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> I don’t expect small developers to be able to make a top-notch browser engine any more than I expect them to make software equivalent to Photoshop Procreate.

> I don’t expect small developers to be able to make a top-notch browser engine any more than I expect them to make software equivalent to Photoshop Procreate. Acorn. Pixelmator. Affinity. All small developers. All successful and eating a chunk of Photoshop's lunch. Sketch and Figma outright stole Adobe's lunch. > or Final Fantasy XIV. Not all games have to be FFXIV to be enjoyable or playable. And indie games are thriving. However, you require a fully-features browser to browse the modern web.

Dah00n 5y ago
>However, you require a fully-features browser to browse the modern web. That isn't really true since if it were we wouldn't have had the problem of IE back in the day or Safari today.
- dmitriid 5y ago
  I don't understand your logic. Since 1999 we've added anything from flexbox and grids to CSS to web components to DOM to classes, sets, symbols, workers etc. to Javascript. Even things like standardizing HTML rendering didn't happen until mid 00s. Fire up a VM and run the modern web in IE 6. You'll fond a surprising number of browsers failing in subtle and not--so-subtle ways.
  - code_duck 5y ago
    I think the intent of that comment was to say that almost-full-featured browsers like safari are currently adequate to browse the vast majority of websites. Personally, the only time I run into sites where some feature is Chrome-only is tech demo type pages I find on HN.
code_duck 5y ago
Photoshop isn't a great example, but my point was to reference large software packages that are naturally so complex as to require far more resources than a small company can muster. I can think of at least a dozen major packages that are made by a very large company or major open source project because that's how much labor it requires for the features people expect, and people by-and-large are not clamoring for feature or complexity reduction across the industry. Sure, less comprehensive games than the most extensive MMOs exist. You could use a stripped down browser that doesn't implement every feature, too. <my question was, could a team of 10 people make games as extensive as the most extensive games like GTA5 or TESO from their own labor? That isn't possible nor would I expect it. I don't expect a small open source project to release something as polished as iOS next year, either. Given the potential security issues of any network software, I also don't want to use a browser made by a small team.

Dah00n 5y ago

>However, you require a fully-features browser to browse the modern web. That isn't really true since if it were we wouldn't have had the problem of IE back in the day or Safari today.

dmitriid 5y ago
I don't understand your logic. Since 1999 we've added anything from flexbox and grids to CSS to web components to DOM to classes, sets, symbols, workers etc. to Javascript. Even things like standardizing HTML rendering didn't happen until mid 00s. Fire up a VM and run the modern web in IE 6. You'll fond a surprising number of browsers failing in subtle and not--so-subtle ways.
- code_duck 5y ago
  I think the intent of that comment was to say that almost-full-featured browsers like safari are currently adequate to browse the vast majority of websites. Personally, the only time I run into sites where some feature is Chrome-only is tech demo type pages I find on HN.

code_duck 5y ago

Photoshop isn't a great example, but my point was to reference large software packages that are naturally so complex as to require far more resources than a small company can muster. I can think of at least a dozen major packages that are made by a very large company or major open source project because that's how much labor it requires for the features people expect, and people by-and-large are not clamoring for feature or complexity reduction across the industry. Sure, less comprehensive games than the most extensive MMOs exist. You could use a stripped down browser that doesn't implement every feature, too. <my question was, could a team of 10 people make games as extensive as the most extensive games like GTA5 or TESO from their own labor? That isn't possible nor would I expect it. I don't expect a small open source project to release something as polished as iOS next year, either. Given the potential security issues of any network software, I also don't want to use a browser made by a small team.