5 ms·

> Anyway, use firefox or librewolf. Stop enabling the chromium monopoly! Or Safari of course, it's really a great browser if one's on the Mac.

by d12bb 4y ago

Terretta 4y ago
> Or Safari of course, it's really a great browser if one's on the Mac. The venerable iCab or new Orion from Kagi shows what's possible here. https://www.icab.de/ https://www.icab.de/ https://browser.kagi.com/ https://browser.kagi.com/ Kagi's Orion runs Firefox and Chrome extensions, including on iOS, and of course works with Kagi search, which is enough better that it's worth switching from Google/Bing/DDG. --- EDIT to add, on iCab, it's been updated as of 2020, which unfortunately finally dropped the legacy Macs, but does support modern filter lists: iCab 6.0 (September, 28th 2020) iCab 6.0 is completely rewritten, therefore there’re many new features and existing many old features have changed. The new release uses the newer modern web engine of the macOS which is much faster and smoother than the classic engine that was used by older iCab releases. It also supports more web technologies. Because the modern web engine had too many limitations under macOS 10.12 and older, the minimum macOS release for the new version of iCab is therefore macOS 10.13. Older macOS releases are no longer supported. This has the advantage that iCab can now rely on many native macOS features which are only available in newer macOS releases. iCab now uses the native „Tabs“ feature of the macOS, so the tabs in iCab will now behave just as the Tabs in all other Apps using the native Tabs feature (like Safari Mail, the Finder etc). All the capabilities of the macOS to manage tabs are fully available in iCab as well. iCab is now using the native filter capabilities of the modern web engine of the macOS. Therefore the filter manager is completely new. The new filter manager supports the popular filter lists from AdBlock Plus, Easylist, uBlock and compatible. The filter manager window provides a few links to web sites where you can find these filter lists. using the „Add“ or „Subscribe“ links on these sites can directly import these filter lists, but you can also simply download these lists into a file and then use the „import“ feature of the Filter Manager to import these files. iCab 6.0 supports syncing of tabs, bookmarks, reading list, filters and search engine via iCloud. The iCloud sync is compatible to iCab Mobile for the iOS platform, so you can now sync all this data between iCab for the Mac and iCab Mobile for the iOS as well. The new web engine provides more control over audio and video playback. It is possible to immediately stop all audio and video playback with a certain menu command. But it can also make sure that audio and video playback only occurs on the active tab. Modules of the module manager can be put into the status bar, so these modules are directly accessible very fast and comfortably. The App supports private tabs which do not save any private data (Cookies, Caches etc). Private tabs are marked with a red border around the address field. And much more
- kspacewalk2 4y ago
  >Kagi search, which is enough better that it's worth switching from Google/Bing/DDG. But highly unlikely to be better enough to justify paying a subscription for it (for most people, anyway), so it's always going to be confined to a small niche of users.
  - Terretta 4y ago
    Here's a Venn diagram of two "worth it" reasons, not mutually exclusive: I'd argue if you live in first world, earn a living from tech, even if you don't care whether you pay for things vs. be tracked, it's worth the subscription, in the sense of, it's enough better to be worth paying for as a better tool, not just because there's no gaming of the SERPs above the fold. The Lenses are impressive, but it's not just that, the results are what one used to appreciate from web search. After getting used to the quality, the lower quality of Google or the Bing derivatives like DDG will frustrate you. If you dislike adtech or value privacy, it's worth the subscription, because there are no ads and no tracking. (Also, unlike neeva, to which I also subscribe, it's not an ad-alternative model from former ad-tech people.)
  - senko 4y ago
    Does everything need to be a billion dollar business? Globally, I can easily see enough users sign up to sustain the small team. Their blog post [0] mentiones they calculate they need 25,000 subscribers to sustain themselves. (I'm a paying customer, FWIW). [0] https://blog.kagi.com/status-update-first-three-months#future https://blog.kagi.com/status-update-first-three-months#futur...
  - entropicdrifter 4y ago
    Yeah, I'd rather just use StartPage
reginaldo 4y ago
For a minimal experience, one can use WPE Webkit, which I've had some fun with. https://wpewebkit.org/ https://wpewebkit.org/
fumar 4y ago
I switched to Safari last year. The battery life improvements over Chrome makes it worth. It’s been a solid browser experience and I haven’t gone back to Chrome for anything. I wish I could add Kagi as a default search.
- vagabund 4y ago
  If you use Kagi for search, I'm assuming you've used their Orion browser [0], where you can set Kagi as default. Any reason why you didn't like it? [0] https://browser.kagi.com/ https://browser.kagi.com/
  - ghostpepper 4y ago
    I use kagi and had not even heard that they have their own browser. Why would why use that over one of the "big three" (FF/Chrome/Safari) with serious corporate security teams backing them? edit: Okay so it's webkit based, mac only, with built-in adblocking, which sounds nice, but honestly the idea that it can easily install extensions from both chrome and firefox sounds like a security nightmare to me. The fact that the only mention of security in their FAQ is to conflate it with privacy "Most browsers regularly "phone home" dozens or even hundreds times. Each request poses a security risk" is a red flag IMHO
    - ipaddr 4y ago
      Why use kagi instead of the big 3? Google, Bing, Yandex? The companies with serious corporate security?
      - ajolly 4y ago
        Much better search results. I recently been switching over myself.
    - freediver 4y ago
      Telemetry can be a security risk from a standpoint of exposing PII to a hostile actor. Full text for reference: "Each request poses a security risk, no matter what information it sends, by potentially exposing your IP address and your browser fingerprint. Telemetry can also inadvertently leak personally identifiable information or corporate intelligence."
josephd79 4y ago
Safari is great on Mac. Never tried librewolf but what’s the difference between it and Firefox itself?

> Anyway, use firefox or librewolf. Stop enabling the chromium monopoly! Or Safari of course, it's really a great browser if one's on the Mac.

by d12bb 4y ago

> Anyway, use firefox or librewolf. Stop enabling the chromium monopoly! Or Safari of course, it's really a great browser if one's on the Mac.

Terretta 4y ago

> Or Safari of course, it's really a great browser if one's on the Mac. The venerable iCab or new Orion from Kagi shows what's possible here. https://www.icab.de/ https://www.icab.de/ https://browser.kagi.com/ https://browser.kagi.com/ Kagi's Orion runs Firefox and Chrome extensions, including on iOS, and of course works with Kagi search, which is enough better that it's worth switching from Google/Bing/DDG. --- EDIT to add, on iCab, it's been updated as of 2020, which unfortunately finally dropped the legacy Macs, but does support modern filter lists: iCab 6.0 (September, 28th 2020) iCab 6.0 is completely rewritten, therefore there’re many new features and existing many old features have changed. The new release uses the newer modern web engine of the macOS which is much faster and smoother than the classic engine that was used by older iCab releases. It also supports more web technologies. Because the modern web engine had too many limitations under macOS 10.12 and older, the minimum macOS release for the new version of iCab is therefore macOS 10.13. Older macOS releases are no longer supported. This has the advantage that iCab can now rely on many native macOS features which are only available in newer macOS releases. iCab now uses the native „Tabs“ feature of the macOS, so the tabs in iCab will now behave just as the Tabs in all other Apps using the native Tabs feature (like Safari Mail, the Finder etc). All the capabilities of the macOS to manage tabs are fully available in iCab as well. iCab is now using the native filter capabilities of the modern web engine of the macOS. Therefore the filter manager is completely new. The new filter manager supports the popular filter lists from AdBlock Plus, Easylist, uBlock and compatible. The filter manager window provides a few links to web sites where you can find these filter lists. using the „Add“ or „Subscribe“ links on these sites can directly import these filter lists, but you can also simply download these lists into a file and then use the „import“ feature of the Filter Manager to import these files. iCab 6.0 supports syncing of tabs, bookmarks, reading list, filters and search engine via iCloud. The iCloud sync is compatible to iCab Mobile for the iOS platform, so you can now sync all this data between iCab for the Mac and iCab Mobile for the iOS as well. The new web engine provides more control over audio and video playback. It is possible to immediately stop all audio and video playback with a certain menu command. But it can also make sure that audio and video playback only occurs on the active tab. Modules of the module manager can be put into the status bar, so these modules are directly accessible very fast and comfortably. The App supports private tabs which do not save any private data (Cookies, Caches etc). Private tabs are marked with a red border around the address field. And much more

kspacewalk2 4y ago
>Kagi search, which is enough better that it's worth switching from Google/Bing/DDG. But highly unlikely to be better enough to justify paying a subscription for it (for most people, anyway), so it's always going to be confined to a small niche of users.
- Terretta 4y ago
  Here's a Venn diagram of two "worth it" reasons, not mutually exclusive: I'd argue if you live in first world, earn a living from tech, even if you don't care whether you pay for things vs. be tracked, it's worth the subscription, in the sense of, it's enough better to be worth paying for as a better tool, not just because there's no gaming of the SERPs above the fold. The Lenses are impressive, but it's not just that, the results are what one used to appreciate from web search. After getting used to the quality, the lower quality of Google or the Bing derivatives like DDG will frustrate you. If you dislike adtech or value privacy, it's worth the subscription, because there are no ads and no tracking. (Also, unlike neeva, to which I also subscribe, it's not an ad-alternative model from former ad-tech people.)
- senko 4y ago
  Does everything need to be a billion dollar business? Globally, I can easily see enough users sign up to sustain the small team. Their blog post [0] mentiones they calculate they need 25,000 subscribers to sustain themselves. (I'm a paying customer, FWIW). [0] https://blog.kagi.com/status-update-first-three-months#future https://blog.kagi.com/status-update-first-three-months#futur...
- entropicdrifter 4y ago
  Yeah, I'd rather just use StartPage

reginaldo 4y ago

For a minimal experience, one can use WPE Webkit, which I've had some fun with. https://wpewebkit.org/ https://wpewebkit.org/

fumar 4y ago

I switched to Safari last year. The battery life improvements over Chrome makes it worth. It’s been a solid browser experience and I haven’t gone back to Chrome for anything. I wish I could add Kagi as a default search.

vagabund 4y ago
If you use Kagi for search, I'm assuming you've used their Orion browser [0], where you can set Kagi as default. Any reason why you didn't like it? [0] https://browser.kagi.com/ https://browser.kagi.com/
- ghostpepper 4y ago
  I use kagi and had not even heard that they have their own browser. Why would why use that over one of the "big three" (FF/Chrome/Safari) with serious corporate security teams backing them? edit: Okay so it's webkit based, mac only, with built-in adblocking, which sounds nice, but honestly the idea that it can easily install extensions from both chrome and firefox sounds like a security nightmare to me. The fact that the only mention of security in their FAQ is to conflate it with privacy "Most browsers regularly "phone home" dozens or even hundreds times. Each request poses a security risk" is a red flag IMHO
  - ipaddr 4y ago
    Why use kagi instead of the big 3? Google, Bing, Yandex? The companies with serious corporate security?
    - ajolly 4y ago
      Much better search results. I recently been switching over myself.
  - freediver 4y ago
    Telemetry can be a security risk from a standpoint of exposing PII to a hostile actor. Full text for reference: "Each request poses a security risk, no matter what information it sends, by potentially exposing your IP address and your browser fingerprint. Telemetry can also inadvertently leak personally identifiable information or corporate intelligence."

josephd79 4y ago

Safari is great on Mac. Never tried librewolf but what’s the difference between it and Firefox itself?