(Old News) Arc Browser Put on Maintenance Mode, AI Browser Takes Priority

Off Topic
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(…) the YouTube video the company just released sounds like the thing companies say right before they kill a product. It’s just that Arc won’t change much anymore. It’ll get stability updates and bug fixes (…)

This was clearly inevitable, and it seems to be the beginning of the end for Arc Browser. They hadn’t even ported certain features from the macOS version to the Windows variant befkre the announcement, and now both will stay the same with no new features or significant improvements.

Browsers such as Firefox regularly receive improvements, since, within regards to browsers, there truly is no “Ah, we’ve completed everything this browser needs; let’s relax and leave it on maintenance-only mode :wine_glass:.” Instead, there will always be a new feature to add, or a significant improvement. Thus, TBC’s claim for Arc Browser being “feature-complete” is factually incorrect, because they still have various issues, which are feature improvements, such as being unable to export bookmarks, cookies, history, etc from Arc Browser. Yet I do agree many can perceive something as complete in different ways.

Ultimately, however, the lesson remains the same for Arc Browser and new trends in general.

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Can’t fault a tech company chasing growth and differentiation for changing gears and direction. Tech is cut throat.

The way these companies ride one hype cycle (Brave started with cryptocurrency micro-payments, for example) to the next, leaves a lot to be desired for early adopters. And that’s a problem, because technology products only gradually go mainstream; unless it is a groundbreaking invention like ChatGPT, then products chasing rapid growth, as opposed to gradual, usually rely on some form of network effect (ex) leading to all sorts of dark patterns. It seems some of these same companies have shorter product cycles & patience to gradually build things brick by brick.

The next time anyone (looking at you phl00t0 ; ) faults under-resourced FOSS projects for winding down, remind them that well-resourced products are no exception![1]

Either way, unfortunate, but c’est la vie.

  1. What winds down FOSS projects is rarely lack of funds, but mostly a lack of motivation (ex), which is the same for these other proprietary projects. ↩︎

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