Does anyone use / has used FLOORP browser?

Chat about Zorin
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So, despite the silly name, Floorp is a fork of Firefox. I don't want to use Chromium based browsers, and there are few alternatives to try. I'm already using Zen, which works fine with Windows but still has a few bugs in Linux... I'll give them time, but it's always good to have a few cards to play with.

Have you used it? How is it for you? Does it have any problems running in Linux?

I've been finding myself being pushed back into using Windows due to "time I don't have" issues I can't resolve quickly, which are ruining my downtime from work.

I don't think I'm having problems with Zorin_OS as such, I think it's just glitches with Zen as a beta (yeah, I could start using FF again - but...), but at the end of the day, I can't watch videos on YouTube, or stream Prime (subscription) via Kodi, without everything locking up. Only rebooting the PC gets a result as I can't even reach the terminal, and then everything freezes up again within minutes. Zen is working perfectly on Windows.

I do not want to keep getting pushed into Windows because it "just works".

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I've poked at it a bit. It seems decent and certainly didn't give me any problems, but any Floorp specific documentation is in Japanese, unlocalized, so you're going to be experimenting with anything that you're unfamiliar with. The UIs themselves are localized, so the settings aren't a sea of kanji and kana (though there's some minor imperfect English); I'm only talking about support pages. On the whole, seems fine, did nothing to make it worth the trouble of switching browsers (for me).

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I had this same experience. I poked at it. I did not reply right away because I did not use Floorp as a daily browser.
It... did not impress me in any way to make me want to switch to it.

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@Locklear93 and @Aravisian, thanks for your insight. As such, Floorp isn't looking good for me, is it?

Just spent another frustrating evening with everything freezing / completely locking up, and not being able to watch anything, including YouTube- unless its on Windows. It is after 2 AM, so I am off to bed now. Meh :face_exhaling:

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It wasn't impressive, but it's in the software store, so it's zero effort to give it a try for yourself. It didn't impress us with any advantage over Firefox, but if it stops your freezing, that's worthwhile, and the features may be of more interest to you than they were to us. In particular, I have less than no interest in a right hand sidebar or anything it brings, which was the most obvious change. Anyway, you could do an install of Floorp as flatpak and try it for YouTube, then drop it in no time if it doesn't work out.

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Browsers tend/to be Chrome based not Chromium, more specifically browsers use Chrome Extensions, that is the difference. Chromium is a poor attempt at making Chrome less Google controlled. I've got Firefox running on PCLOS Debian and no issues with streaming. You could give Midori a try? Haven't checked its streaming capabilities.

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I only tried it briefly, but didn't see the point to it as I'm already using Firefox to customize it to my needs. That's the neat thing about Firefox, and essentially what Floorp does as well, distributing their own custom view of what Firefox can do.

Zen browser was also extremely disappointing. For one, it's an Electron-based app, which means that you are using Chromium under the hood. To me, it also felt quite slow and clunky to use ,also explained by the use of Electron

EDIT: I think I may have spoken too soon. I was confused by this issue that mentioned a memory leaked cause by Electron, but I've been looking a bit more and that's about the only issue of this sort, and there's nothing that I could find that it's based on Electron.

The split views being the only feature that was interesting, but you can achieve the same effect by placing two windows side by side, which has the benefit that you can focus either one of them using native keyboard shortcuts. Overall, it just felt slow and clunky to setup and use.

If you've made your workflow revolve a single tool (Zen browser), then I agree. The only real choice you have is to wait for better support or use another operating system.

However, you have options, but you should try them yourself to see if they work. I don't think you'll have any issues with Floorp but if you don't like Firefox already then you may be disappointed. In any case, I would recommend to use the best tool for the job. Whether that's Firefox or Windows... is up to you.

It's the other way around: Chromium is the open source browser that is used as the based for Google Chrome, Brave, Vivaldi, Edge, etc.

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I gave Floorp good long test on Windows if you like appearance customization and features it's has more than any FF fork I've tried. Ultimately that wasn't that important to me. I'm drawn to a FF base because Chromium/Chrome will have changes that limit how adblockers function coming in June of 2025. Ublock Origin being one of the targets. I have tried 17 browsers in the last week.

Installed via PPA and setup on Zorin I'll give it a week and see how it goes.

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I used to daily-drive it for a while. It worked fine for me; only stopped using it because I was gonna distro-hop again and there wasn't anything that appealed to me enough to install it again instead of using the pre-installed firefox

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It’s tough when things aren’t smooth on Linux, especially with issues like YouTube or streaming freezing up. I haven’t used Floorp myself, but I’ve heard good things about it being a decent Firefox alternative. Maybe giving Zen a bit more time to iron out the bugs on Linux might be worth it, but I can see why you'd want a few other options.

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Thanks to @Sorro , @zenzen , @swarfendor437 , @Locklear93 , @Aravisian and @alejandroglfm , for your considered replies.
It is true that Zen is making great strides forwards from the Alpha version I first used. The must frustrating issue is that it works so much better on Windows 10. I will give it time...

Sorry for the brief reply, I'm seriously pushed for time. I'll add more later.

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Out of curiosity, what were you using before Zen?

Vivaldi, though is Chromium, also has the same feature to have multiple tabs in the same side-by-side view.

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I use Brave - it has a built-in adblocker and they announced they will keep blocking ads even after Chrome makes it more difficult to do so. I suppose I'll wait and see what happens in the end.

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Good to hear, Mozzilla has said they will ignore the standard also.

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@zenzen , I've used Firefox for years, I'm just a bit unhappy about the way it has forced updates that include privacy-breaching inclusions recently. There are a few other things it included during recent updates that I didn't ask for too, my settings were changed and somehow, all of my extensions and addons vanished. I had to manually reinstall them all, which was annoyingly time consuming.

I really do appreciate how quickly FF installs security patches, I really have no complaints about that. I just get antsy when any company over-reaches and forces something to over-ride my settings. By all means, please inform me about everything new, but do not mess with my settings! They're how I like them and no matter how great something new is, I'll take sometime to learn and review everything, get a feel for how others think and feel, before I decide - in my own good time - to stay as I am, or make some beneficial changes... see why I hate Windows and Microsoft?

@MidnightRose , yes, I have tried Brave and I hated it. I installed it on WX and it was like Edge, always running in the background, doing its thing, taking up resources and annoying the heck out of me. Worse still, deleting it did not remove it from my laptop, even using Geek Uninstaller, which is a fantastic tool for Windows. No, I had to dig up every trace of it from the Registry and behead it, drive a steak through its heart, before I finally removed every trace - just like an original vampire. :man_vampire: :rofl:

I think it's important for Firefox to continue, because we really need an alternative to Chromium, so I use both Firefox and Zen at the moment. I'll check out the other FF based suggestions sometime over the weekend. The main things for me are: respect my privacy and my settings, and at least aim for stability. Zen has improved a lot, I'm just miffed because it works SOOOooo much better on Windows than Zorin.

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I stayed with Chrome. It has all my passwords and gives me customized news. My Android phone spies on me anyway. I'm not afraid of them. It's enuf to be rid of Windows and its bloat, nagging and refusing to install.

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@TabNumlock , I get what you're saying, but my phone and my laptops don't talk to each other, so that's great. Also, I've not been subjected to adverts for YEARS, and I do not want that to change. So, if my phone does spy on me, it'll only get one facet of what makes me, me.

It is so great to be free of Windows chains though, you're so right!

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That's a silly name for a browser, I agree. It sounds like someone tripping on a wet floor sound.

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OG Chrome by Google does the same thing. When it updates, then it says I dont need those extensions I installed anymore. Who does Google think they are, my king? Who elected it prime dictator?

Were going into a time where every corporation wants to run our lives. Like Louis Rossman always says, you will own nothing, be happy we dont alter the deal further. Aint that the truth lol.

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Yeah, I don't blame you. Mozilla needs to get their whole act together... I wouldn't hold my breath, though. What's nice about Firefox is that it remains one of the most customizable web browsers out there. In particular, I like that I can save my settings to a plain text file which I can backup and restore from very easily.
If you want a slower pace of updates, I'd suggest trying the Extended Support Release (ESR) version.

What I do is create backups of my Firefox profiles regularly, since all your settings and extensions are stored in one folder. I use this to restore in case something goes wrong, or when re-installing the OS from scratch, moving to another computer, etc.

But in any case I always use more than one browser, and I'd suggest you do the same. Each browser has a specific purpose: social media, casual browsing, online shopping, etc. This helps me stay well organized and use the exact number of extensions/settings that I need for a particular task. Incidentally, this separation of concerns also helps to protect my privacy since I'm not putting all the eggs in one basket, so to speak.

As an alternative to Firefox with great privacy defaults and regular updates, you can try Librewolf.

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