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Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

dillo-browser.github.io

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Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#91
post #81
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s sad. I have clear memories of browsing the web quite capably with windows 98 and 64MB of RAM (or less!) and now we can’t even do it with gigabytes.

You can still browse the web using Opera 12.18, which takes a little memory, but the HTML5 support will be poor. The web has evolved since then.

Opera 12 source code leaked, so you could even port it to new platforms. Sadly multiple exploits, html5, and finally licensing make it a dead end :(.

Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#92

So out of curiosity i downloaded the code from github, built it and tried it. The default site is still dillo.org which crashed the browser when it tried to visit it. Same with duckduckgo.com (crashed). Actually the crash seems to be related to some assert failure with OpenSSL as recompiling Dillo with mbedSSL lets me visit these sites. I tried to login and reply to this thread but for some reason it wouldn't login (…

> The default site is still dillo.org which crashed the browser when it tried to visit it. Same with duckduckgo.com (crashed). Actually the crash seems to be related to some assert failure with OpenSSL as recompiling Dillo with mbedSSL lets me visit these sites. Thanks for testing! I need to replace that with the new website. Could you open an issue on GitHub with some details of your system and OpenSSL version so I…

Here[0], i submitted a bug report. The issue seems to be that some OpenSSL error isn't handled elsewhere, isn't removed from the error queue and the function with the assertion assumes the queue is empty.

I put a breakpoint in ERR_put_error in the version that comes with openSUSE though there isn't much debug info there to be had so i don't know what the error is (perhaps building OpenSSL from source code with debug info and having Dillo link against it would help). I found where the error comes in Dillo's side (check the comment i made in the bug report) but i'm not sure how that'd be fixed (aside from draining the error queue :-P) as i don't know why these calls are made in the first place.

[0] https://github.com/dillo-browser/dillo/issues/51

Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#93
post #65

The world of low spec hardware really does need faster, lighter browsers. Too many times now have I configured an SBC, RPi, or even a laptop that’s just a few years old and been disappointed that, while everything else is wonderful and fast and smooth looking, it is browser performance that is the one thing holding me back. I am resigned to the fact that some of my requirements really do mean I need a Ryzen 7 with 16…

> MS Teams I really do empathize here, after having to use Teams for around 2 years. It's amazingly slow, confusing, buggy (it would crash the tab quite regularly), and just generally a perfect role model for what software shouldn't be[0]. I'm still quite amazed that Microsoft decided this was acceptable. I'm curious how Slack performs; perhaps they're not trying harder because there's no[t much] competition in this…

I think a look at the organizational and project management structure of the team(s) that develop Teams would reveal a lot. I doubt we can blame the tools they use.

Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#94
Thanks very much for this! Dillo used to be more or less my main browser for quite a while, mostly with all images and CSS turned off. Its combination of quick GUI element toggling + config file for fine-tuning is excellent. A very versatile browser. Probably the only one thus far where I actually felt that I had a near-perfect "grasp" of my entire user experience. I could, and actually wanted to hand-tailor everything in this browser.

There is also an (outdated) Windows port called D+ [1]. I remember it crashing frequently on Windows 10, though.

1: https://sourceforge.net/projects/dplus-browser/

Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#95

The extension system[0] seems interesting; it reminds me of w3m's local CGI scripts. (From what I can tell, w3m's local CGI came first, but I don't know if it influenced DPI and/or if w3m's system had a predecessor too...) For a short description of what w3m local CGI scripts can do: * They can be used for implementing a man page viewer, as in w3mman. It seems Dillo has a similar plugin[1]. * w3m's bookmark system is…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#96

Sending much love. It's gratifying to see work on this continue, from seeds planted so long ago.

Thanks, raphlinus as in Raph Levien! I was just reading your bytesink document [1] from around 1997 and checking the history of gzilla, the precursor of Dillo. [1]: https://sources.debian.org/src/gzilla/0.1.5-3/bytesink.doc/ PS: Maybe you could give us a hand contacting Jorge :-)

I haven't been in touch with him in over 20 years, so have no idea where even to start. Best of luck with that!

Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> MS Teams I really do empathize here, after having to use Teams for around 2 years. It's amazingly slow, confusing, buggy (it would crash the tab quite regularly), and just generally a perfect role model for what software shouldn't be[0]. I'm still quite amazed that Microsoft decided this was acceptable. I'm curious how Slack performs; perhaps they're not trying harder because there's no[t much] competition in this…

I think a look at the organizational and project management structure of the team(s) that develop Teams would reveal a lot. I doubt we can blame the tools they use.

I think a look at the organizational and project management structure of organizations that elect to use Teams would reveal a lot, also.

Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#98
post #65

The world of low spec hardware really does need faster, lighter browsers. Too many times now have I configured an SBC, RPi, or even a laptop that’s just a few years old and been disappointed that, while everything else is wonderful and fast and smooth looking, it is browser performance that is the one thing holding me back. I am resigned to the fact that some of my requirements really do mean I need a Ryzen 7 with 16…

> MS Teams I really do empathize here, after having to use Teams for around 2 years. It's amazingly slow, confusing, buggy (it would crash the tab quite regularly), and just generally a perfect role model for what software shouldn't be[0]. I'm still quite amazed that Microsoft decided this was acceptable. I'm curious how Slack performs; perhaps they're not trying harder because there's no[t much] competition in this…

Yup. It's slow buggy. Tends to go into infinite loops. Sad really that it slows corporates so much.

Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#99

Hypothetically, could JavaScript support be added by using a lightweight engine, such as QuickJS?

Yes and it has been discussed in the mailing list before [1]. [1]: https://groups.google.com/g/dillo/search?q=javascript However, I don't think the machines that Dillo is targeting would benefit from adding support for it and it would increase a lot the surface for security problems. Maybe my advise would be to use another browser if you have the computing power to run JS.

> I don't think the machines that Dillo is targeting would benefit from adding support for it

People tend to overestimate the resources required to run JS and have a miscalibrated sense of how slow they can/should expect it to be.

Firefox 1.x and 2.0 worked on machines with substantially worse specs than many of the ones that people are mentioning here (think: sub-GHz PIIIs with 128–256 MB of RAM), and substantial parts of Firefox itself are written in JS.

I haven't checked, but I'd bet that 2024-era QuickJS is also faster than 2004-era SpiderMonkey at executing the same script.

Re: Show HN: Resurrecting the Dillo browser

#100
Wow, this is so stunning. Thanks a lot Rodrigo, and obviously to the dillo team, Jorge Arellano Cid, etc.!!

For others on Macs (I'm on an M1 under macOS 12.7), here's what worked for me:

- start by following the mac installation instructions here [0], specifically `brew install` the suggested packages + openssl (I used version 3)

- follow the "from git" installation instructions here [1] BUT, before running `./configure`, run these export commands [2] to make sure that the openssl files are found

- `make`, then `sudo make install` (like in the good old days). then run `dillo`.

- it just... works. and it's blazing fast. it's a 1.6mb binary, it supports ssl... it's brilliant. google search sorta works (with broken css). signing in to google is impossible without javascript..? yeah wow. a whole world to explore. THANKS!

[0] https://github.com/dillo-browser/dillo/blob/master/doc/insta...

[1] https://github.com/dillo-browser/dillo/blob/master/doc/insta...

[2] https://stackoverflow.com/a/77749836

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