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Comment by have_faith | Hacker News Reader

This a problem for me.

I've been a long time Firefox user, but the UI/UX has stagnated (like all browsers) for so long. I'm enjoying using Arc at the moment because it's rethinking a lot of things that bug me about the traditional browser UI paradigm but I also know that it's a trendy startup that could either: explode, decide to change features radically at the drop of a hat (pivot), or simple do something distasteful to please investors.

Extensions technically fill in the gap on the Firefox side, like Containers, but the UX is just an afterthought.

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Out the box the squashed tabs vs the silly tab scroll thing on Firefox is horrible. But it reminds me I have too many tabs open anyway. I mainly use FF, but the UI really is behind the times. Notice MS marketing stuff like chatGPT in their browser. They are tooling it up. I want my browser to help me. The tab/workflow/history/sandboxing, I feel could all be a bit more ingrained in the desktop OS/UI.

Google is the plugin on Chrome. If you unwittingly walk blindfold into using it on say Android etc. You'll have all that Google stuff activated, and it's a real boon. Difficult to give up. Heck hard enough to sign out. You unknowingly can sign in.

Yeah there are different options, and yeah there are extensions. But why would I install an extension that basically says it can spy on every tab in my browser? And why would I even trust Google in my browser?

> but the UI/UX has stagnated (like all browsers) for so long.

What some people call "stagnation", others call "stability".

Stability is great but if the UX doesn't fit how I'd like to interact with the internet it doesn't really matter what you call it. The general shape of the browser, how you interact with it and how you get it to do things for you has been stagnant in my mind. This is why I'm trying out other options.

Arc is neat but since it’s built on chromium you’re still beholden to their decisions.

It's a fair point. Although I want to see competition in this space, first and foremost I want the features, UI, UX, etc, to fit with my intended workflows.

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