A Few More Browsers
In my last post, I shared my personal vibe check on eight prominent web browsers. The most common feedback I heard was that I should have mentioned [insert browser here].
So I thought I’d share my take on a few more that were suggested.
Floorp
Floorp is a cross-platform, open source Firefox fork maintained by an online community of Japanese students. In addition to the usual privacy features most alternative browsers advertise, Floorp sets itself apart with a high degree of customization. A helpful onboarding process lets you choose from a few basic initial layouts, which you’re then free to customize. It includes support for workspaces, vertical tabs, web panels and more.
My biggest critique of Floorp is design polish. Iconography is inconsistent in weight and style, there are some stray borders and awkwardly aligned elements, headings on the “New Tab” page are often unreadable against the photographic background, etc. I’m a designer, so I just can’t un-see that stuff.
I think it’s great that there’s a community-run project that isn’t always waiting for 100% polish to ship interesting features. It’s just a little too rough around the edges for me right now.
Orion
Original (blissfully ignorant) Orion impressions
Orion is currently in beta. It’s made by Kagi, the personalized search engine I keep meaning to try but never seem to get around to. It’s essentially Safari, but with more privacy features, some UI enhancements, a good ol’ silly intro video and (drumroll please)… support for the same web extensions as Chrome and Firefox!
Kagi did a good job introducing changes to the Safari UI without sacrificing familiarity or simplicity. So if you already like Safari, chances are you’ll dig Orion. On the flip side, if Safari isn’t your favorite, it’s tough to imagine that Orion will change your mind.
Ladybird
Ladybird is part of the SerenityOS project. It’s noteworthy for being a wholly original web browser, developed from scratch. That is so cool!
As of this writing, the project is still considered “very unstable” and has no downloadable binaries (you have to build it from source). While it’s way too early to recommend it as a viable default browser, I do recommend watching the lead developer’s progress report videos… inspiring stuff!
And so on…
Let’s rapidfire through a few less common suggestions:
- GNOME Web is a WebKit-based browser for Linux, but this is no Safari clone: It has a lovely, streamlined interface and a handful of new features. Since it supports Firefox Sync, I’ll probably give this a whirl when I’m in Linux-land.
- Speaking of Linux, Konquerer still exists!
- The DuckDuckGo Private Browser extends the operating system’s default web view with more privacy features, but I sadly can’t recommend it since DuckDuckGo also has a partnership with Brave. 🤬
- The Mullvad Browser is another privacy-focused browser. It’s based on Tor Browser, which is based on Firefox.
- If you just want Chrome without any Google services, there’s Ungoogled Chromium.
- If you just want Firefox without Mozilla services or partnerships, there’s LibreWolf.
And that still doesn’t scratch the surface of all the available options.
So what have we learned?
When you look at this many browsers in a short span of time, they start to blend together. Almost all claim to be the fastest, the most secure, the most respectful of your privacy. Many market themselves on familiarity: It feels just like [browser you’re used to]!
But it’s nice to remember that Arc isn’t the only interface oddball in the lineup, and that so many upstart projects exist.