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Announcing the Ladybird Browser Initiative (ladybird.org)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 57 points 2 years ago (21 children)

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I've had more than a handful of people bitching at me that it's impossible to make a new, open web browser in this day.

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  • [–] 96 points 2 years ago (17 children)

    I think it's less that it's "impossible" but rather that it's expensive.

    Honestly we've in general shoved too much shit into the browser that's not strictly related to just browsing web sites.

    And you "have to" support all the layers and layers and layers of added stuff, or you can't "compete".

    But, at the same time, the goals of making a good-enough browser that mostly works and isn't completely enshittified and captured by corpo big tech interests is a very worthy project and 100% support what they're doing.

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  • [–] 35 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    JavaScript was a mistake.

    And it went downhill from there.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    It was fine when it was contained to an actual web site instead of infecting desktop software too. To me, using JS for that purpose feels like using PHP to write a 3D video game.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I feel like the internet is such a lost cause at this point that it would be better to invest in other efforts like the Gemini protocol.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Gemini protocol

    IDK, but I don't think that the problem is that any particular application protocol is bad so much as it is capitalists going to capitalist, and they've shit all over everything in the Quest to Make a Buck.

    It's not like a new protocol, if it becomes as widely adopted, won't see the same vultures swoop in and strip mine any value they can find there, too.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    A more lightweight protocol limits the attack surface for capitalism. The web sucks because basically anything can be wrapped in http, including ads, tracking cookies, data collection JavaScript, etc.

    Gemini protocol only carries markdown

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    That's a fair assessment. I'll admit to having a severe case of doomerism when it comes to tech lately, and the levels of shit tech bros will go to to monetize shit has me skeptical there's any sort of protocol or technology that could be made bro-resistant for more than a short period of time.

    EEE is pretty prevalent and has been a very standard practice with these tech companies for a long time. See: Meta and Threads for a recent example.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    No, I'd have accepted too expensive as an answer. They were ready to die on the hill that no one could possibly create a new browser from specs.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Hilarious, I suppose, given the origins of Chrome and that it was a team of people sitting down to make a new browser from the specs.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    My thoughts exactly.

    Also nothing is stopping someone from forking an open browser and throwing money/bodies at keeping it up.

    It's be a shame to lose free updates, but certainly not undoable.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Agreed. As much as I understand the urge to build your own shiny new thing, I'd pay real actual human money for someone to take Blink, and put it in a non-lobotomized, non-enshittified, non-garbage UI that has things like a self-hosted sync server, built-in adblock/noscript/etc, and the ability to use extensions for things like password managers.

    But no crypto stuff, no gaming stuff, no VPN services, no browser password managers, no sponsored links, no sponsored default search engines, no email client, blah blah blah.

    Browser, adblock, self-hosted sync, done.

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  • [–] -5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    or you can't compete

    Nah nah fuck that noise. 'Jack of all trades but ace of none' or however the saying goes, is a shitty way to go about things. I don't have the biggest dick but I know my way around around the block, and I know I'm good at it. More specialized > the catch-all bitches.

    Let the fucks with their special engine requirements eat shit. Standardize or write a fucking proper program (miss me with that "app" bullshit) or fuck right off. "everyone is special... exactly like you" now fuck off web dev. Your shit doesn't get a permit.

    .....

    I may have some... disputes with the way the web is done nowadays.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I could have been a little more clear: I don't think the whole must-compete-or-forget-it mindset makes any damn sense.

    I'm more than happy to use software that does what I want/need (which, more and more, is simply just not fucking spying on, trying to sell things to, or otherwise annoying me) even if it's not like, the most bestest version of whatever.

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  • [–] [S] 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Their rendering engine is already pretty solide (see penultimate video in their channel). Now that their "no third party code" restriction is lifted, they can actually focus on building a browser engine instead of recreating 30 years worth of technologies from scratch.

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