Those “personal pet projects” are why Google and FireFox exist as many pieces of their projects often rely on open source components often maintained by a single person.
Those are a different kind of pet projects, like some small random math library developed by a guy in Nebraska that a big software stack depends on (there’s a relevant xkcd about it somewhere). The thing is, if support for such a project stops, the Microsofts, Googles and Firefoxes of the world are able to take over support, pay for it to be supported, or work around it in another way. Plus they are usually careful about which dependency they introduce, if something isn’t governed properly or does not have wide community support… it’s unlikely to be included.
Taking on a whole browser as a pet project is something entirely different. Browsers are huge and complex. You’re basically betting that mr-cheffy will be able to keep up with all the changes, like security updates, feature updates and bugfixes, that upstream Firefox produces, and that he will be able to keep his own part of the codebase secure, and that he won’t get burned out or bored with the project in one or two years.
For these reasons, I will never put all my eggs into the basket of some 1-man browser project, sorry.
These pet projects also strip telemetry and respect your privacy.
Turning off telemetry is just a few clicks, or about:config flags in Firefox anyway. And “respect your privacy” is just meaningless buzzword bingo. If you go to facebook or google in zenbrowser, your data is harvested just like everyone else’s. Privacy is a process not a product (browser).
How can something be dependent on firefox but then you put all your eggs in the basket of one person?
This is also INCREDIBLY disingenuous and strips credit from all the other developers who have contributed to the open source project. And even should a project go stale, the beauty of open source is, someone else can fork it and continue it. When a private, closed source project makes a change you don’t like or abandons a project, well, you’re SOL.
This reads as incredibly pro-capitalist, pro-private corporation because they have big dollar.
Privacy isn’t a buzzword, it’s a right and we should have a right to choose it. I choose a product that has no function to collect data such that it doesn’t exist to be collected rather than infrastructure being supported that can allow it to be exposed. As generations continue, being on locked down platforms and sharing your data is becoming more and more normalized.
Also, that’s why I don’t use facebook or google. You, yourself, are on a decentralized, open source platform. Why not go back to reddit? (Though r/browsers voted Zen as the top browser, maybe that’s why you’re here)
Also, it’s a browser dude, there’s hundreds of forks. Try them out? What’s wrong with that? Zen attempts to build a browser that has a different experience to your standard and thousands of people like that. Why is that a problem?
What open source project hurt you? Who was it? Do they have your family?
Those are a different kind of pet projects, like some small random math library developed by a guy in Nebraska that a big software stack depends on (there’s a relevant xkcd about it somewhere). The thing is, if support for such a project stops, the Microsofts, Googles and Firefoxes of the world are able to take over support, pay for it to be supported, or work around it in another way. Plus they are usually careful about which dependency they introduce, if something isn’t governed properly or does not have wide community support… it’s unlikely to be included.
Taking on a whole browser as a pet project is something entirely different. Browsers are huge and complex. You’re basically betting that mr-cheffy will be able to keep up with all the changes, like security updates, feature updates and bugfixes, that upstream Firefox produces, and that he will be able to keep his own part of the codebase secure, and that he won’t get burned out or bored with the project in one or two years.
For these reasons, I will never put all my eggs into the basket of some 1-man browser project, sorry.
Turning off telemetry is just a few clicks, or about:config flags in Firefox anyway. And “respect your privacy” is just meaningless buzzword bingo. If you go to facebook or google in zenbrowser, your data is harvested just like everyone else’s. Privacy is a process not a product (browser).
How can something be dependent on firefox but then you put all your eggs in the basket of one person?
This is also INCREDIBLY disingenuous and strips credit from all the other developers who have contributed to the open source project. And even should a project go stale, the beauty of open source is, someone else can fork it and continue it. When a private, closed source project makes a change you don’t like or abandons a project, well, you’re SOL.
This reads as incredibly pro-capitalist, pro-private corporation because they have big dollar.
Privacy isn’t a buzzword, it’s a right and we should have a right to choose it. I choose a product that has no function to collect data such that it doesn’t exist to be collected rather than infrastructure being supported that can allow it to be exposed. As generations continue, being on locked down platforms and sharing your data is becoming more and more normalized.
Also, that’s why I don’t use facebook or google. You, yourself, are on a decentralized, open source platform. Why not go back to reddit? (Though r/browsers voted Zen as the top browser, maybe that’s why you’re here)
Also, it’s a browser dude, there’s hundreds of forks. Try them out? What’s wrong with that? Zen attempts to build a browser that has a different experience to your standard and thousands of people like that. Why is that a problem?
What open source project hurt you? Who was it? Do they have your family?