this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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The world desperately needs more than just two browsers.
To the point that I've literally started writing a browser from scratch.
I may rage quit the moment I get 5 minutes into the layout engine. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, lads and lassies and everyone else.
(And, in practice, my intention is to make a really really simple layout engine and make it better later.)
The HTML is easy.
I think the hard part is the JavaScript that runs on almost every website.
You gonna post updates on the project somewhere?
I'll definitely Open Source it under the AGPL 3.0 when or before it reaches the point of "minimum viable product."
Which basically means it can technically read see most of the content on the page of what you might consider a "Web 1.0" page. In that state, the layout will be effed, there won't be any JS, Web Sockets, maybe not even animated GIFs. But you'll be able to read Wikipedia. (Though, again, it won't look like it does in Chrome or Firefox or even I.E. 6.0 .)
And then the plan is to evolve it from there, prioritizing roughly the features that most improve the range of sites and features people can reasonably use even if they don't work "like they do in Chrome/Firefox".
And if other folks get interested enough to throw labor at it, awesome. If not, hopefully something shiny doesn't distract me and get me working on something else.
And, mind you, I've been working on this for like two-ish weeks. So all I've got are some high-level requirements, design, some toy experiments to learn more about how the graphics part is going to work, and some of the infrastructure by which different parts/modules of the browser are going to communicate. There's kindof nothing to show or update about yet.
If you like, I'll save your post and when there's something to show (basically when it's Open Sourced), I'll DM you and let you know where the repo is. And you'll be able to check there for further updates.
And if anyone else wants updates, (and I can't really promise anything is actually going to come of any of this), feel free to respond to this post.
Oh, also, this might matter to some folks. I'm writing it in Go. Some folks might dislike that because it's "a Google language."
I like the "release early, release often" approach. For a curious lay man like observing something from scratch is interesting. This will attract more eyes and eventually more programmers.
Yeah do it! Would love to see how it progresses and help out with testing. Not a coder but can do graphic elements 2d/3d if you need a hand with those.
Feel free to open-source it already. Even if it's not a MVP ready
How about ladybird? They claim to be a “truly independent browser”. I like the idea of creating a new browser, btw
Note that if you're the kind of user who shuns Brave because the CEO says stupid shit, you'll probably not look fondly upon Ladybird's project lead and main developer being scared of pronouns.
If you don't care about that, it's an interesting project. Can't say I approve, though.
Hard for me to get the link RN, I'll add it soon.
Edit: issue on github. Posting to inform people and let each one decide what to do on their own, just don't harass anyone, please.