How good are Helium and Zen Browser?
from pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works to privacy@lemmy.ml on 14 Jul 21:31
https://sh.itjust.works/post/63408846

There was an issue with Zen about a year ago, it used to send Mozilla telemetry requests, and the developers had ignored any complaints on it. Anyone knows if the situation has changed since?

I found nothing on how private Helium is. People usually just say it is garbage because of the engine, but that’s not what I care about.

#privacy

threaded - newest

rb411@lemmy.world on 14 Jul 21:34 next collapse

I’ve been using Zen and really love it. As far as I know, they aren’t sending anything to Mozilla, but I never looked extremely deeply into that, so I could be wrong

Devsdeus@lemmy.world on 14 Jul 21:58 next collapse

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/848b1bde-f8bf-4952-8445-1a0edb2f473e.jpeg">

This is what zen is doing on fedora.

ghodawalaaman@programming.dev on 15 Jul 05:08 collapse

whats this software blocking dns queries? is it pihole?

voxel@feddit.org on 14 Jul 22:18 next collapse

and the developers had ignored any complaints on it.

Source? I searched their GitHub issues, and it doesn’t seem like they do.

github.com/zen-browser/desktop/issues/10560

pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works on 14 Jul 23:17 collapse

An old Lemmy post referencing a GitHub issue

This was long ago, that’s why I’m curious if something changed.

novafunc@discuss.tchncs.de on 14 Jul 22:29 next collapse

Helium is great. I love how it focuses on having 0 distractions. No popups, great default settings.

Midnight1938@reddthat.com on 14 Jul 22:32 next collapse

Used zen when it barely has a site, loved it, then they made changes and it sucked.

Helium is pretty no nonsense, wish they had containers

MrKoyun@lemmy.world on 15 Jul 01:12 next collapse

What were the changes that drove you away? I’ve been using Zen from the start and I can’t think of that many changes that you wouldn’t just be able to ignore/disable.

Midnight1938@reddthat.com on 15 Jul 03:31 collapse

I had it well configured with specific community plugins, I reinstalled and the plugins were gone from the store, i had to pull out my old firefox scripts, the address bar was transparent because the rendering was changed or something

Dropped it for floorp, been smooth sailing since, doesnt try to be the arc browser

eager_eagle@lemmy.world on 15 Jul 04:31 collapse

definitely, zen trying so hard to be arc totally ruined it

Fleppensteijn@sh.itjust.works on 14 Jul 22:42 next collapse

Since my computer is having some memory issues, I keep an eye out for it. Watching a YouTube video in Firefox took around 700 mb, opened it in Zen browser and it took >1 gb. Zen overall doesn’t seem very responsive.

antrosapien@lemmy.ml on 14 Jul 23:52 next collapse

I’ve been using both, helium mainly for sites that needs webgl (mostly my self hosted stack) and jellyfin, Grimmory, and zen for docs, dev tools and things that requires login like codegerg, kagi, OSM etc, and also got librewolf for everything else

buttmasterflex@piefed.social on 14 Jul 23:56 next collapse

From a non-technical user, Helium ships with the Manifest V2 version of Ublock Origin and has all forms of telemetry removed. So it’s more private than the base Chromium browser. I switch between Firefox forks and Helium, depending on whether a specific website works better in a chromium browser or not.

MrKoyun@lemmy.world on 15 Jul 01:13 next collapse

Zen is my main browser and Helium is my main chromium-based browser. I love both very much 🥰💋💯

BladeFederation@piefed.social on 15 Jul 02:17 collapse

Helium has uBlock Origin built in. It is the most lightweight yet functional browser I’ve found. That being said, there’s only so much you can do with browsers to slim it down, and I only notice the speed difference in truly ancient hardware. It’s also basic in terms of settings but that can be seen as a plus. Stock Firefox or even worse, Chrome or Edge feel like sensory overload to me if I go back. It annoys me that it is only available as an AppImage on Linux.

Personally I use Brave Origin on most devices, so I don’t mind Chromium, it’s actually significantly better and more secure/private on Android. On any desktop Firefox based stuff is just as good but I use the same browser for consistency and bookmark synching without an account. Brave has more active privacy features than Helium too, though Helium does remove telemetry which is the only way I’d use Chromium, so Helium is a perfectly reasonable choice.

I wasn’t aware of any controversy with Zen. It may have telemetry options but they can be turned off just like Firefox. You’re trading marginally slower updates for a better Ui, that’s the only difference from Firefox really. The maximizing of space is really cozy and macOS-y but it is more customizable if you want something a bit flashier too. It is as reasonable choice as Firefox more or less, meaning a very good one that is sadly trending down.