this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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I didn't find many comparisons between the two let alone a recent one. So they're both packages for changing Firefox prefs for better performance and or privacy. I'm interested in applying them to Zen Browser. Can you provide detailed comparisons and if I should you use both?

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[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Zen already makes use of a lot of Betterfox tweaks as I remember.

I don't believe you can use both as they both modify the same files, and would overwrite each other.

Arkenfox is geared more towards privacy at the expense of usability, so sites will break a lot more often. And there's no easy way to turn it off for only 1 site.

Personally after trying Arkenfox in the past, as well as Librewolf, it's just far too much effort dealing with the sheer amount of sites and features that stop working properly.

[–] bilb@lem.monster 2 points 1 year ago

I'm with you. I appreciate Librewolf for what it is, but to me it's just annoying by default and I've also settled recently with Zen. It has even made me get used to using vertical tabs for the first time.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does that mean you use Zen?

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah it's by far my favorite browser!

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting. People have been skeptical on here about it because of its newness, but I may give it a shot one of these days, though I'm currently okay with Waterfox so far. Thanks for sharing.

[–] mac@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Personally, I can't get used to the sidebar. I haven't spent all that much time on it.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oh, is it impossible to disable?

[–] pory@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can completely disable the sidebar in Waterfox and it's not enabled by default.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Right, though I was asking about Zen. I can't stand sidebar tabs, haha; too much wasted space and I don't often even view the tab strip relative to merely running searches through it with % .

[–] pory@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ooh. I saw someone respond to you saying you liked Waterfox, with their comment being about disliking the sidebar.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

Huh, I don't see that comment; got a link? I thought this was about Zen, haha. Too many Fx alts!

[–] mac@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

To be honest, I thought the ux was the appeal of Zen, since if I wasn't going to use that I'd probably use Mullvad browser, or vanilla FF with arkenfox

[–] juli@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Both of them are very well documented with sources and explanations in the comments. You could pick and choose what you need and understand to create your own. Speaking from experience, using these prefs without knowing what they do might cause you a headache down the road when something breaks.

Betterfox should be the one with least breakage.