4 ms·

Dark patterns are certainly evil. I don't think they help the company in the long run. However, I just went on a sort of browser deep dive for the best browser

Dark patterns are certainly evil. I don't think they help the company in the long run. However, I just went on a sort of browser deep dive for the best browser on windows and came away, surprisingly, with edge. The requirements were vertical tabs, keep my chrome extensions, and got out of my way. Brave, firefox, chrome, and vivaldi all had issues that couldn't be resolved in the UI. For example, firefox's tree style tabs still kinda requires that you keep the top tabs for some uses. I didn't even consider edge at first. The rewards/shopping/bingwhatever integrations were disqualifiers. But apparently, you can disable all of them fairly quickly. The pdf viewer is also better than chrome's with extended options. I guess I also must admit the benefit of not fighting windows because I'm doing what they want. We'll see if their next forced update reverts to their awful defaults but for now, I'm happy with it. At least until arc browser is available. It's a real shame that Microsoft is so schizophrenia here. If they were to respect their customers, they would gain far more than they would lose. The dev-focused arm seems to understand long term customer goodwill but the OS/browser team does not.

explorigin 3y ago
You're painting awfully broad strokes (Edge is the best for windows) for a very personal preference (vertical tabs).
user_7832 3y ago
I’m also in a similar position, trying to choose a good browser after a fresh windows install. While edge is nice, the lack of containers alone is making me want to switch to Firefox. Not dealing with Google’s new cookie bs and not having a restricted ad blocker is just a bonus.
Timwi 3y ago
> firefox's tree style tabs still kinda requires that you keep the top tabs for some uses. Hm, I've been using Tree Style Tabs for many years without the top tabs visible and I've never needed them back.
- wtallis 3y ago
  Same here. There have been one or two occasions when I've had to temporarily remove a few lines from my Firefox profile's userChrome.css file, but never the ones that hide the top tab bar. I've been using Tree Style Tabs continuously through two extension mass extinctions, since back when you didn't have to edit userChrome.css to get rid of the top tab bar.
m2mdas2 3y ago
Hiding title bar and tab bar were confugurable before. When you installed tree style tab it automatically made the tab bar hidden at that time. It was the most customizable dev browser. Then they rewrote the the UI engine replacing XUL and made Firefox a more 'user friendly browser' copying all UI features of chrome sacrificing the customization options. I am a heretic now who is running Windows 10 with WSL2 and edge as primary browser due the points you mentioned.

explorigin 3y ago

You're painting awfully broad strokes (Edge is the best for windows) for a very personal preference (vertical tabs).

user_7832 3y ago

I’m also in a similar position, trying to choose a good browser after a fresh windows install. While edge is nice, the lack of containers alone is making me want to switch to Firefox. Not dealing with Google’s new cookie bs and not having a restricted ad blocker is just a bonus.

Timwi 3y ago

> firefox's tree style tabs still kinda requires that you keep the top tabs for some uses. Hm, I've been using Tree Style Tabs for many years without the top tabs visible and I've never needed them back.

wtallis 3y ago
Same here. There have been one or two occasions when I've had to temporarily remove a few lines from my Firefox profile's userChrome.css file, but never the ones that hide the top tab bar. I've been using Tree Style Tabs continuously through two extension mass extinctions, since back when you didn't have to edit userChrome.css to get rid of the top tab bar.

m2mdas2 3y ago

Hiding title bar and tab bar were confugurable before. When you installed tree style tab it automatically made the tab bar hidden at that time. It was the most customizable dev browser. Then they rewrote the the UI engine replacing XUL and made Firefox a more 'user friendly browser' copying all UI features of chrome sacrificing the customization options. I am a heretic now who is running Windows 10 with WSL2 and edge as primary browser due the points you mentioned.