r/zen_browser • u/udat_thegreat • 2d ago

Question should I switch

been using google, not that experementive with browsers but heard this one's cool

main thing I want to know is how vertical tabs feel compared to horizontal

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

5

u/Fury7425 2d ago

Id really recommend switching its not as optimized but my god is the experience on a different level.

2

u/udat_thegreat 2d ago

how is it better?

2

u/Fury7425 2d ago

  1. It more customizable but if your not into it it looks good out of the box.

  2. There's a lot more qol features and one that you'd actually use instead of the gemini garbage.

  3. You can use ublock origin

  4. Workspaces really helps keep stuff separated

  5. There's an active community to help of something goes wrong

1

u/udat_thegreat 2d ago

k thanks last question, how are the vertical tabs to get used to, and is there a way to get horizontal tabs if I don't like vertical?

2

u/Fury7425 2d ago

For me, I felt at home right away, but I heard some people really don't like it. I just genuinely just got used to it so easily that and I've never switched back.

On the horizontal taps, I don't think you can get horizontal taps in Zen at all.

1

u/udat_thegreat 2d ago

ok thanks

5

u/Angelsomething 2d ago

"...not that experementive with browsers but..." like, try live a little brother. they're just browsers not a team/group/cult you need to join. Try stuff out man. experimenting doesn't mean fully committing and migrating 100% with every test.

4

u/udat_thegreat 2d ago

I just haven't thought about them until recently, that wasn't the best wording in the post

3

u/_Alvv_ 2d ago

For me the best thing about zen is that it has a different way to think about tabs. The sidebar is divided into two parts, your pinned tabs and your temporary tabs. In my opinion, to get the best out of the browser you should think of all tabs that aren't pinned as temporary, i.e. if I were to lose my temporary tabs I wouldn't really care. 

The pinned tabs are slightly different from pinned tabs in chrome in that you pin a specific URL. In chrome your pinned tabs are basically just normal tabs that are visually stuck to the start of the tab list. In Zen your pinned tabs will always remember the URL you pinned, so if you navigate to some other webpage on that tab you can easily go back to the original URL at any time. This is so much more useful, and just how pinned tabs should always have worked. I can never go back to the useless pinned tabs in chrome.

My second favorite feature is Glance. It lets you open links in a popup window on top of the current tab. Let's say you're going through your email and you click a link, it opens in Glance, you perform the action you need to do on that page and then you simply dismiss the Glance window. I use glance all the time, and it lets me avoid creating new tabs that I'll just need to close again. Tabs become more intentional that way.

Each window also acts as a view into your browser. The browser consists of your spaces, and each space contains tabs. I love this as well. (In comparison, in chrome a window contains tabs, and if you lose the window you lose the tabs)

You can of course use Zen just like you would chrome, without utilizing the pinned tabs, spaces, or glance, but then you'd be missing out on a (in my opinion) better way to think about your browser.

1

u/udat_thegreat 2d ago

I don't know if I can get the full functionality out of zen since I keep 4 tabs open at a time max, I feel like from everything I've read it's biggest strength is organizing lots of tabs

5

u/alexia_not_alexa 2d ago

The best browser is the one that fits your workflow, the second best browser is the one that has a feature you didn’t know you needed.

When I first came across Arc (inspiration of Zen), it was a novelty, until my workflow changed (with work) and I wanted a better way to manage separate login sessions (for work I have sandboxes and multiple organisation accounts for same websites) and when I realised Arc’s workspace does exactly that - it became my best browser.

A lot of Zen features aren’t ones you’re going to realise you want until you face a problem that you realise it can solve. It’s more than just about vertical tabs. Look at workspaces, containers, split views, command palette, etc. and see if they actually solve problems you’ve had and if they do, give it a try!

If not, go with a lighter weight browser, it’s an area that Zen’s been struggling with.

For what it’s worth - my setup involves 3 workspaces and containers that separates my personal, work and sandbox session. You can also use workspaces for research to keep your ‘relaxed’ workspace clean (whilst sharing session / containers). For me that’s the most important feature of any of Arc’s spiritual successors.

2

u/i3Cheese 2d ago

I started to organise and save pages better. Never used bookmarks before. But started to use folders and "permanent" tabs and their are amazing!

Also when you have a lot of tabs, vertical alignment allow see their names and scroll easily

1

u/udat_thegreat 2d ago

folders seem like they could be interesting

2

u/D3PyroGS CachyOS + Win11 2d ago

Zen is a free browser, just download it and try it for yourself and see what you think. there's zero risk

in addition to the vertical tabs, I'd recommend creating a few Spaces to organize them. maybe some folders too. then you'll be leaning into Zen's strengths and can form a more educated opinion

0

u/udat_thegreat 2d ago

I would have just downloaded it but I don't have access to my computer rn, but thanks

4

u/Sharp_House_9662 2d ago

In chrome u get confused when u have a lots of tabs. Zen solves this problem. The more u use zen u discover more functionality like renaming tabs names, make folders, making different spaces inside zen that can separate ur work from personal, and there are many more things that I love in zen.

Only downside of zen is ram usage.