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On 05/22/2017 12:40 PM, Kent Fredric wrote: |
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> On Mon, 22 May 2017 18:33:47 +0000 (UTC) |
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> Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> |
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>> Having just recently allowed Firefox to upgrade from 45 to 52, I'm now |
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>> hobbled with the GTK3 file browser dialog. |
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>> |
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>> It's horrible. |
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> |
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> Indeed :/. You're not alone, but what can we do about it? |
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> |
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> Its not like we have sufficient staff to maintain a "Firefox but with |
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> GTK2" fork, heck, we can't even keep alsa support. |
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> |
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> I've gone to using other older firefox forks (palemoon) instead simply |
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> because this march of progress doesn't seem to be delivering on that |
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> "progress", only making the user experience more boring and generic, |
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> and thus, more useless. |
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> |
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> "One size fits all, copy everyone else" is not a useful axiom to me. |
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> |
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> But at this rate, every browser trying to be "more like what the masses |
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> want" will end me up having no browser that exists and works that works |
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> how I want. |
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> |
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|
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I'm in a similar camp, using Pale Moon as my primary browser. I've found |
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the ads and constant bombardment of Javascript don't make for fun, |
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intuitive, fast, or useful browsing. There's much one can do to combat |
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it, but I think what needs to happen is an anti-Web 3.0 (2.0 was the |
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Semantic Web and the self-publishing boom) browser: a browser that |
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focuses on the "interlinked documents" Web and not the "every page is an |
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application" Web. I think there's sufficient demand for that version of |
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the Web to attract attention. I lack the experience to tackle it myself, |
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or I'd have started the project already. |
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|
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It's possible to mold an existing browser to suit that ideal, but it |
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requires consistent vigilance to make sure new features or new defaults |
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don't reverse the work you put into it. It's stressful, I see why people |
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get tired of it. |
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|
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(shameless praise follows) |
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|
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Another alternative is the gopher protocol, which is slowly gaining a |
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following. It doesn't fill all the same holes the Web does currently, |
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but it could with a high quality client. Current clients are rather |
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lacking, though lynx can be configured to work with gopher and even |
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download images/videos to be opened by a custom program (I like piping |
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images to feh). All lynx is really missing is the 'unofficial' gopher+, |
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which adds a few more data types and allows direct linking to HTTP |
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addresses. |
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|
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An additional benefit is Gopher -- being plain-text -- can easily be |
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filtered and "blockers" could block specific things if textual ads |
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become a problem. Many existing tools (like awk or sed) could be |
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leveraged to make that happen. It's also stupid simple to put a "gopher |
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hole" together, since it's just basic I/O. Even servers can be put |
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together in ~100 lines of bash. It's a breath of fresh air compared to |
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working with the Web, imo. |
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|
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(usual disclaimer that my views don't represent Gentoo's official views, |
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etc) |
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|
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~zlg |
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-- |
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Daniel Campbell - Gentoo Developer |
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OpenPGP Key: 0x1EA055D6 @ hkp://keys.gnupg.net |
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fpr: AE03 9064 AE00 053C 270C 1DE4 6F7A 9091 1EA0 55D6 |
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