Honestly I donβt think itβs much to ask to make the browser as lean as possible and have development focused on browsing and leave most of the rest to extensions. Itβs kind more like where we were 14 years ago.
Edit:
Features I wouldnβt mind built in would be much like what vibi suggested. Built in volume control , per tab. Stuff like that makes sense.
With it, you can open tabs in different 'containers', which have their own set of cookies, etc.. So, for example, you can be logged into two accounts for the same website, just in different containers, or keep all your shopping accounts in one container (and set those sites to always open in that container) to reduce tracking and targeting.
About synchronization, one i've never seen is tabs, being able to open any tabs on one device to another. Maybe the clipboard could also be useful to share link/text to another device...
Data saving option for mobile netwerk , and website's RSS feed finder , webpage translation too .... As for what I don't want to see : big installation size , ugly design and tracking
I really just want web browsers to die, and be replaced by one of the slimmed down options like gemini, gopher, or some markdown viewer.
The web just keeps getting increasingly bloated and ad-ridden, and filled with popups. Web browsers are as complex as entire operating systems now, so only 2 orgs (google and mozilla) have the resources and expertise to build a browser, and mozilla might throw in the towel eventually, leaving the internet as one big google ad.
IE move viewing of mostly static content into these simple variants like gemini, and move dynamic things to local apps with API access.
that's a quite pessimistic stance, yes I do agree that web browsers are complexe and hard to maintain, but they can do more than viewing websites, you can play games, draw art, video chat, PDF viewing and editing, you can do a lot with just one app.. that's the beauty of Web browsers.. The problem is in the Ad business model..
The question is: should they? There is a larger philosophical divide about whether software tools should be small and purpose-built, or monolithic. Having one do-it-all tool can be convenient but also creates a huge amount of overhead and complexity.
I go back and forth myself. I love the convenience of monolithic tools, but miss the way a small, purpose-built tool can really do its job well.
It rather sounds like too little free RAM or too agressive RAM management (frequent on Chinese phones) forcing Firefox to kill the tab as soon as you leave it.
Personally, I'd be happy with a web browser that doesn't make me jump through hoops to access a HTTPS site with certificate errors on a local IP address.
I don't care if 192.168.1.1 is using a self-signed certificate. I just want to configure my fucking router.
I'd like to be able to link a web app and its mobile app (lemmy.world and Jerboa for example). And to set a limit to the amount of time I spend on the pair. And have that sync across all my devices.
I spend too much time on Lemmy. And I do use an app timer on my phone. I need the website to take away from that same timer as well. When I use the website on my phone and on my laptop. I'm happy to make this clearer.
background/defocused tabs are 'paused' by default.
paused meaning no runtime execution of scripts or anything else.
firstly, there's always some security and plenty of privacy mischief around focus.
secondly, it's almost always wasting cycles, so its just wasteful of resources and energy.
ofc with some option for you to eg. right-click on a tab and mark it as 'runtime in background' or something, for webmail or messengers etc which you do want runtime.
but it should essentially be whitelisted.
i've actually played with this in the firefox debugger and it essentially appears feasible so really hope this feature comes oneday - or i finally get some time to look into making an addon for it.
firstly, there's always some security and plenty of privacy mischief around focus.
Oh, how so?
i've actually played with this in the firefox debugger and it essentially appears feasible so really hope this feature comes oneday - or i finally get some time to look into making an addon for it
that's cool, yes a browser should stop using resources when you stop using it ( minimize it ), or using that particular tab by making it inactive, chromium based browsers behave like that if I'm not mistaken
check here for some basic examples. eg. it can be used to leak info from one context to another.
there's ofc legit uses for it too, which is why i argue for user intervention.
chromium based browsers behave like that if Iβm not mistaken
i may be wrong? but my understanding is they'll currently limit resources, but execution still takes place?
that's definitely useful, but my argument is for for an option where CPU resources be limited to 0 in background (without user intervention).
I don't mind ads when they're reasonable. If it helps fund your website at all, advertise away. But when there's a sticky banner plus an autoplay video ad reducing my mobile viewport to a ridiculous degree, and the X buttons are too small to click and ad loading completely breaks the search bar until it's done (hi fandom wiki) I want to be able to say "fuck these ads in particular"
Iβm still looking for the browser with the best tab design and management (sync across devices being a requirement). Arc was pretty good in this regard, but the AI stuff was too obnoxious for me. Now Iβm back to Safari.
As an addition to the translation tool (context menu in Firefox) it would be nice to have a conversion tool for the conversion of temperatures and lengths. I know there are addons for this purpose, but last time i checked they weren't good or they were a hassle to use. Opera nailed it a few years ago with a little pop-up window when text got highlighted. It recognized when it was a SI unit. This is a feature that I have not seen in any other browser yet.