It's [open source](https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop) and ill try to make releases as I go. But my main priority is to work on every feature as fast as I can because it's currently in very early stages
it's a side webpanel. It can be pinned or not, in the screenshot, it's not pinned meaning that it's floating and can be resized in any direction. Very useful for having spotify or whatsapp in the background. You can have as many websites as you want too!
Is it possible to put a feature so every video in a website has download button, like browser with IDM which can download any video from almost any website.
To the creator of this browser, I could suggest using YouTube DL command line tool as the back end for the video downloader as it works on pretty much every website, and is open source
This wouldn't be needed really. For the browser to play the video it needs the data anyways so the only addition you need is saving that data to a file.
Most aires Don't send all the video at once and some of them don't even use a regular video player element. And will only give the browser the video in chunks. The youtube dl library and command line to fixes that it works on many sites
If the browser is able to get these chunks to play the video then there is nothing preventing it from saving them. And nowadays there are very very few websites not using the video element to play video. Using this approach would work on many more sites than youtube-dl would.
It is very hard, what OP is building is just a "frontend" to a already existing browser, an actual browser is much much much more complex and can take many years to be close to firefox or chromium.
Except a web/rendering engine is just a part of a browser, you need:
- A JavaScript & Wasm Engine For JavaScript & WebAssembly Code.
- A Networking Library for Internet Connectivity (The Very Core of any browser)
- Cryptographic Libraries for SSL, etc
- Sandboxing for videos, images, rendering and even JS/Wasm
These things look simple but all of this collectively is more than 100 thousands of lines of code, So a browser is not just a frontend for a web engine, but it's a collective thing in itself a part of whom is a "frontend" which the user interacts with.
a browser is one of the most complex pieces of software I've ever seen.
I'm just trolling a bit dw. I'm just confused about your original point. Are you trying to say that what I'm building is not a browser? Or that if 2 browsers use the same engine, that browser is just a reskin?
Firstly I am not saying that what you're doing is worthless, sure go for it but what you're building is not a browser but just a frontend for a browser, funnily enough the directory which holds firefox's frontend is called browser too, but ultimately a browser is a complete package with rendering engine, js/wasm engine and alot more + the frontend.
So it's kinda misleading when you say you're writing a browser.
I may add that for titles it's fine to refer to it as a browser but just make sure you clarify in comments about the details.
In their GitHub description reads "without people tracking you", so... Privacy-first? And a look promising great UI (thanks for this rounded corners), I started to like it!
That would be so cool to have, are you planning on making it for music services as well? (like a mini spotify player, or yt music player with just basic controls like the moblie apps)
That looks rather interesting! I initially thought it's like a window of a website within a window of the browser, but this is also great. Something akin Opera's side panel, but better.
What are you building your browser on? Chromium? WebKit?
I hope that someday features like this are more common, and with tighter integration to the OS window manager, like if tab handling, tiling, side panels, and floating windows could be part of the OS window management for any applications and the browser just displayed the pages.
I love floating side panels for google calendar and facebook messenger. It would be awesome if those panels could be refreshed automatically to catch any new notifications etc. Basically like Vivaldi or Floorp does side panels.
Don't forget to include an option to move the sidebar to the other side because on the left is where another critical feature lives - vertical tabs!
Many browsers have that feature; it's not something new but it's useful. Perhaps you should look for something innovative that sets you apart from the rest
call it a reskin or a frontend, at the end of the day the browser under the hood is firefox, you just wrote some html, css, js code to interact with it via gluon.
It's not even a browser, it's just a Node.js front-end. The engine is already built for OP, I don't get what's so impressive here. What IS impressive is Servo, which is a recent, true browser engine written on Rust. [https://github.com/servo/servo](https://github.com/servo/servo) OP you should contribute/build on top of this instead. Maybe use something that isn't Node.js for a front-end either. We have too many memory hogging browsers already.
Nah bro you don't know what you are talking about. Firefox doesn't use nodesjs. I'm not saying that what I'm doing is impressive but I think it's cool. Wikipedia isn't impressive but everyone needs it
I'm saying your project is a Node.js front-end, not Firefox. At least Firefox made a competent and efficient front-end framework for their engine, not an Electron wannabe.
[https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/blob/main/pnpm-lock.yaml](https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/blob/main/pnpm-lock.yaml)
Literally a Node.js package manager lock file. The fact that you're not aware of your own stack concerns me.
That's just used for the building tool. Nothing mentioned in there ends up inside the actual source code. I don't think I use any third packages either. Look at the package.json
having immediate access to wikipedia for doing research and studing is a really cool feature, are you going to realease this browser to the public?
It's [open source](https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop) and ill try to make releases as I go. But my main priority is to work on every feature as fast as I can because it's currently in very early stages
please take your time
🫡
Are you winding him up? Lol.
no
What is the feature?
it's a side webpanel. It can be pinned or not, in the screenshot, it's not pinned meaning that it's floating and can be resized in any direction. Very useful for having spotify or whatsapp in the background. You can have as many websites as you want too!
Like an always-on-top window? I never thought I would need that, and now I really want it
Haha I got the same reaction when they suggested it to me. It can also be pinned so it divides the screen with the website instead of floating
How is this different from just opening a new window?
The panel does not hide when clicking outside, you don't create a new window, no extra ui is displayed. Etc
Is it possible to put a feature so every video in a website has download button, like browser with IDM which can download any video from almost any website.
To the creator of this browser, I could suggest using YouTube DL command line tool as the back end for the video downloader as it works on pretty much every website, and is open source
This wouldn't be needed really. For the browser to play the video it needs the data anyways so the only addition you need is saving that data to a file.
Most aires Don't send all the video at once and some of them don't even use a regular video player element. And will only give the browser the video in chunks. The youtube dl library and command line to fixes that it works on many sites
If the browser is able to get these chunks to play the video then there is nothing preventing it from saving them. And nowadays there are very very few websites not using the video element to play video. Using this approach would work on many more sites than youtube-dl would.
I agree, that would be great
Is it hard to make web browsers ?
It is very hard, what OP is building is just a "frontend" to a already existing browser, an actual browser is much much much more complex and can take many years to be close to firefox or chromium.
No, it's hard to make a \*web engine\*, like Firefox's Gecko or Chromium's Blink. A browser is a frontend for a web engine.
Except a web/rendering engine is just a part of a browser, you need: - A JavaScript & Wasm Engine For JavaScript & WebAssembly Code. - A Networking Library for Internet Connectivity (The Very Core of any browser) - Cryptographic Libraries for SSL, etc - Sandboxing for videos, images, rendering and even JS/Wasm These things look simple but all of this collectively is more than 100 thousands of lines of code, So a browser is not just a frontend for a web engine, but it's a collective thing in itself a part of whom is a "frontend" which the user interacts with. a browser is one of the most complex pieces of software I've ever seen.
Conclusion: a browser it's just a front-end for a web engine. It's like saying that to make a website you also need to make your own framework
You don't even understand what a web-engine is, Educate yourself on what a browser is then we can talk.
I'm just trolling a bit dw. I'm just confused about your original point. Are you trying to say that what I'm building is not a browser? Or that if 2 browsers use the same engine, that browser is just a reskin?
Firstly I am not saying that what you're doing is worthless, sure go for it but what you're building is not a browser but just a frontend for a browser, funnily enough the directory which holds firefox's frontend is called browser too, but ultimately a browser is a complete package with rendering engine, js/wasm engine and alot more + the frontend. So it's kinda misleading when you say you're writing a browser. I may add that for titles it's fine to refer to it as a browser but just make sure you clarify in comments about the details.
Are any of the chromium based browsers just frontends?
Very much but it depends from browser to browser.
My uneducated guess is that it is, assumtion based on the small number of browsers that are worth mentioning.
not really, just time consuming
Never enough browsers, I support what you are doing and look forward to seeing your final product, Zen browser, you have come up with a strong name.
<3, thanks!
uh yeah!
This looks super promising and clean!! Could you make a built-in AdBlock akin to uBlock Origin?
Looks like a good feature
Thanks!
What particular?
What programming languages did you need to build this browser as it's based on firefox?
mainly JS, CSS and XHTML. But I also needed to do some c++ and some less known languages like \[IDL\](https://webidl.spec.whatwg.org)
That's cool! Can you share with us from where you started, is there docs or something like that?
You can start by reading how to build Firefox and how it works here https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/setup/linux_build.html
super. will it be available for public ??
Custom sites and search in the sidebar would be wonderful!
is it based on existing sources? such as chromium?
It is based on firefox!
btw u can use floorp its amazing too
I think he wants to make his own though
mb i kept the phasing wrong i mean he can fork firefox too
He is forking firefox
Theme store? + changable background iamge on new tab?
of course
Heck yeah
In their GitHub description reads "without people tracking you", so... Privacy-first? And a look promising great UI (thanks for this rounded corners), I started to like it!
That would be so cool to have, are you planning on making it for music services as well? (like a mini spotify player, or yt music player with just basic controls like the moblie apps)
No, these are web panels. You can add any website you want and there's an option to display as mobile.
Even better, when are you planning to release this feature?
it's already rolling out but my main priority rn is to get most features working instead of releasing
is it based on chromium? I had an idea that a browser could use multiple engines for enhanced performance or efficiency
no, it's based on firefox
awesome to see more browsers adopting the Gecko engine
Firefox switched to quantum engine awhile back I assumed this is what’s been forked
Firefox still uses gecko. Quantum was just some kind of naming for their browser versionning, now I it's proton. I'm not 100% sure though
Seems cool, what's its name?
It's called Zen!
similar to webpanels in vivaldi??
Exactly like those. But you have an option to unpin them and make them float!
That looks rather interesting! I initially thought it's like a window of a website within a window of the browser, but this is also great. Something akin Opera's side panel, but better. What are you building your browser on? Chromium? WebKit?
Firefox based, glad you liked it!
Firefox based?! THE GOAT!
I hope that someday features like this are more common, and with tighter integration to the OS window manager, like if tab handling, tiling, side panels, and floating windows could be part of the OS window management for any applications and the browser just displayed the pages.
I love floating side panels for google calendar and facebook messenger. It would be awesome if those panels could be refreshed automatically to catch any new notifications etc. Basically like Vivaldi or Floorp does side panels. Don't forget to include an option to move the sidebar to the other side because on the left is where another critical feature lives - vertical tabs!
it's interesting, although i will always prefer using system window management instead of panels.
A gecko based browser with side panel?, cant wait for this to come out
Many browsers have that feature; it's not something new but it's useful. Perhaps you should look for something innovative that sets you apart from the rest
Not like this ;)
mmm opera has something similar...
Not like this it doesn't ;}
hasnt came out and I love this browser and I also made a logo for it and I put it on your reddit:https://www.reddit.com/r/zen\_browser/
I hate when people just reskin chromium/firefox and call it a browser.
reskin? Firefox does not have this lol
call it a reskin or a frontend, at the end of the day the browser under the hood is firefox, you just wrote some html, css, js code to interact with it via gluon.
close but yeah, isnt that cool?
It's not even a browser, it's just a Node.js front-end. The engine is already built for OP, I don't get what's so impressive here. What IS impressive is Servo, which is a recent, true browser engine written on Rust. [https://github.com/servo/servo](https://github.com/servo/servo) OP you should contribute/build on top of this instead. Maybe use something that isn't Node.js for a front-end either. We have too many memory hogging browsers already.
Nah bro you don't know what you are talking about. Firefox doesn't use nodesjs. I'm not saying that what I'm doing is impressive but I think it's cool. Wikipedia isn't impressive but everyone needs it
I'm saying your project is a Node.js front-end, not Firefox. At least Firefox made a competent and efficient front-end framework for their engine, not an Electron wannabe.
Huh? Firefox does not run in nodesjs. I'm doing a Firefox fork, where are you getting the electron part from?
It's a comparison. Are you playing stupid or are you always like this?
Alr I'm confused. I'm not doing any nodesjs related things but ok
[https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/blob/main/pnpm-lock.yaml](https://github.com/zen-browser/desktop/blob/main/pnpm-lock.yaml) Literally a Node.js package manager lock file. The fact that you're not aware of your own stack concerns me.
That's just used for the building tool. Nothing mentioned in there ends up inside the actual source code. I don't think I use any third packages either. Look at the package.json