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Meanwhile, Ladybird, the first new browser engine since the 90's to 100% the Acid3 JavaScript test, just secured $1 million in funding from the founder of GitHu
by mouse_ 2y ago
Meanwhile, Ladybird, the first new browser engine since the 90's to 100% the Acid3 JavaScript test, just secured $1 million in funding from the founder of GitHub. We, as responsible web users, need to do whatever it takes to break up Google's web oligopoly. The open web is at stake.
- tatersolid 2y agoI read the Ladybird FAQ for their rationale, but building a new browser in 2024 using an unsafe language is such a facepalm it’s hard to take the entire project seriously.
- pjmlp 2y agoWhile I enjoy the sentiment, it isn't as if Rust is doing any favours regarding Firefox adoption.
- intelVISA 2y agoWe've added tracking but at least it's safe(tm).
- convolvatron 2y ago'the rationale that they are actively evaluating other develoment platforms? "However, now that Ladybird has forked and become its own independent project, all constraints previously imposed by SerenityOS are no longer in effect. We are actively evaluating a number of alternatives and will be adding a mature successor language to the project in the near future. This process is already quite far along, and prototypes exist in multiple languages."
- jacknews 2y ago'unsafe language' sounds like something out of '1984' or 'Animal Farm'; a totalitarian political euphemism, attempting to demonize all 'others'. The reality is that no language is actually 'safe', and 'safety' itself is a complex trade-off between enforced restrictions, flexibility, and other factors, just like in life.
- nottorp 2y agoDevelopers gotta have religion. It's not about fear of death like mainstream churches, it's about fear of buffer overflows.
- account42 2y agoDevelopers already had a religion, the Church of Emacs. Heretics will not be tolerated.
- nicce 2y agoInstead of "unsafe", we could use "computer verified correctness" or something similar. Truth is that humans make mistakes and Rust is the only "project" which achieves verified correctness in some critical areas, in projects of any complexity.
- TacticalCoder 2y agoYup I don't understand the downvotes. I don't code in Rust but I also don't feel insecure about it: I wish more projects were written in Rust (or something similar). There are several research, already published here many times, which show that something insane like 75%+ of all the security exploits would be rendered cold dead in their tracks had Rust been used. I don't know how anyone, even a C/C++/VisualBasic/PHP coder, could not like that.
- ninjin 2y agoI suspect the downvotes are for a very simple reason: "Why not Rust?" comments are contributing next to nothing to the conversation. At this point, comments like this are tiresome and predictable. What would be interesting are detailed separate posts such as what you mention about security exploits addressed and of course the stream of wonderful software that people are writing in Rust (and other languages as well for that matter). Bringing it up in relationship to Ladybird, which is an amazing accomplishment already, is incredibly petty and off-putting. The poster can do better and the community deserves better.
- Klonoar 2y agoUnless I’m misreading, OP themselves didn’t actually say Rust at all. They just noted that Ladybird is written in an unsafe language. I don’t read this as petty, it’s well noted by now that memory safe languages are increasingly recommended to avoid classes of errors.
- ninjin 2y agoYou are correct about Rust not being mentioned explicitly, but I am yet to see a stream comments about memory safety coming out of say the Java, Python, Go, Haskell, etc. community. Then again, maybe I am wrong? As for petty. "[B]uilding a new browser in 2024 using an unsafe language is such a facepalm it's hard to take the entire project seriously." sounds pretty darn petty and dismissive to me for a project that is making good progress. We desperately need diversity in terms of web browser implementations and "not taking seriously" a project which could very well become viable within the next few years solely based on their programming language of choice feels wrong to me (even as someone with next to no love for C++).
- pjmlp 2y agoIt starts by developers stopping by shipping Electron junk (want a Web app with native APIs?, target the system browser with a daemon), or using Chrome only APIs.
- jacknews 2y agoAnd I see servo (the ex-mozilla engine rewrite in rust) is getting some news lately too.
- solardev 2y agoWhy can't they just fork Blink like everyone else? A new rendering engine is an unnecessary duplication of effort and ripe for security issues. I don't think the open web is really as dependent on the browser anymore anyway. We already have multiple choices today, but the web is still mostly controlled by a huge big companies and nations. Doesn't feel particularly open. A new browser engine won't really solve that. Meanwhile a million dollars could go towards some network R&D or popularizing Freenet instead. The world doesn't need a dozen HTML renderers. If we actually want a free and open web, that's a infrastructure and content censorship/algorithmic promotion issue, not a layout engine or JS engine problem.