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Drew has said [0, 1] that it's not possible/practical to build a browser today (enough counterexamples exist for this to be not really true) but the way his pro

Drew has said [0, 1] that it's not possible/practical to build a browser today (enough counterexamples exist for this to be not really true) but the way his projects are going I kind of expect him to announce one in the next few years. [0] https://drewdevault.com/2020/08/13/Web-browsers-need-to-stop.html https://drewdevault.com/2020/08/13/Web-browsers-need-to-stop... [1] https://drewdevault.com/2020/03/18/Reckless-limitless-scope.html https://drewdevault.com/2020/03/18/Reckless-limitless-scope....

Santosh83 4y ago
The SerenityOS team are building a browser from scratch and it is even passing some of the ACID tests. The pretty significantly along. So it is possible with enough dedication, but whether you can be competitive with Chrome is a different matter.
- lemoncurd 4y ago
  Their browser needs to run on a single platform, their own platform, and only one rendering backend, etc. Thus it is a lot less complex than Chrome or Firefox.
  - hawski 4y ago
    I think that supporting multiple platforms is one of the smallest challenges for a browser. CSS and performant JavaScript that manipulates DOM is far more complex a problem.
- nix23 4y ago
  Yeah and is more work then the OS itself... But hey having a browser and ext2 should be good enough ;)
ainar-g 4y ago
NetSurf[1][2] still exists, and while it's not a small program, it's definitely not as large and unwieldy as Chrome or Firefox. And it's good-enough to browse simple sites like Wikipedia or HN with, heh. [1]: https://www.netsurf-browser.org/ https://www.netsurf-browser.org/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetSurf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetSurf
- marcodiego 4y ago
  I used Dillo for a time. NetSurf is now my browser of choice for constrained systems. I sometimes use it on Termux.
klohto 4y ago
Kagi is building Orion on top of WebKit and based on my testing it is already very solid even though it's extremely early in the development EDIT: Well, ignore, I didn’t realize we are discussing from scratch browsers :)
- eatonphil 4y ago
  There are good counterexamples but that is not a good one because Drew was and I am talking about browsers from scratch.
ncmncm 4y ago
Days.
- Shared404 4y ago
  https://drewdevault.com/2022/05/30/bleh.html https://drewdevault.com/2022/05/30/bleh.html Must feel nice to have an article written about you! Given your karma, I assume you already know this, but from the guidelines: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.
  - hloor 4y ago
    There should be a guideline for following one username around a thread and quoting guidelines at them across multiple comments because you don’t like them. Your solution is quite noticeably worse than the problem and fouled up the thread a bit more than the user you’re chastising, which is quite ironic.
stncls 4y ago
> expect him to announce one in the next few years. 9 months ago: https://drewdevault.com/2021/09/11/visurf-announcement.html https://drewdevault.com/2021/09/11/visurf-announcement.html
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Santosh83 4y ago

The SerenityOS team are building a browser from scratch and it is even passing some of the ACID tests. The pretty significantly along. So it is possible with enough dedication, but whether you can be competitive with Chrome is a different matter.

lemoncurd 4y ago
Their browser needs to run on a single platform, their own platform, and only one rendering backend, etc. Thus it is a lot less complex than Chrome or Firefox.
- hawski 4y ago
  I think that supporting multiple platforms is one of the smallest challenges for a browser. CSS and performant JavaScript that manipulates DOM is far more complex a problem.
nix23 4y ago
Yeah and is more work then the OS itself... But hey having a browser and ext2 should be good enough ;)

ainar-g 4y ago

NetSurf[1][2] still exists, and while it's not a small program, it's definitely not as large and unwieldy as Chrome or Firefox. And it's good-enough to browse simple sites like Wikipedia or HN with, heh. [1]: https://www.netsurf-browser.org/ https://www.netsurf-browser.org/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetSurf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetSurf

marcodiego 4y ago
I used Dillo for a time. NetSurf is now my browser of choice for constrained systems. I sometimes use it on Termux.

klohto 4y ago

Kagi is building Orion on top of WebKit and based on my testing it is already very solid even though it's extremely early in the development EDIT: Well, ignore, I didn’t realize we are discussing from scratch browsers :)

eatonphil 4y ago
There are good counterexamples but that is not a good one because Drew was and I am talking about browsers from scratch.

ncmncm 4y ago

Days.

Shared404 4y ago
https://drewdevault.com/2022/05/30/bleh.html https://drewdevault.com/2022/05/30/bleh.html Must feel nice to have an article written about you! Given your karma, I assume you already know this, but from the guidelines: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.
- hloor 4y ago
  There should be a guideline for following one username around a thread and quoting guidelines at them across multiple comments because you don’t like them. Your solution is quite noticeably worse than the problem and fouled up the thread a bit more than the user you’re chastising, which is quite ironic.

stncls 4y ago

> expect him to announce one in the next few years. 9 months ago: https://drewdevault.com/2021/09/11/visurf-announcement.html https://drewdevault.com/2021/09/11/visurf-announcement.html

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]