I think I’ve finally found it: The elusive Firefox fork for my day-to-day needs. It needed to have sane defaults like Librewolf but also as user empowering as Vivaldi (as well as not being proprietary which is cringe).
Zen I believe accomplishes both of that. It’s a relatively new project but it does have active development with new changes added every release. Here’s the rundown:
- Licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, the same as Firefox. So enjoy that warm feeling you get when using open source software that won’t pull the rug from under you.
- Follows Firefox release cycles: If a new Firefox version comes out, Zen is not behind.
- Instead of horizontal tabs, Zen only uses vertical tabs for navigation. If this is a deal breaker, then Zen isn’t for you :(
- Supports split view, workspaces, browser profiles, side panels, tab unloading (saving memory by deactivating a tab), theming, mods and everything else that base Firefox supports (like firefox sync).
- Cannot play DRM-protected content as of yet on Windows and MacOS (rare Linux W?) due to license fees. This is your netflix, your disney+, your spotify.
- No mobile version (nor does it seem to be planned), though firefox sync is still supported.
- Looks GORGEOUS. I never realized how ugly Firefox looks by default, esp on desktops like GNOME and KDE where it tries to integrate itself into the system theme.
- Performs FABULOUSLY: Optimizations from the firefox level to even providing an optimized binary executable for modern CPUs.
- SANE defaults like HTTPS everywhere, no link prefetching (where the browser loads links that it thinks you’re going to go to), uncluttered Firefox home.
- Probably more I’m not listing
Download here: https://zen-browser.app/download
How do I use Zen?
Well firstly, Zen doesn’t come with any extensions by default. So I made sure to chuck in my Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger, ClearURLs, LibRedirect, etc. It also uses secure DNS by default with Cloudflare so you might want to turn that off (I have a DNS homeserver that does encrypted DNS through other means).
I also really like using the side panel to put my wiki sites and dictionaries in. I’ve only been using Zen for a week now and it seems to be my forever browser of choice.
I’ve always been interested in Firefox forks but I cannot live without Sync so I’ve never tried them. I’ve also been interested in Vivaldi but it being proprietary held me back.
Does Sync work properly - Say, I use Zen browser on my Linux PC and then I’m able to access my tabs on my iOS or android Firefox browser without issue and vice versa?
Do I have to set it up somehow? What about history, bookmarks etc? You also mentioned add-ons not being enabled by default. But they are there, right? I just have to install them? Also, is the DRM-content playable on all Linux machines regardless of distro?
Is it safe - am I not giving my Mozilla ID to a third party?
Yup Sync works the exact same on Zen as in Firefox since Zen is just Firefox at its core. You just sign in as normal and your tabs should be there
There are no pre-installed extensions (as compared to Librewolf which has ublock pre-installed), all firefox compatible extensions are compatible with Zen minus the ones that obviously clash with Zen’s design like vertical tab extensions. Just install them from the addons store as you do normally.
Yes, Mozilla handles the Widevine licensing for Linux but you’re locked to a lower level of DRM (720p instead of 4K afaik). There are extensions that re-enable HD content that just spoof your user-agent (your browser’s identity) to mimic a Windows or Mac machine.