Zen Browser is a new effort to modernize web browsing by bringing tiling, workspaces, and more – all blissfully free of Google code. This Firefox fork aims at power surfers who want a more sophisticated browser experience.
Since we’ve been testing it, Zen has gone from alpha 27 to 1.0.0-a.32, noticeably improving in stability during that time. One of its standout features is the ability to tile web pages inside a single window – think multiple tabs or workspaces within one window.
Zen’s approach is more moderate than Arc’s radical Chromium-based browser, which we looked at over a year ago. Zen still has some Firefox features, such as the combined URL-search “awesome bar,” but also implements its own tab bar, defaulting to a vertical column on the left edge of the window. This can be expanded to show page titles too.
For power users like ourselves, who often have many dozens of tabs open, tiling is a game-changer. We don’t want our OS’s primary UI cluttered with browser icons or taskbars. Instead, we use tools and methods to manage our windows quickly and place them side by side.
If you’re a bit of a power user, you might already have these tools and methods. In that case, Zen or Arc might not be for you. However, most web users don’t have advanced customizations like that. They might appreciate the innovative features Zen offers, such as tiling, which could bring power-user sophistication to mere mortals.
It’s early days for Zen – it’s only an alpha – but it’s looking promising. We’re glad someone is trying to fill the gap left by Mozilla’s lack of innovation in this area.
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/02/zen_firefox_fork_alpha/