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Dot Browser – privacy-conscious web browser
- AlexAndScripts 5y agoI just checked out their Discord, they're panicking because the last published build is super old and looks bad. Probably best to wait a bit before trying it out.
- encryptluks2 5y agoOpen source projects using Discord for their community is sort of a red flag in itself.
- alin23 5y agoI love using Discord for my open source app [0] because instant messaging and low entrance friction makes it easy for me to find out what's wrong with the app when an user comes with a problem. Previously I only did email when users had a problem and it took ages to fix issues that I could not reproduce. Why is Discord a red flag in your opinion? It is indeed not very searchable, but I think there's always Github and the official website for more persistent information. [0] https://lunar.fyi https://lunar.fyi
- encryptluks2 5y agoMy major qualm with with Discord is the lack of multiple identities, and the anti-spam techniques being used by many "servers" that essentially require you share your profile and channel data. Also, if you add a phone number (some servers require this) then Discord won't let you remove it. I can only imagine the amount of data collection and telemetry they are doing as well.
- ayushnix 5y agoWhenever I use Discord, I use it reluctantly. - no native clients, you have to run the official client either in a browser or as an electron app and using either of them consume too much resources and make my laptop run much hotter than it normally does - conversations are locked inside discord, you can't search them outside of Discord, imagine if all StackExchange websites including StackOverflow just became another Discord server and the disaster that would be for people everywhere So yeah, if a project or community I care about uses Discord, I guess I will use it, but reluctantly and with displeasure.
- alin23 5y agoYes, the browser-based clients is something I don’t like either. I loved when Slack used to provide an IRC interface so you can use whatever simple client you want. But the syntax highlighting is so good on Discord, that it makes it really easy to discuss technical stuff. I would jump on a chat alternative that: • is Google searchable (like Gitter) • has good syntax highlighting (like Discord and Slack) • has CLI clients (like Mattermost) • has a low barrier entry for non-technical users • sign in with Google • state your issue • get solution in a few messages • forget about it if you don’t need to be part of that community
- chownie 5y agoConversations are locked inside Discord the same way conversations are locked inside IRC, it's a community chat rather than a knowledge base/QA like stackexchange.
- ayushnix 5y agoCorrect me if I'm mistaken but logs of public IRC servers are often available without needing to make an account on IRC, right?
- chownie 5y agoYou're mistaken, that's a channel by channel basis not a server by server kind of deal. Some channels include bots used to create public channel logs, but not all. Creating unauthorized public logs is usually considered against IRC etiquette so many channels go unlogged.
- enderdev 5y agoWe also have a Matrix room and a telegram room. https://matrix.to/#/#dothq:matrix.org https://matrix.to/#/#dothq:matrix.org https://t.me/dothq https://t.me/dothq
- encryptluks2 5y agoMy apologies... as long as you have Matrix or some open source standard and a bridge to IRC or whatever, then it doesn't really matter that much to me. However, I would like to see true believers of "open" promote open standards as much as possible.
- unicornporn 5y ago> We also have a Matrix room Thank you!
- 1ark 5y ago"Privacy-conscious" and using Discord, quite a bit of cognitive dissonance. We need better messengers, not browsers imho.
- jszymborski 5y agoHoly cow, another Gecko browser!? I thought I'd never see the day. I commend the authors for that if nothing else.
- thunderbong 5y agoI especially like the fact that it is based on Firefox.
- janandonly 5y agoWhich makes me wonder... how is it any different? Firefox itself already has some features to protect your privacy. Why go through the trouble of creating a whole new browser where a combination of tweaks in settings and maybe a plugin for FF would yield similar results?
- moron4hire 5y agoDefaults matter. Like, a lot.
- KronisLV 5y agoAnd for many people, Firefox (or Chrome, or Edge) will be the default browser. Seeking out a different browser to use takes similar, if not greater effort than just installing uBlock Origin (or a similar extension, or a few) and possibly altering some browser settings. Plus, there's the issue of trust - how many people can vouch for a particular browser, or an extension? If a malicious piece of code would get into a niche browser or extension, how long would it take for someone to notice and bring that to the attention of the wider community? Would there even be such a community? Or maybe if they'd sell out and the product would change ownership? The more eyes there are looking at code and how it runs, the safer it is, or at least i'd argue so. Therefore, sticking with the popular options is probably better, in general. In this case, that would probably (hopefully) be Firefox with some addons.
- WolfeReader 5y agoA great many users won't install plug-ins or alter settings. They deserve privacy too. (This is why Brave is proving popular, when FireFox + uBlock Origin has offered the same benefits for longer.)
- CodeGlitch 5y ago
- IceWreck 5y agoI though all browsers and webviews are based on blink/chromium because that engine is embed-able, unlike Gecko. This guy made a brwoser based on Gecko tho, props to him.
- dblohm7 5y agoThat’s essentially because the leg work hasn’t been done to make it embeddable on most platforms, with the exception of Android (https://GeckoView.dev https://GeckoView.dev)
- fiddlerwoaroof 5y agoI vaguely remember that Gecko-based browsers used to be more common.
- pantulis 5y agoThis brings memories of Camino in the Mac space and K-Meleon in Windows.
- enono 5y agoLove to see this. Just curious why I would use something like this over brave? I don't pay too much attention to my browser honestly. I am ready to be convinced to switch though :-)
- AlexAndScripts 5y agoIt doesn't have the arguably sketchy crypto, it doesn't inject affiliate links into URLs, it doesn't use an engine built by Google, and it supports the open Web. The reason it supports the open Web is that Brave uses the Chromium engine used in Chrome, Edge, Opera, and basically everything but Firefox. Firefox doesn't, and is the only thing stopping Google being the sole arbitrator of Web standards (and they do not have your best interests at heart.) Google is already abusing their near-monopoly; keeping Firefox market share high is helping stop it, though. This browser is Firefox based, so it has all of those advantages.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ehg45h5h56 5y agoIf there is not an extreme pivot in Firefox's adoption in the next 5 years, I believe it will be a dead browser. One thing I have noticed is that developers have slowly been forgetting or not motivated to work on ensuring Firefox users have same level features. For example, there are browser extensions for chrome that do not exist on Firefox. These can range from popular extensions to smaller, more specific productivity extensions. As a specific example, there is a Zendesk extension that can help load all links you click load in a single instance rather than having multiple tabs. It uses Zendesk's built in tabbing system for tickets and is very helpful for workflow. The problem is this is only a chrome extension, and no such thing exists for Firefox. This is one example but there are so many more, and more of those situations are happening over time. That is a worrying trend. It means that the chrome browser has such a massive market share, that in a lot of cases worrying about Firefox compatibility isn't even a productive concern anymore. This will eventually end in life support compatibility such as developers putting up splash pages or in-page notifications for users to switch to a more compatible browser. I have already seen extremely rare instances of this, but not enough where I would consider it a concern yet, just an asshole move.
- yoavm 5y agoAs a Firefox user I'll never really consider a Chromium-based browser, but this is interesting!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- tendencydriven 5y agoCorrect me if I'm wrong but isn't Dot Gecko/Firefox based, not Chromium based?
- yewenjie 5y agoI am super amazed to see a Gecko based browser. People always told me that Mozilla makes it virtually impossible to use the Gecko engine in other browsers. Does it support extensions? Also, what does this mean? > Protect your mailbox > We will offer to mask your email address when you sign up for sites or services.
- schleck8 5y agoMaybe a proxy service a la Firefox Relay
- Santosh83 5y agoAFAIK no one claimed it was "virtually impossible". Just more cumbersome than Chromium since it wasn't designed with embedding in mind from get go.
- LukeShu 5y agoHistorically, it was relatively easy to use Gecko to build other apps including other browsers; what has hard was embedding it inside of something else as just one component among many (i.e. you had to build the whole app using XUL). However, recent-ish (~2015?) changes in Gecko made this harder to do, so many apps that used to do this have switched to the Goanna/UXP fork of Gecko that retains that ease.
- paulryanrogers 5y agoXUL Runner was a relatively easy way to build apps, or at least their UIs, from markup. It's interesting that the approach has lived on, albiet through other implementations like Electron.
- bingusfan 5y agoI admire the work that has been put into this browser. Seems nice so far and am looking forward to where it goes in the future.
- jeffalo 5y agoI remember hearing about this a while ago, but back then it was based on Electron for some reason. Looks like it has been completely rewritten since then? Edit: https://medium.com/dot-blog/saying-goodbye-to-the-electron-version-of-dot-browser-6c803e33b12 https://medium.com/dot-blog/saying-goodbye-to-the-electron-v...
- jefftk 5y agoMost recent nightly build is from 2021-07-24: is this an active project?
- rckt 5y agoIt's not clear how it is different from Firefox. What features does it have that Firefox doesn't?
- paulryanrogers 5y agoLooks like built in ad blocker, email masking, and no telemetry
- iimblack 5y agoIs there anywhere that info about the adblocking and email masking has been published? The idea of this browser looks amazing. I hope it has good support for adding vim style keyboard shortcuts via extension or otherwise.
- paulryanrogers 5y agoLooks like LibreWolf with email masking.
- solarkraft 5y agoI’m happy to see that my suspicion seeing the screenshot is correct! A Firefox-based browser, what a miracle! This may be worth it for the UI overhaul alone, but someone fix Mozilla‘s piling up bad decisions is also badly needed.
- howolduis 5y agowould be nice to: 1. explain what is email masking on the website (I had to google it). 2. indicate whether you plant o create a driver and/or whether the browser is compatible with the already existing gecko driver