4 ms·

About a Servo based browser: I plan to get my in progress-but-really-unusable-so-far Servo based phone UI (https://github.com/fabricedesre/servonk https://githu

About a Servo based browser: I plan to get my in progress-but-really-unusable-so-far Servo based phone UI (https://github.com/fabricedesre/servonk https://github.com/fabricedesre/servonk) working on the Librem 5. But honestly it's frustrating to see how little general web compat work is happening in Servo right now, where most of the team effort is directed to VR/AR use cases. I'm not blaming the team, but it's hard to believe in Servo outside of niche use cases right now.

shmerl 8y ago
Thanks for the link, that's very interesting and I hope it will be usable! Why is Servo team not focused on general Web compatibility? That sounds like a major must do before anything else. Don't Mozilla plan to replace Gecko in Firefox with WebRender from Servo anyway, so how can they achieve it without good Web compatibility?
- simcop2387 8y ago
  > Don't Mozilla plan to replace Gecko in Firefox with WebRender from Servo anyway...? No they don't, they're replacing pieces of firefox with pieces developed from servo but there are no plans to ever replace it wholesale. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Quantum https://wiki.mozilla.org/Quantum That's probably why they're focusing on the VR/AR stuff, to put that into firefox once it's ready since it'll be a new set of features entirely and not have any legacy version they need to maintain bug compatibility with too.
  - forapurpose 8y ago
    >> Don't Mozilla plan to replace Gecko in Firefox with WebRender from Servo anyway...? > No they don't It's in progress and due for Firefox 64 later this year (if projections below are current): https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Roadmap https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Roadmap https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/10/the-whole-web-at-maximum-fps-how-webrender-gets-rid-of-jank/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/10/the-whole-web-at-maximum-f... https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/01/firefox-58-the-quantum-era-continues/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/01/firefox-58-the-quantum-era... https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/GFX/Quantum_Render https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/GFX/Quantum_Render
    - opencl 8y ago
      WebRender is not a replacement for Gecko, it is replacement for the rendering subsystem of Gecko. As GP said they are replacing individual subsystems of FF/Gecko one at a time from Servo components. So the fact that Servo as a whole has major compatibility problems has no relevance to using Servo's rendering code in Firefox, as long as the rendering code itself works properly (which has obviously been a major focus of Mozilla for the past year or so).
      - simcop2387 8y ago
        All this being said, I won't be shocked if the end result of all of this work leads to Gecko being entirely replaced in a Ship of Theseus manner eventually. It'd let them get almost all the benefit of actually wholesale replacing it (they'll still end up with technical debt from the legacy interfaces) but they'll be able to get the benefits from it sooner than having to wait and essentially halt all other development to be able to bring it into place.
        forapurpose 8y ago
        They do slash technical debt; for example, they did it with the add-on subsystem.
vorpalhex 8y ago
I'd really like to see an electron competitor built on Servo. Electron has made desktop experiences very accessible, but it runs like a dog.

shmerl 8y ago

Thanks for the link, that's very interesting and I hope it will be usable! Why is Servo team not focused on general Web compatibility? That sounds like a major must do before anything else. Don't Mozilla plan to replace Gecko in Firefox with WebRender from Servo anyway, so how can they achieve it without good Web compatibility?

simcop2387 8y ago
> Don't Mozilla plan to replace Gecko in Firefox with WebRender from Servo anyway...? No they don't, they're replacing pieces of firefox with pieces developed from servo but there are no plans to ever replace it wholesale. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Quantum https://wiki.mozilla.org/Quantum That's probably why they're focusing on the VR/AR stuff, to put that into firefox once it's ready since it'll be a new set of features entirely and not have any legacy version they need to maintain bug compatibility with too.
- forapurpose 8y ago
  >> Don't Mozilla plan to replace Gecko in Firefox with WebRender from Servo anyway...? > No they don't It's in progress and due for Firefox 64 later this year (if projections below are current): https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Roadmap https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Roadmap https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/10/the-whole-web-at-maximum-fps-how-webrender-gets-rid-of-jank/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/10/the-whole-web-at-maximum-f... https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/01/firefox-58-the-quantum-era-continues/ https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/01/firefox-58-the-quantum-era... https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/GFX/Quantum_Render https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platform/GFX/Quantum_Render
  - opencl 8y ago
    WebRender is not a replacement for Gecko, it is replacement for the rendering subsystem of Gecko. As GP said they are replacing individual subsystems of FF/Gecko one at a time from Servo components. So the fact that Servo as a whole has major compatibility problems has no relevance to using Servo's rendering code in Firefox, as long as the rendering code itself works properly (which has obviously been a major focus of Mozilla for the past year or so).
    - simcop2387 8y ago
      All this being said, I won't be shocked if the end result of all of this work leads to Gecko being entirely replaced in a Ship of Theseus manner eventually. It'd let them get almost all the benefit of actually wholesale replacing it (they'll still end up with technical debt from the legacy interfaces) but they'll be able to get the benefits from it sooner than having to wait and essentially halt all other development to be able to bring it into place.
      - forapurpose 8y ago
        They do slash technical debt; for example, they did it with the add-on subsystem.

vorpalhex 8y ago

I'd really like to see an electron competitor built on Servo. Electron has made desktop experiences very accessible, but it runs like a dog.