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Comment by dmje | Hacker News Reader

I’d recommend people give it a try - if only to see what some properly different thinking looks like about what a browser could be. There are some really interesting UI things going on in Arc, and if all it does is makes you go “oo, interesting” then it’s worth it. There are so many boring paradigms repeated all the time, particularly in browser ui’s that it’s worth a shot.

And to anyone bemoaning the “must have account” thing - this is HN, I’m sure you’ve all got the technical nouse to set up a burner account if you’re that uncomfortable. Or SimpleLogin.io - another HN favourite ;-)

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If you can't even use it without an account, then that's an issue. It's not like Kagi where using the tool requires compute credits on their side, so offering it without a login wall isn't possible.

Mozilla wants me to sign up for a Firefox account too. The difference is that it's entirely optional and the browser works just fine without it.

It’s irritating, sure. But I just don’t see it as a show stopper?

It is, because other browsers don't require it. I would not have tried out Chrome in '08 if I needed to log into it. What's next? 2FA to secure access to the thing so I can 2FA all the other things I have logins for?

Besides giving them an open invitation to spam your email, login based access tells me that they're doing what Chrome is, attaching your browser history to your identity. Google does this because they need a way to fuel their behavioural ad machine without cookies. I imagine Arc is doing it for the same reason - monetization.

There seem to be a lot of PR phonies in the comments area. I tried it out and found that the UI is quite confusing and difficult to use. It looks absurd due to its non-customizable design. Rounded corners in your page view, really? I removed it instantly. Since Firefox and Edge have split view, vertical tabs, and profile synchronization much ahead of this browser, I'm not sure who it's meant for.

It’s the principle of the mandatory account which really bugs me, more than the technical logistics of it.

Not only does it seem unnecessary to require this even just for curious new users to quickly try it out, but it sends me a strong signal about their priorities and tells me that they probably don’t align with mine.

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