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Ladybird browser spreads its wings

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Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#301
post #85
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take an alternative browser engine, even if it's written in C++. > I'm curious Is it really curiosity though? Because the answer is straightforward, the project started as a hobby, the developer picked whatever language they were proficient in. Andreas is open with the fact that he started Serenity OS and LadyBird as a rehab project. Put too much barrier in this setting (like learning a new language and all the…

>> I'm curious > Is it really curiosity though? I'm kind of annoyed at this whole train of comments ("I'm curious..."). In so many occasion I see something cool and the main comment track is "why hasn't this been writte in rust?" (or some other allegedly safe/better programming language). It's like seeing a beautiful painting being painted and arguing about the kind of paintbrush the painter has used. It's so sad.

The question ("Why not a memory safe language?") has never been more appropriate than when we're talking about writing a web browser.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From GitHub. > Ladybird is a truly independent web browser, using a novel engine based on web standards. So I assume they want to build a truly independent web browser instead of leaving the Browser market to Google, Apple, and Firefox (relies heavily on Google ad revenue.) and executives that run them who are primarily motivated by money.

Why build from scratch? If building from scratch, why do it in c++?

Because he wants to. C++ is used because 90% of all safety critical software is written in c++.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#303
post #32

One commenter who worked on Firefox made a nice blog post in response, about what it takes to make a web browser: https://robert.ocallahan.org/2024/06/browser-engine.html

For a new project I wonder how much simpler (or secure) a browser could be made if you only allowed a subset of js and browser apis. I’d wildly guesstimate for 70% of use cases you wouldn’t even need 50% of stuff with some slight modifications. The web is just so bloated. Edit: might as well prune down the css a little too and maybe dump wasm, webgl and canvas

> Edit: might as well prune down the css a little too and maybe dump wasm, webgl and canvas

Alternative idea: go the other extreme and stop pretending modern browsers are anything else than virtual machines. Turn browsers into sandboxed VMs that only run Wasm, with backwards compatibility ensured by shared wasm libraries that render HTML and run JS.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people forget the early 2000s. Many sites only worked on IE but Firefox was the better browser. Firefox users had an extension that would open certain links in IE or open the current page in IE via the context menu. If a lightweight browser could be significantly faster and more secure, people would tolerate using two browsers again. Although Ladybird hasn't reached that bar. YouTube certainly could use a sma…

> YT regularly breaks on Firefox Source? I've never had a single problem ever, and I don't know anyone else that has either.

Sure, here's a couple mentions from just the last ten days. Loads more if you search around.

https://mapstodon.space/@hareldan/112619447620823614

https://techhub.social/@weston/112607264644039009

https://pdx.social/@crowdotblack/112604055589800602

https://social.bitwig.community/@gerotakke/11263106899010552...

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safari is 18% of global web traffic, 7x that of Firefox. (from a hasty scan of caniuse.com)

I challenge those numbers. Global stats aren't important, just the stats for your target audience. My sites see 13% Firefox, 35% Safari. But keep in mind, FF users sometimes spoof the Chrome user agent because some sites break otherwise. Further, I suspect FF users have tracking blockers at a higher rate, so they don't show up. https://indieweb.social/@robalex/112472853515037460

Could it be that the technical nature of your website creates a biased sample? I'd estimate that the difference between Firefox and Chrome users in spoofing their user-agent and blocking trackers is far less than the bias created by sampling HN for example.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I challenge those numbers. Global stats aren't important, just the stats for your target audience. My sites see 13% Firefox, 35% Safari. But keep in mind, FF users sometimes spoof the Chrome user agent because some sites break otherwise. Further, I suspect FF users have tracking blockers at a higher rate, so they don't show up. https://indieweb.social/@robalex/112472853515037460

Could it be that the technical nature of your website creates a biased sample? I'd estimate that the difference between Firefox and Chrome users in spoofing their user-agent and blocking trackers is far less than the bias created by sampling HN for example.

Absolutely, but since that's my target audience, that's the number I personally look at. Statements like "no one uses FF" don't apply. How skewed each target audience is from the global average is meaningful.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then nobody will ever use your browser. Simple as that.

I think people forget the early 2000s. Many sites only worked on IE but Firefox was the better browser. Firefox users had an extension that would open certain links in IE or open the current page in IE via the context menu. If a lightweight browser could be significantly faster and more secure, people would tolerate using two browsers again. Although Ladybird hasn't reached that bar. YouTube certainly could use a sma…

YouTube has a vested interest to work best on Chrome.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is convining anyone to write a website in this Could choose a subset that lets certain sites that do not get on everybody's nerves still run fine. For the remainder, people who need it can run an extension that runs a Chromium converting what's possible to the target subset.

Do you want to support YouTube? You want to support YouTube, don't you? Any big FAANG site probably uses most of the possible features.

So long as I can query the site for videos of interest and spin them up under mpv or VLC we're tots fine.

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> YT regularly breaks on Firefox Source? I've never had a single problem ever, and I don't know anyone else that has either.

Sure, here's a couple mentions from just the last ten days. Loads more if you search around. https://mapstodon.space/@hareldan/112619447620823614 https://techhub.social/@weston/112607264644039009 https://pdx.social/@crowdotblack/112604055589800602 https://social.bitwig.community/@gerotakke/11263106899010552...

[deleted]

Re: Ladybird browser spreads its wings

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well to put it bluntly, Firefox is Google's bitch. If we want the web to be a multi-vendor platform based on open, multi-vendor standards, as it has been for parts of its history, how much does Firefox really buy us? Do we really think that Firefox will take a hard stand against Google if their survival depends on not doing so? I use Firefox, but I think it's no longer true to its original mission in a lot of ways, S…

What are you talking about? Mozilla repeatedly stands up to Google on big ticket items. Flock being probably the biggest in recent history, but you can throw Manifest v2 on the pile as well and about half a dozen others.

By coincidence, jwz just blogged on this https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/06/mozillas-original-sin/
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