I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser • Hacker News Board

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#41

Post by troad » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 9:58 AM UTC

jraph wrote: post #20

Ladybird looks amazing. Just as I was losing faith that building a browser from scratch today was an almost impossible task that only a big company could pull off, they proved otherwise. I compiled it and added packages to install on openSUSE for this in the readme... which was easy because you don't need much to build this browser! And it builds in a few minutes. I wish Discord was not mandatory to interact with the…

Very strong agree re Discord. Quite apart from Drew's ideological reasons to oppose Discord, with which I quite agree, I also tend to find that (a) busy group chats are not a great way to coordinate software development, and (b) the kinds of communities Discord is structurally designed to foster really don't tend to be communities I wish to be part of.

I am a big fan of kling and his work on Ladybird though, and I wish the project the absolute best.

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#42

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 9:59 AM UTC

silisili wrote: post #11

ducktective wrote: post #2

The more browser engines, the better. It doesn't use neither Chromium nor Gecko.

Small nit: this reads in English as a double negative. It's easier to picture if you think of neither as 'not either.' Perhaps 'it uses neither' or 'doesn't use either.'

[deleted]

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#43

Post by est31 » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 9:59 AM UTC

xvilka wrote: post #12

Congratulations! I wish someone would sponsor completing Servo as fast as possible, or completing rewriting of Firefox in Rust.

FTR, Servo has received funding by Mozilla by having their engineers work on it that amounts to way way more than 100k USD.

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#44

Post by marginalia_nu » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 10:03 AM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #38

marginalia_nu wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm looking mostly at what it could be. Ladybird has every potential of becoming the Linux of web browsers. And it took Linux what, over a decade to mostly displace the competition in the server space. These types of projects are long term, but public perception matters. Making waves matters. The audacious possibility that it might just succeed matters.

Isn't Firefox already the Linux of web browsers?

Given Firefox is primarily funded by Google handouts ostensibly as token competition to keep antitrust suits off their ass, I wouldn't say so.

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#45

Post by Raz2 » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 10:03 AM UTC

not_your_vase wrote: post #35

bruce511 wrote: post #6

For more context see [1]. At first glance I felt that 100k wasn't really going to move the needle in creating a new browser engine but in fact (after reading the link below) it's not insignificant. There are a lot of contributers to this project, and funding the project lead is a big step in the right direction. Realistically another browser engine really isn't needed. 2 is enough. Given the scale of the work involve…

> Realistically another browser engine really isn't needed. 2 is enough. Currently the internet is what Chrome is - if Google decides that they don't like something on the internet, they can just wipe it. Firefox is dying. (And Safari is... well... it does things). The internet has been rotting away for good part of the last decade. We definitely don't have enough browser engines, we are in dire need of more.

> Firefox is dying

Then I don’t understand how this new thing will not be stillborn. It is years before becoming usable and even then it will be worse than Firefox.

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#46

Post by LeFantome » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 10:10 AM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #38

marginalia_nu wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm looking mostly at what it could be. Ladybird has every potential of becoming the Linux of web browsers. And it took Linux what, over a decade to mostly displace the competition in the server space. These types of projects are long term, but public perception matters. Making waves matters. The audacious possibility that it might just succeed matters.

Isn't Firefox already the Linux of web browsers?

As a multi-decade long Firefox user, I am going to say no.

Firefox is produced by a single company and its users are completely beholden to the choices that the company makes.

In some ways, Chromium is closer to being the Linux of browsers. There are multiple “distributions” or instances of the technology ( Chrome, Edge, Brave, and others ). There is at least some collaboration on the core.

Chromium is not developed nearly as collaboratively as Linux though and certainly it is dominated by Google.

What we need is something like Ladybird which is community driven prior to corporate involvement and that is led by that community and not by a company.

Not that we have not lost this opportunity before. KHTML was community driven before Apple co-opted it for WebKit which Google later forked to Blink.

Ladybird is perhaps already in a better spot being cross-platform vs only the browser in SerenityOS. It is also a “complete” project with JavaScript and multimedia already built in. Let’s work to keep the project together as a browser and not chase bits of it getting ripped off and taken elsewhere.

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#47

Post by yafetn » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 10:13 AM UTC

awesomekling wrote: post #5

Hello friends! I am very excited about this indeed :) If you’d like to know more about Ladybird, I did a presentation about it at the Web Engines Hackfest in Spain just two weeks ago: https://youtu.be/De8N1zrQwRs

Hi Andreas, when are we getting the next batch of “FIXME Roulette” videos? They’re the most entertaining yet educational debugging videos out there.

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#48

Post by simonw » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 10:14 AM UTC

jraph wrote: post #20

Ladybird looks amazing. Just as I was losing faith that building a browser from scratch today was an almost impossible task that only a big company could pull off, they proved otherwise. I compiled it and added packages to install on openSUSE for this in the readme... which was easy because you don't need much to build this browser! And it builds in a few minutes. I wish Discord was not mandatory to interact with the…

I resisted starting a Discord for my open source projects for years.

With hindsight that was a mistake. I finally created one a year ago and it had a huge impact on the velocity of the project - I now have active engagement with users and a growing pool of contributors and collaborators, all thanks to that group.

I think often it's important to prioritize reducing friction to getting involved over (very rational) reservations about the platforms themselves.

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#49

Post by dmytrish » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 10:17 AM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #38

marginalia_nu wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm looking mostly at what it could be. Ladybird has every potential of becoming the Linux of web browsers. And it took Linux what, over a decade to mostly displace the competition in the server space. These types of projects are long term, but public perception matters. Making waves matters. The audacious possibility that it might just succeed matters.

Isn't Firefox already the Linux of web browsers?

It's the SunOS of webbrowsers. Chrome is technically opensource too.

Re: I have received a $100k sponsorship for Ladybird browser

#50

Post by marginalia_nu » Sun, Jun 18, 2023, 10:19 AM UTC

badpun wrote: post #30

marginalia_nu wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm looking mostly at what it could be. Ladybird has every potential of becoming the Linux of web browsers. And it took Linux what, over a decade to mostly displace the competition in the server space. These types of projects are long term, but public perception matters. Making waves matters. The audacious possibility that it might just succeed matters.

Linux is Linux thanks to large involvement of big tech. It remains to be seen if any Big Tech companies would be interested in seriously supporting development of an open source browser.

Big tech used Linux to wage a proxy war against Microsoft from a safe distance without needing to actually commit to anything.

Linus Torvalds had nothing to his name when he started working on Linux. He was just some kid from Finland, but the audacity the project gave it attention and visibility, and visibility came with funding.

I think in general a hint of audacity along with being able to demonstrate capabilities to follow through is a great recipe for having people throw money at you, and the more money you have to work with, the more options you have to keep demonstrating what you can do.

A lot of people have a vested interest in shaking up the tech world. It's just a matter of finding the right fuses to light.