I saw it on f-droid news and I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything about it. Probably because it’s new.
Most other browsers are Firefox forks, but if I understand this one only uses the engine. As such most other ones feel like just slightly different Firefox versions. But this one is very different, and I’m liking a lot! Many things on the UI are easier to use and many options I don’t see in Firefox. I specially like the options it give before you first use (search engine, ublock, block or not AI).
It’s also a lot faster, because I blocked many samsung services on my phone like face recognition and Firefox becomes super slow without it (Fennec keeps crashing).
The only thing I don’t like so far is that I don’t see how to hide the URL bar for fullscreen, and typing a URL is very weird in the middle of a bunch of options (very welcome options, but URL typing should be prioritized).
I highly recommend giving it a go. Specially the chromium browser people. I never experienced the complaints I see from them before blocking services on my phone, but those who had issues with Firefox clones might find that it’s better.
One question I have is how trustworthy is the developer. But he seems to not be based in the US, which is a big plus to begin with.
Are there other communities I should post this on? I think this project would benefit from more exposure.
I don’t see any donation option. And it’s annoying that the only communication is through microsoft’s github…
Wow, comes with container tabs out of the box. That’s one of the most requested features for Firefox mobile.
I noticed that too and was surprised. Though I haven’t tried it yet.
The url bar is weirdly inaccessible. It’s a browser, why do I need to make multiple tabs to change the address?
The ssl status is way over represented in that popup, a simple green shield or lock is something everyone is used to and understands, without taking up just as much space as the url bar (like they already do in the collapsed state),…Also, the button that is labeled with the page title and in no way tells you, that you can click it to get additional actions for that page.
No aria labels, to tell you what a button is doing and the icons are not that clear without trying them out once. Why is ‘Safe Brosing’ by Google not only included and activated by default for ALL SURFING, but also not possible to deactivate?
I like the way extensions are included, even allowing for a dedicated button next to the tab button that opens a popup though
What do so you mean no labels? On my one the menus have icons and text.
Yeah I saw the Google thing, I tried many things and I couldn’t deactivate it. It bothered me but I dismissed it at something I don’t understand and I imagine Firefox uses that too. But it looked like a red flag to me.
Aria Labels are what readers use to describe the UI to blind people. They can often be shown by long pressing on a button, explaining its function without having to press it.
The Google thing definitely rubs me the wrong way and I’ll make a ticket about that
Ah ok. I guess that’s bad. Thanks for the report. I wanted to do it too. I hope he gets something for reporting that’s not github.
The setting is not obvious but you can enable CRlite in secure connections. That’s Mozilla’s new certificate revocation system which downloads the revocation details for all websites without needing to query any 3rd party for sites you visit.
The browser seems interesting and exposes many useful options to the user in settings.
Container tabs is good.
It’s currently in Alpha and has some noticeable bugs. I would wait a while before using it as a primary browser.
Hmm, opened a website and can’t escape anymore There is no UI
I also experinced some bugs.
The notice says its in alpha. So, I would be careful about using it for secure banking and personal sites.
A chromium user here , though so far I couldn’t find the “perfect” Android browser, I always end up using a chromium fork …
I’ll give it a try, from provided description by OP , I won’t end up cursing Geco like every time I use a Firefox fork , hope that’s the case
Edit: I tried it:
- didn’t find any bugs so far, even though it’s in alpha stage
- what I didn’t like about it is that its design sometimes remind me of very old Android browser, but that’s not something I’ll ditch the browser for
- a good thing about it is that I found no connections to google server when I checked DNS logs of it , I don’t know about all connections but most of it is to mozilla extensions server and to provided search engine , which is okay to me
That’s interesting to see the opinion of a chromium user. And nice thing you checked about the google connections. This is a good thing to know as that was worrying me.
After using it for a while as a main browser I did find a bunch of bugs. Mainly that often I can’t go back to the previous page at all and some stuff like images on manga websites are downloading way slower than on firefox, I don’t know why. It’s not the browser being slow, it’s the download being slow.
I figured I’ll wait until it’s more stable. It could be my phone because I have issues with Firefox too. But if the only way to report bugs is a microsoft account I’ll leave it to other people.
I love seeing browers even in the alpha stage using Gecko. I don’t want a future where everything is Chrome.
