Arc - Reinventing The Browser \ stacker news ~tech

2765 sats \ 13 comments \ @davidw 9 Jan tech

Arc - New Browser + open-source alternative

Arc	Copycat - ArcFox
Closed-source	Open-Source
Demo URL	Demo URL, Install URL
Company GitHub - No Repo	GitHub Page
Chromium (Mac, Windows)	Firefox

Note: The open-source theme for Firefox could be a cool starter-kit for a ~nostr browser.

Negatives of Arc

Requires an email to use (for syncing profiles across devices)
Not the 'most private' browser like Tor, Brave & others.
Founded by ex-Facebook employees.
Not comfortable posting inside ~privacy but privacy policy here

Positives of Arc

Slick onboarding & UX
Improvement from Google Chrome for profile switching & privacy
Not collecting data of sites visited
Inspired a FOSS project for Firefox
AI features, if that's your thang
Future facing, fun to play around with!
What we should aspire for on Nostr/FOSS alternatives

Example UX

Data Collection

view all related items

334 sats \ 1 reply \ @tomlaies 9 Jan

"ex-Facebook employees" isn't a negative because of the "ex" part.

Chromium however is a negative

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw OP 9 Jan

Very true 😅 but VC funded so definitely profits to generate in future.

I guess that’s where the AI ‘max’ features come in.

313 sats \ 2 replies \ @garyKrause_ 9 Jan

Love Arc but might switch to tne FOSS mod now. Thanks for sharing.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @davidw OP 9 Jan

What have you loved most about arc?

Looks great what they’ve built. And the shareable spaces is a really cool feature. Like a bookmark list but within the browser.

The FOSS mod project needs some love and some help to bring it along to get it even close to matching. It’s mostly just a theme update at this time. But by having Nostr integration it could help get more hands on deck and simplify the auth process drastically. Be it for list sharing, publishing content and/or wallet support.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @garyKrause_ 10 Jan

I'm a simple man. I came for the vertical tabs and stayed for the spaces. I guess Cmd+Shift+C is a noce shortcut since i share a lot of URLs.

240 sats \ 1 reply \ @mmall 12 Jan

yes nice, i just started using ARC and I like it however my alby extension doesn't seem to like getting into stacker news so that is a rather large negative.

Does the open-source version allow extensions?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw OP 12 Jan

The open-source 'version' is literally just a small theme change right now, using Firefox. Got a long way for it to catch-up to the Arc experience. Existing extensions function exactly the same.

272 sats \ 0 replies \ @Alby 10 Jan

Even our extension works there!

209 sats \ 1 reply \ @shyfire 9 Jan

deleted by author

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw OP 9 Jan

“We don't have pricing plans for Arc Max at the moment! All Max features are experimental and free.”

Safe to say they will charge for those features soon & add a paid option. Burning through VC money for the time being it looks like.

209 sats \ 0 replies \ @geeknik 9 Jan

It's a shame the author of Arcfox doesn't have time to work on it. 8 months since the last update.

1 sat \ 0 replies \ @legxxi 10 Jan

VC funded, ex-Facebook employees, closed source. I stopped reading.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 10 Jan

I don’t see the ex-Facebook employees as a negative, at least not purely based on that fact. Meta has employed a ton of very talented people over the years. Not all of them worked there because they shared the goals of the company. It’s an accolade for many to accumulate.

Just in case you’re wondering: No, I’ve never worked there and have no interest in doing so.