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Ladybird browser spreads its wings

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61–70 of 319 posts

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#61
post #42

As long as they don't get rid of the Qt dependency the project is a bit pointless. If you are using Qt anyways Qt Webview offers already a superior way to render HTML than Ladybird.

No, because with the current architecture they can more easily migrate away to different GUI libraries.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#62
post #35

I don't want to discourage the developers working on this project, but I'm curious why we're still writing applications that will almost certainly execute or process hostile content in languages that don't maintain strict memory safe contract? Have we not learned our lesson yet, or am I misunderstanding the situation? I believe it was a Microsoft study that linked unsafe memory access to ~70% of exploit chains.

Andreas (the author of ladybird) started a language[0] that would be memory-safe and in which he would eventually write SerenityOS (and I assume LadyBird too). He hasn't committed to it for 6 months now so not sure what the status is.

At the end of the day, LadyBird is still a hobby project, so one of the main objective is to have fun which does not always coincide with rationality (although the decision to move on from NIH[1] is a sign that this might be changing).

[0] https://github.com/SerenityOS/jakt

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#63
If they want adoption, maybe a good idea to build a hybrid ladybird/firefox browser, where, if some page does not render well in ladybird, the user can switch to firefox based rendering with a simple mouse click.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#64

I hope both Ladybird and Servo succeed in creating a new browser engine. Though I do have a slight preference for Servo as it's using Rust. Not that Rust is magical, but given how much attack surface there is in a browser, it seems picking C++ is a bit odd in 2024.

Personally if I were to attempt a project at this scale, I'd do so using a language I'm proficient in. There might be other reasons, but Rust & C++ really are different beasts.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#65
post #35

I don't want to discourage the developers working on this project, but I'm curious why we're still writing applications that will almost certainly execute or process hostile content in languages that don't maintain strict memory safe contract? Have we not learned our lesson yet, or am I misunderstanding the situation? I believe it was a Microsoft study that linked unsafe memory access to ~70% of exploit chains.

> in languages that don't maintain strict memory safe contract? for the same reason people still use the English language, despite being full of crazy inconsistencies and being very hard to become a native speaker, coming from another language: proficiency. Proficiency is one of the most, if not the most, valuable metric when choosing the tool you will use to take on some complex/daunting task.

The language “legalese” was invented when it turned out that being proficient in English does not protect you against malicious contract partners.

(The success of legalese is still debated, but its existence is generally accepted)

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#66
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not every open source software has spyware and ads activated by default, while marketing itself as privacy friendly. Yes, can all be deactivated, I also use FF, but I do not trust Mozilla anymore.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by your claims of firefox having “spyware and ads activated by default”?

Install a new version of firefox, have a look in settings under "data" (or whatever they call it in english). There you will see "studies" as activated, which is cryptic talk for ad tracking. And more recently, literal tracking for a advertisement company.

And as a bonus, those were added and activated as features via update, without telling. At least for me.

(and paid ads you have on the home screen)

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#67
post #35

I don't want to discourage the developers working on this project, but I'm curious why we're still writing applications that will almost certainly execute or process hostile content in languages that don't maintain strict memory safe contract? Have we not learned our lesson yet, or am I misunderstanding the situation? I believe it was a Microsoft study that linked unsafe memory access to ~70% of exploit chains.

> why we're still writing applications

> Have we not learned our lesson yet

Why are you speaking like this project is asking you to write code in C++? You are free to exclusively write Rust. Other people writing C++ has 0 impact on what you're writing or what lessons you've learned.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#68
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not every open source software has spyware and ads activated by default, while marketing itself as privacy friendly. Yes, can all be deactivated, I also use FF, but I do not trust Mozilla anymore.

Firefox is open source, it would be far easier for the community to make a stripped down Firefox port with no telemetry, no ads and no upsells for Mozilla services. With that said, almost all of Mozilla's revenue comes from Google, which might possibly influence what features they implement, their stance on various web standards etc.

Yes and those forks exists and are a solution now.

But long term, I would much rather see a truly independent open source browser engine.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#69
post #42

As long as they don't get rid of the Qt dependency the project is a bit pointless. If you are using Qt anyways Qt Webview offers already a superior way to render HTML than Ladybird.

GUI libraries and a browser engines are vastly different things. Think of Ladybird as Blink, Webkit or Gecko.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#70
post #35

I don't want to discourage the developers working on this project, but I'm curious why we're still writing applications that will almost certainly execute or process hostile content in languages that don't maintain strict memory safe contract? Have we not learned our lesson yet, or am I misunderstanding the situation? I believe it was a Microsoft study that linked unsafe memory access to ~70% of exploit chains.

Andreas (the author of ladybird) started a language[0] that would be memory-safe and in which he would eventually write SerenityOS (and I assume LadyBird too). He hasn't committed to it for 6 months now so not sure what the status is. At the end of the day, LadyBird is still a hobby project, so one of the main objective is to have fun which does not always coincide with rationality (although the decision to move on f…

Ladybird is sponsored now and I seem to remember that Andreas is paid full time to work on it. I don't think Ladybird is still strictly a hobby project anymore.

But it was definitely started as a hobby project so your point still stands, mostly.

(to be clear, I'm not answering to the question of which programming language should be used to write Ladybird)

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