Not sure why that link is showing like that. Anyway, Proton is developing a new web browser. Thatās what this is about
Bloody hell, Protonās absolutely determined to get a foothold wherever it can ā the new, premium, pay-to-use Google. Itās truly pathetic.
Weāve already got Firefox, Brave, Tor, Mullvad and, soon, Ladybird, but I suppose thatās still not enough ā just like with Proton Chat, where weāve already got Signal and SimpleX, but even that isnāt enough.
Proton is sickening and has become exactly what it set out to fight against: locking its users into its own ecosystems (for a fee, of course).
the new, premium, pay-to-use Google. Itās truly pathetic.
you want privacy? pay. Also Proton offers a totally free tier soā¦ not really accurate
Proton is sickening and has become exactly what it set out to fight against: locking its users into its own ecosystems (for a fee, of course).
Lol. They are building an ecosystem but you can always easily migrate away if you want (except SL because of the nature of email). And also no oneās forcing you to use all of Protonās services. You can just use Mail or Pass for example and nothing else.
Now as to the news itself. Why is Proton doing this?? Like others have said there is already Ladybird in the works and Proton even sponsored them.
Always nice to have more options.
However it would be nice if they focused a bit more on fixing what theyāve already got instead of the constant stream of new products. There are so many improvements that could be made to Mail/Simple Login, VPN clients, Drive, Calendar, etc.
Iām not entirely sure why either. Honstly, it seems kinda pointless to me considering weāve already got so many browsers and Iām sure Protons isnāt going to be much different than some of the others.
I know Proton is supposed to be a privacy focused company, but the only reason I can think of for creating another browser is to collect the data from it. I donāt know that however, and maybe someone knows something I donāt.
Even when disagreeing, be agreeable. Donāt call names. This isnāt reddit.
I donāt see the point in Proton having their own browser. Especially if there is no profit motive for them. I cannot see myself paying for a browser. Even if their browser is 100% free, Iām not sure if this is the best place to spend their resources. I donāt want my Proton account to be linked to my Proton browser activity. I also think it will be very telling if they opt for Chromium vs. Firefox.
So you just donāt like having too many options?
I get being annoyed that Proton seemingly cant stay focused on one product for very long but it also seems like your issue is that you donāt want more then like 4 options.
This has been there business model for a looong time. That is the whole point of forcing people buy bundles and incentivizing using multiple products by making it cheaper then using one.
So you just donāt like having too many options?
I get being annoyed that Proton seemingly cant stay focused on one product for very long but it also seems like your issue is that you donāt want more then like 4 options.
We already have a choice; we already have a whole host of browsers and two very good messaging apps. What Proton is doing is further fragmenting the user base.
Firefox is struggling, Brave has a solid user base, I think, and Ladybird still needs to win people over; Proton wonāt bring anything to the table apart from even more fragmentation.
The same goes for Proton Chat: we already have Signal and SimpleX, which are struggling against competition from WhatsApp and Telegram; Proton will divide users even further.
Having more choice isnāt necessarily a good thing; services that are already well-established risk suffering as a result.
And just as before, Proton is now an ecosystem that will claim victims.
I sincerely hope that Proton Browser and Chat will fail.
The browser ecosystem is a little crowded, sure. But there are gaps in the market that could be improved upon.
Id like to see an anonymity browser like Tor Browser that isnāt built on gecko, for example. And Brave, while a decent anti-fingerprint browser, does have its fair share of issues - I would consider replacing it, should another strong option emerge
Whether Proton will actually build a tool that closes one such gap is another question. I dont have any interest in a whitelabelled Mulvad Browser remix
I donāt think browsers are fragmented in the same way messaging apps are. Theyāre completely different scenarios. Using Proton Browser doesnāt prevent anyone from interacting with Firefox, Brave, or Ladybird users because they all access the same web. Not counting hobby project forks, because everyone and their cow seems to be making one, but actual viable competition is a great thing. Proton is a juggernaut that can bring that. I for one certainly donāt want my choice between Brave or Firefox. Ladybird being a completely new engine, it is definitely going to need to mature for my taste even when itās released.
And realistically, how many browsers are even recommended here? Excluding Tor, itās what, two or three? On Android, itās practically down to one I think at this point. Firefox struggling is not an argument against new competition, I promise you, theyāre shooting themselves in the foot perfectly on their own without new competition. Proton doesnāt need to replace Firefox or Ladybird to justify its existence. It only needs to offer privacy, integration, ad blocking, and convenience that some people prefer.
And what exactly is wrong with an ecosystem? Ecosystems are not inherently bad. The problems come when companies create hardware lock in, or make leaving difficult, or when users fail to keep independent backups and give themselves no 3-2-1 backup practical way out. Proton offering interoperable services is not automatically comparable to Apple locking hardware, software, purchases, and accessories together.
Hoping a product fails before it even has the chance to compete is a strange position. Seem unreasonably angry about this for some reason. Let it launch, judge what it actually offers, and let people decide whether it deserves to succeed.
Your prefrence is everyone is centralized into one or two browser and chat options?
How do you know? All the options we currently have are flawed. No harm in Proton throwing its hat into the ring.
Fair, although I think having less choice is far more likely to be a bad thing.
The Proton browser makes sense, especially from an organizational or business perspective, which is effectively dominated by Edge and Chrome.
Itās unfortunate that proton is creating yet another extremly big time sink instead of improving their current product. This new bottomless time sink is never going to be filled, when compared with the competition that have much more ressources and are dedicated to a browser. Iām unlikely to swap out my Vivaldi browser with the new kid on the block with no customization and an unsure future of yet another sideline project.
The placement of their offering could be useful, i.e. a remplacement for brave (which I dont trust the parent company), with anti-fingerprint capability, but how much time will this take while they could have improved simplelogin, mail, drive, drive for photo, linux client for vpn, dedicated contact app, contact sync on android, simplelogin integration into mail they never materialized? This is so unfortunate.
off topic: limited resources
Thereās a persistent narrative that claims Protonās new product offerings detract from efforts to improve existing products. Where is this coming from?
Proton is a very large company, with lots of money and resources. Iāve seen no evidence to suggest slow development on existing tools is the result of limited resources being allocated towards different projects. Iāve been working under the assumption that the improvements they āfailā to add to existing tools just isnāt important to their business strategy
I do believe that ānew tool = old tools are improved at a slower rateā is a logical fallacy. I expect each project hires different devs, thus development on existing tools would proceed at the same pace regardless. Iāve no reason to believe a new browser project would impact the dev schedule on other tools
This is key. An ecosystem may or may not be good for individuals (I personally donāt mind it). But a small business or organization needs a āsolutionā. Proton continues to build a solution that is attractive to organizations who want a stable, predictable, and private communication infrastructure. This is a win for Proton, for privacy, and for individuals. Privacy needs to be normalized. Right now the privacy web browser market is competing for the small group of privacy-loving outliers. The Proton ecosystem, while relevant to individuals, is going straight at Google/Microsoft. A browser from Proton seems like a no-brainer. My humble opinion.
I think what everyone is missing here is exposure. There are so many tools out there that nobody ever uses. If you want to grab the attention of the masses, you need to stand out and provide value where itās understandable. Normal users really canāt understand the differences between all the browsers now. If you give them 1 whole package, it is very easy to communicate the product. This is why Apple/Microsoft are so successful, they communicate understandable solutions. If you want to compete you have to follow the same strategy. Proton luckily is trying to protect users.
there is no time to wait, you have to get in the market as fast as possible, you can fix the problem things later on. Proton is using the same strategy as MS/Apple but honestly itās the only way to be successful.
I am not against Proton launching new products and services. I just donāt think this is the kind of new project that should be a priority. I would rather Proton develop a private eBook (EPUB) reader with great UI and UX rivalling Apple Books and Google Playbooks. Thatās something I would use.
I would also be happier if they developed private medical software to handle patient data, even if itās for the exclusive use of healthcare providers, of which there are many.
With that said, there is still a lot of improvement to be done on Protonās current services. I would like to see upload links in Proton Drive, so I can invite others to securely upload files in my account in a dedicated folder. I would also like to see better support for anonymous payments.
Canāt wait for ProtonLinux and ProtonCoin. Maybe a music app too?