally need to use default FF keybinds, e.g. when a page fails to load.

1: https://github.com/rharel/webext-new-tab-tweaker

True, especially with firefox hanging on wayland I find it more painful to use it keyboardless.

vimium on firefox is very usable, you can replace blank tab with something else

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