12 ms·

Nyxt: The Hacker's Browser

471 points by OuterVale 2y ago

MrVandemar 2y ago
[flagged]
- Y_Y 2y ago
  Maybe they just mean Lisp, rather than LLM bullshit.
  - GrantMoyer 2y ago
    We've already got Emacs
    - echo7394 2y ago
      Emacs isn't a browser though
      - herewulf 2y ago
        M-x eww
      - Y_Y 2y ago
        As a sibling mentions, ewe is pretty decent, but if you want all mod-cons then you can use EAF's browser, or even better use EXWM to embed Firefox (or Librewolf or whatever).
  - jojohohanon 2y ago
    Because AI worked out great for lisp.
    - anthk 2y ago
      The most important book to learn Common Lisp it's basically about AI.
    - Y_Y 2y ago
      Be careful, or you'll summon one of the many locals here who have been very successful in AI and lisp. For example @marklwatson has a number of books on modern "AI" applications in various lisps (I particularly recommend checking out Hy, since it's so easy to move from python). If you're talking about AI winter, it might be fair to put some blame on the commercial Lisp Machine producers, but I think it's indisputable that the early failures were due to capricious government funding as well as the non-existence of big, cheap GPGPUs. Lisps existed long before any AI hype, and they'll happily continue long after.
- jpk 2y ago
  In the spirit of promoting curious conversation, I'll ask: Can you identify the specific feature(s) you don't like?
  - MrVandemar 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - jpk 2y ago
      I'm well aware your take is a visceral reaction to the marketing copy in the FAQ (which to be honest, I can't blame you), but that's why I asked the question you didn't answer. :) I'd just encourage anyone with a knee jerk feeling like this to actually take a peek at what the buzz word actually alludes to. Your heuristic may have a false positive.
  - lambda 2y ago
    When someone responds like this, it's not to specific features, but to the general over-saturation of "AI" features because they are trendy, despite the majority of such features being poorly thought out, misleading, poorly integrated, provide serious privacy concerns, don't address concerns about bias or hallucination, etc. If the marketing copy actually referred to specific features, rather than the "AI" buzzword of the day, people might be less likely to interpret it as a negative signal.
- brunoqc 2y ago
  Kinda related, but did you know that GitHub refer to itself as "The AI-powered developer platform"? I guess copilot is more important than being a decent forge.
- jolmg 2y ago
  https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/3386 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/3386 > The gist is this: we have a lot of tools built in to our analysis library, pagerank, tf/idf, things like this which we can use to generate summaries, extract, keywords etc. There isn't a giant opaque LLM behind everything. These tools are used in logical ways, for example, when you bookmark something, how should you tag it? Nyxt figures out some likely tag candidates and suggests them to you.
- dang 2y ago
  Please don't post snarky dismissals to HN. You may not owe "deep AI integration" better, but the effect of comments like the one you posted here is toxic on the community regardless of how right you are. For the sake of having a decent community, we ask people not to post like this. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Curiositry 2y ago
A few years ago I doggedly tried to switch to Nyxt for everyday use. I really liked the concept, but at the time, it was too buggy, and constantly crashed on me. I'm going give it another shot.
- nextos 2y ago
  Nyxt is very promising, and I hope it gains momentum. The obvious advantage of Nyxt is programmability and keyboard-driven workflows. However, I use old hardware, and it's a bit slow and laggy. Chromium behaves the same way, so I imagine this is due to WebKit and Blink being significantly heavier than Gecko. Firefox is really snappy on old hardware, at least when running Linux, and uses a modest amount of memory.
  - dotancohen 2y ago
    What's considered old nowadays? My current desktop had some ~3Ghz AMD processor from ~2020, I don't even remember what it is. Maybe 16 GiB of memory. Runs Firefox and Jetbrains good enough that I've not had to consider upgrading. I use a Debian based distro.
    - olejorgenb 2y ago
      Not GP, but I have an i5 from around 2015. 4 cores, no hyper threading), 32GB ram. And it's still good enough for most things. Adding ram and a decent SDD gave it many extra years. In the prosess of switching it out completely now though.
      - chickenbigmac 2y ago
        What kind of work do you do with those specs? I have a machine from around the same period with similar upgrades and I feel that it really is good enough, especially if you don't play video games.
        wafflemaker 2y ago
phplovesong 2y ago
Is this standalone or an emacs plugin? I rather use vim motions, so is this locked to emacs, or can i do vim style for things instead?
- markasoftware 2y ago
  standalone
- brabel 2y ago
  The only connection between this and emacs is that both use a Lisp language (Nyxt is written in Common Lisp)... and that Nyxt is inspired by how emacs works. Anyway, why did you assume it is an emacs plugin? It doesn't say that anywhere.
  - shikck200 2y ago
    My first impression was the same. Mostly from the screenshots, each one had multiple places with an "emacs" text element. If this is not bound to emacs, what the hell is the emacs thing doing there?
    - llm_trw 2y ago
      It's written in common lisp which is universally written in Emacs.
      - vindarel 2y ago
        (which can be written in other editors: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/editor-support.html https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/editor-support.ht... vim, VSCode with LSP support, Jetbrains, Atom/Pulsar, Sublime, Jupyter notebook…) (just saying to not scare people. Emacs is still the best for CL IMO)
        llm_trw 2y ago
        Yes, I can also wear underwear as a hat.
hassannawaz 2y ago
Anyone interested can also check out the Vimium browser extension.
- derN3rd 2y ago
  There is also Homerow (homerow.app) for MacOS that does this on a system level
  - aterp 2y ago
    Homerow looks very cool. Is it actively being supported? Looks like it still uses App Center despite that being sunset, plus the change log shows the last update in June 2024, and before that in April 2023
- the_gipsy 2y ago
  Or Tridactyl.
- OvidNaso 2y ago
  Tridactyl for firefox is amazing too
  - poincaredisk 2y ago
    Or VimFx
- beanaroo 2y ago
  Surfingkeys is my preferred extension
ramenbytes 2y ago
The one thing holding me back from this is not being able to run UBlock origin on it yet. I keep telling myself that eventually I'll have the spare time to change that myself....
- wongogue 2y ago
  It already has an adblocker. Check the FAQ.
  - ramenbytes 2y ago
    AdBlocker, yes. UBlock Origin, no. Maybe it's since reached feature parity, last time I checked it hadn't from what I could tell.
- swhalemwo 2y ago
  so much this.. probably once a year I remember that nyxt would be really cool to use, but then I see it still doesn't support adblock on youtube and thus forget it again.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
patrickkidger 2y ago
So why this over qutebrowser [1] ? (Which has been my go-to keyboard-first browser for a long time.) This isn't mentioned in the FAQ despite I think being the natural comparison. [1] https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser
- llm_trw 2y ago
  Vim vs Emacs bindings for one.
  - yasser_kaddoura 2y ago
    You can configure both to use either. List of emacs-like config in Qutebrowser: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/main/doc/help/configuring.asciidoc#emacs-like-config https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/main/doc/hel...
    - llm_trw 2y ago
      Like always it's a second class citizen. I spend a stupid 6 months trying to use emacs like vim. Emacs isn't a text editor. If you need to edit text as a rectangle of characters then you can drop in evil mode. Expecting to use emacs control characters from evil mode it a bit like using Kanji to write English.
      - jolmg 2y ago
        It was my experience too that it's better to commit to using Emacs like Emacs. `C-x SPC` is the Emacs way to select a rectangle of characters.
      - emptysongglass 2y ago
        Evil (VIM emulation mode in Emacs) does not in any way behave like a second-class citizen. I use evil every single day and it's fantastic. Emacs is a text editor, yes, among other things. If anyone is reading this who hasn't tried Emacs, don't let takes like this spoil you giving Emacs a try. Doom Emacs is a fantastic experience to get started but there are more minimal starter kits that give you just evil-mode to start.
nelsonfigueroa 2y ago
The tree based history feature is amazing
- bmacho 2y ago
  IMO browsers should remember browsing history (what pages have I been on, and how did I get there), yet I never seen a browser that can do that.
  - olejorgenb 2y ago
    Firefox does, but does a really poor you if exposing that info. (See places.sqlite)
    - jolmg 2y ago
      Huh, you're right. I thought it only kept record of the last visit to any URL, because that's what it shows in the GUI, but the DB does have prior records... It's weird how they went through the trouble of hiding entries in the GUI.
      - slightwinder 2y ago
        What do you mean with hiding? There is a whole submenu for history, with multiple different interfaces for navigating the history. For me it's right under bookmarks in the app-menu/burger-menu, or in the sidebar.
        jolmg 2y ago
        If you're on site foo, then go to bar, then baz, then bar again. The history GUI, whether the sidebar or the history manager (Ctrl-Shift-h), is not going to show foo, bar, baz, bar. It's going to show foo, baz, bar. The first time you went to bar is hidden. It's present in the DB, but no part of the GUI AFAICT is going to mention a visit to bar between visits to foo and baz.
    - agumonkey 2y ago
dang 2y ago
Related. Others? Nyxt – The Hacker's Browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39183823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39183823 - Jan 2024 (2 comments) Nyxt: The Hacker's Browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36006423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36006423 - May 2023 (252 comments) Nyxt 3.0.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35869378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35869378 - May 2023 (30 comments) Why Lisp? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35852321 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35852321 - May 2023 (327 comments) Nyxt 3 Pre-release 1 (a Lisp powered web browser) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32097424 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32097424 - July 2022 (66 comments) Lisp in Production: an interview with the guys behind Nyxt Browser [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30271989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30271989 - Feb 2022 (15 comments) Nyxt browser annotations beat pen and paper - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30184792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30184792 - Feb 2022 (46 comments) “Why should I use Nyxt if I can use Vimium?” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632422 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632422 - Sept 2021 (10 comments) Nyxt 2.2.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28623720 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28623720 - Sept 2021 (35 comments) Nyxt – The Internet on Your Terms - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28037300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28037300 - Aug 2021 (1 comment) Show HN: Nyxt Browser 2.0.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27219646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27219646 - May 2021 (121 comments) Nyxt Browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26509612 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26509612 - March 2021 (125 comments) Nyxt browser: mouseless copy/paste - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25956152 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25956152 - Jan 2021 (56 comments) Dashboard for Nyxt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25151976 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25151976 - Nov 2020 (2 comments) Nyxt Browser 2.0.0 Pre-release - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24353927 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24353927 - Sept 2020 (11 comments)
- opan 2y ago
  It used to be called Next Browser, so older posts might call it that.
  - dang 2y ago
    Ah thanks! Extending backward: Next browser 1.3.2: Hooks, file manager and clipboard ring - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21023816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21023816 - Sept 2019 (1 comment) Next browser 1.3.0: your Lisp daily driver - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20613661 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20613661 - Aug 2019 (3 comments) Next browser – web browser in Common LISP - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064589 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064589 - May 2019 (49 comments) Show HN: Next Browser native on Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18608454 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18608454 - Dec 2018 (114 comments) Next browser campaign: last week of fundraising - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18308031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18308031 - Oct 2018 (2 comments) Next Browser Feedback (Lisp) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18038967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18038967 - Sept 2018 (2 comments) Next – extensible keyboard-oriented web browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16985119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16985119 - May 2018 (15 comments) Show HN: NEXT Browser – A Lisp-based browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16108081 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16108081 - Jan 2018 (3 comments) nEXT Browser: A nEXT Generation Extensible Lisp Browser – Alpha - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15797548 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15797548 - Nov 2017 (12 comments) Show HN: nEXT Browser – A Lisp-based browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15418719 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15418719 - Oct 2017 (44 comments)
OsrsNeedsf2P 2y ago
> Instantly switch between your tabs [...] Easily find relevant tabs with a fuzzy search I personally use virtual desktops for organizing windows of tabs, but if I was one of the masochists who had 100+ open tabs, I would be moving to this immediately
- jolmg 2y ago
  As one such masochist, I hesitate because the tabs aren't tabs. I'm not saying there should be tabs, but this is different. I tend to see a page and open interesting links in new tabs, so the tabs to the right of the current tab are related to this tab. So, there's a tree-like organization to the tabs, even though they're presented linearly. In this browser, that kind of information seems lost, at least in its stock configuration. Windows are also about particular topics, but here all windows have all buffers available. The fuzzy search doesn't really do anything for me. I'm not really interested in seeing e.g. all Amazon tabs together. I'd prefer to see some Amazon tabs that are about particular selections of books next to other tabs of various URLs and titles that are also about those particular selections of books, and in the tree/linear-like order they were opened in. Also, the tree-like order isn't always from following a link. I may, for example, check out a book on an Amazon product page, and a reviewer makes mention of other similar books, so I may open tabs next to this one that search those titles somewhere (DDG/Amazon/etc). If I were to make this usable for me, it's probably by automatically keeping record of what buffer I was on when I opened a new one, then making a buffer that presents this information in a modifiable tree. The fuzzy search can be replaced by a search in this buffer. It would simply scroll to the spot, so I'd have access to ancestors and descendants from the match. A benefit of generalizing to buffers rather than webpages is that presumably I could make simple placeholder buffers that act as parents representing topics where I would have used windows in the past. Also, I'd need keybindings to walk the tree like Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab. Maybe also a way to set the root node for a window, to limit the navigation of Ctrl-Tab in it. Another thing is that it also facilitates closing tabs when one's done with a topic. Firefox has "close all tabs to the right" for that, though one can also middle click a tab repeatedly until enough tabs have been closed to close a (sub)topic. The buffer tree would simply need to have some "close this and descendants" type of option.
binary_slinger 2y ago
Some good ideas here especially the history tree and keyboard history. Don't care much for the hacker = keyboard mentality, I enjoy using my mouse.
- softwreoutthere 2y ago
  "I don't want to learn. I don't want to drive. The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."
- sourcepluck 2y ago
  Please, it's only in the comments that people are reducing a complex reality to a silly and childish "hacker = keyboard" thing. Nyxt aims to provide a great experience for emacs and vim users from the first run, but also has CUA bindings, and also has absolutely standard support for pointing, clicking, dragging, you name it. Get your mousing hand ready, binary_slinger, because the 1s and 0s are ready to get slung inside Nyxt
Valodim 2y ago
Pretty wise comment about web extension support by the main dev here: https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2875#issuecomment-1482996905 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2875#issuecomm...
- mikae1 2y ago
  > People tend to think in terms of what they could lose, and not in terms of potential gains. It's easier for users to take familiar extensions to a new browser, than having to learn how to use an analog. How is this thinking wise? What are the potential gains and analogs for the end (without having to learn how to code)? What is the analog to Bypass Paywalls Clean and Cookie AutoDelete as an example? If writing new extensions in Common Lisp was so easy, why do they only list two extensions as available?[1] Nyxt and qutebrowser target power users but leave out WebExtension support. I think they'd be a lot more popular if they didn't. [1] https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/extensions https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/extensions
  - trenchgun 2y ago
    They do not leave out WebExtension support, they are working to get there: > We're focusing on #2989 since it will allow running Nyxt on macOS and support WebExtensions. https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2875#issuecomment-2414725149 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2875#issuecomm...
    - trenchgun 2y ago
      Like, they are working on it right now. Or the prerequisite, to get electron version of Nyxt working. https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/3544 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/3544
  - Valodim 2y ago
    Did you interpret the comment as an argument for not having web extensions and recreating the features builtin instead? Because I'm fairly sure it's saying the opposite, even the last you quoted.
Ylpertnodi 2y ago
Took a while to find this (windows user, me - always looking for something new): For which operating systems is Nyxt available? Linux BSD (unofficial) macOS (experimental) Windows (unofficial (via WSL)) Official ports for Windows and macOS are in development.
pjmlp 2y ago
As someone that started in computing when affordable computing was all about keyboard, and mices only existed in computers with prices similar to buying a car or a mortgage, I don't get the hype of keyboard == hacker mentality. Specially since that on my hacker circle of Demoscene, during the 16 bit days, we were mostly on Atari and Amiga systems, then we had plenty of mouse time, and no one ever stop to wonder we weren't hackers because we had mices.
- lll-o-lll 2y ago
  Even outside of the “hacker” community, keyboard has always been associated with higher expertise. Average “MS Word” user - Navigate through various menus to find what they want to do. Power Users - Memorized all the “shortcuts”. I think that’s mostly what it is. A keyboard (and a bunch of memorizing), gives mastery over the applications UI.
  - anonzzzies 2y ago
    I still miss Wordperfect for that reason: messing around with Word wysiwyg, even with people who have decades of experience, is just painful to watch or do.
    - gcanyon 2y ago
      WordStar!!! :-) I wrote two novels in that thing.
      - anthk 2y ago
        Check WordTsar
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Some shortcuts are helpful, until one needs to do anything that affects visual position or drawing. Very few people master shortcuts that require three key chords or more.
  - pdntspa 2y ago
airtonix 2y ago
[dead]
guerrilla 2y ago
WebKit backend though, right?
- jolmg 2y ago
  Yes, but they're trying to add a Chrome-based one: https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2989 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2989 They have this repo for Common Lisp bindings to QtWebEngine, but it's been archived: https://github.com/atlas-engineer/cl-webengine https://github.com/atlas-engineer/cl-webengine Seems they're currently trying Electron: https://github.com/atlas-engineer/cl-electron https://github.com/atlas-engineer/cl-electron
  - guerrilla 2y ago
    Oh, that's disappointing. I want this on Gecko, to support the competition and get away from Firefox's increasingly user-unfriendly UI.
    - ethagnawl 2y ago
      Have you checked out Zen? https://zen-browser.app/ https://zen-browser.app/
Bigie 2y ago
I've used this browser for a long time. At first, it was very promising, but later on, I found it quite distracting when I needed to work, so I had to give up. If you enjoy the vim-style feel of operation, you might want to try this browser's extension, as it can accommodate your habits along with normal web browsing. Of course, I still hope that the browser can improve, and I will try downloading it again to use for a while. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/vimium/dbepggeogbaibhgnhhndojpepiihcmeb?hl=en https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/vimium/dbepggeogbai...
- sam_lowry_ 2y ago
  I am using Vimium all the time. It's so ingrained in my muscle memory that I do not remember the key combinations anymore.
  - in9 2y ago
    I feel I could use it more. I use the link jumping all the time, but that's basically it. What other features do you guys use?
    - snarkyturtle 2y ago
      Shift-T: triggers a tab switcher D-U: is Page Up/Page Down /: find in page
brimstedt 2y ago
Any initiative to make a fast powerful UI is a good one imo. Some features, like clipboard history and window management (i.e "tabs") are better left to the desktop environment though. Every app shouldn't need to reimplement this logic.
- forgotpwd16 2y ago
  The homepage probably to broaden the audience talks about tabs but as can see in screencasts, in-program, they're called (borrowing from Emacs) buffers. In contrast to tabs, buffers don't belong to a specific window and can switch to one within another window.
falqun 2y ago
I don't know, I feel like some of the more pressing features of this browser are already provided with add-ons such as Vimium. And I would really like to see this on a Firefox back-end / compatible with the likes of uBlock origin. I don't want to have another chrome derivative that has a fancy new UI to boast.
- bitvoid 2y ago
  > I don't want to have another chrome derivative that has a fancy new UI to boast. It uses WebKitGTK, not Chrome. As for why not vimium? https://nyxt-browser.com/article/nyxt-versus-plugins.org https://nyxt-browser.com/article/nyxt-versus-plugins.org
ecef9-8c0f-4374 2y ago
The comments got me already antagonistic towards the project. But what I saw was quite nice. I mean I won't switch my default browser but there were some good ideas.
jpgvm 2y ago
Not sure if anyone else remembers uzbl but I'm sad that didn't catch on. Will give this a go I guess.
- theiasson 2y ago
  I definitely remember ( and miss) both uzbl and luakit.
sylware 2y ago
A hacker browser is either: - an headless big tech engine (blink|webkit|geeko) with AI bots strapped to a virtual mouse and virtual keyboard, probably installed on compromised systems, and remotely controlled. - a real everyday hacker browser, namely certainly not with a c++ big tech engine (blink|webkit|geeko), but along the line of a simple no-gc computer language which does not require an insane compiler (excluding de-facto c++,java,rust,etc). Ofc, they will have to piggy back the planned obsolescence of Big Tech browsers and shadowy permanent compatibility breaking of Big Tech with their engine (don't forget big tech wants to make you dependent on their own complexity, not anything else).
jarbus 2y ago
As long as qutebrowser still works, I'll stay loyal. Designed for vim keys first and foremost + python config is plenty for me.
wruza 2y ago
I love visual navigation and exploration and wish programming was mouse-only too (with an on-screen keyboard to help with names). I’m actually using this setup for browsing - lots of bookmarks and gestures and an on-screen kbd. Typing is overrated. Very sad that our tools are all typing-based. (Yes I can point at least at prolog, epilog, mov reg,imm and int nn parts in a 8086 hexdump, if you’re curious how true of a hacker this is.)
ezequiel-garzon 2y ago
This is a timely coincidence for me. I started using yesterday Shortcat [1] for the Mac, and I'm very pleased. It gives you access to pretty much everything with the keyboard, not just the browser. To be fair, Nyxt provides other features such as scripting. [1] https://shortcat.app/ https://shortcat.app/
- hiatus 2y ago
  I really wish it was open-source. I loved the concept and the app worked in most applications (though not the best with Slack). But I have reservations when it comes to granting full screen access to an app made by some unknown developer.
  - Vegenoid 2y ago
    I feel the same, so I simply block its network access (via LuLu), and it works just fine that way. I wish it was open source so I could hack on it and so development could continue - it's a really cool idea and works pretty well.
ethagnawl 2y ago
I was intrigued until I saw this in the FAQ: > What is Nyxt? > Nyxt is a browser with deeply integrated AI and semantic document tools that work as a second brain to help you process and understand more, more quickly. No mention of what sort of "AI", where it's run, etc. If nothing else, this sounds like a recipe for a warm laptop and unreliable results.
- medo-bear 2y ago
  im inclined to believe this is gof ai not nn ai
  - sourcepluck 2y ago
    Had to look that up: "Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence"
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- sigmonsays 2y ago
  The AI plug is obligatory. They have to ride the hype train too. This browser was around before AI was popular and when I used it, it was great. The only downside is the lack of ability to run extensions, like bitwarden.
  - goku12 2y ago
    Nyxt is supposed to be as extensible as Emacs and way more extensible than mainstream browsers that use WebExtensions. The lack of extensions is likely due to its miniscule market share.
    - avodonosov 2y ago
      Somebody should use the extrnsibility to integrate it with blockchain then, to make even more cool. (and more hot)
kelsey98765431 2y ago
Pretty sure firefox is the hackers browser
- sourcepluck 2y ago
  Somebody call jwz, quick
geddawm 2y ago
It's a show stopper that there's no macos support (afaiu). Eagerly awaiting that...
alanbernstein 2y ago
What I want is a hacker's bookmark manager, but integrated into my existing browser (Firefox).
- irthomasthomas 2y ago
  I use nyxt browser and a lisp function to send my bookmarks to GitHub issue. my domain https://undecidability.com https://undecidability.com redirects to it. And the code for it is at https://GitHub.com/irthomasthomas/label-maker https://GitHub.com/irthomasthomas/label-maker (it started as an gh issues ai manager. Bookmarks is just my main use-case for that)
  - alanbernstein 2y ago
    Thanks for sharing. I use Firefox partly to support open source and/or degoogle a bit, but I'm also mostly pretty happy with the multi-device sync features. Any support for that stuff in nyxt? Or if not, do you use anything else for them?
TheRealPomax 2y ago
Does still need "show multiple pages in the same window" functionality though. If I can segment emacs, I should be able to segment my hacker browser.
sourcepluck 2y ago
When are we getting a web engine written in SBCL? :) or how hard would it be, I wonder... One thing about Nyxt that's great is this idea of trying to push towards being renderer-agnostic. I'm not sure how achievable that is in reality, but when you hear the idea you think oh yeah, surely that would make sense if we want to have good things in the world. To all the people saying "I like my mouse! Why are these keyboard people so elitist!", the Nyxt people are not on a crusade against your lovely mouse. This isn't ratpoison (a window manager I adored using for a while, but that's a different story). I have never seen anything on the Nyxt blog or elsewhere claiming mouse-users aren't humans, with full rights, deserving of fine browsing experiences like the rest of us. If I missed something, go ahead, please link it to us all and prove your point.
- sourcepluck 2y ago
  https://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/inspiration.html https://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/inspiration.html That's linked to from the ratpoison page, I enjoyed reading it a few years ago, it hasn't gotten any less funny in the meantime. Why did I ever leave ratpoison...
  - medo-bear 2y ago
    gold. thank you for this. as regards ratpoison, have you looked at stumpwm?
    - sourcepluck 2y ago
      No, but I've been meaning to get around to trying it out! Is it wonderful?
      - medo-bear 2y ago
        its what ive been using for years
vtodekl 2y ago
[dead]
vtodekl 2y ago
[dead]
arminiusreturns 2y ago
I wish it was a GPL compat license, but a common lisp renderer agnostic system has me super curious! edit: ok this is fast and I like it! eww take a backseat!
- anthk 2y ago
  >https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/License:BSD-3-Clause https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/License:BSD-3-Clause It's compatible. You have it under Guix too.
  - arminiusreturns 2y ago
    I meant more copyleft, not just compat, but you are correct!
ThinkBeat 2y ago
I have been interested in this project for a while now. That somebody has now added to the documentation: "Nyxt is a browser with deeply integrated AI" Made me entirely lose interest. It sounds like it could be a privay problem I did however dig deep to figure out what their EULA and whatnotstates. (or the code)
- anthk 2y ago
  Classical AI, not the bullshit parroter.
  - sourcepluck 2y ago
    I still find it confusing - was that a thing, historically, that the mere use of Common Lisp meant that the thing written in Common Lisp was considered "AI"? I thought it was a general-purpose, high-level language, that was sometimes used for projects which might be called Artificial Intelligence projects, depending on the whims of authors. Or is something more specific being referred to?
  - tremon 2y ago
    Classical AI? Like what the Greeks used? Or are you referring to the post-Gothic renewal era?
drakenot 2y ago
Every time I've tried to use Qutebrowser, or similar -- I end up bouncing from it because I want proper extension support.
igneo676 2y ago
It's a great browser, but sadly my 2fa keys don't work with it. Looking forward to the day the underlying engine adds support
emrah 2y ago
So "hacker" is someone who is allergic to using a mouse. We've come a long way from what it used to mean..
- bitvoid 2y ago
  > Nyxt differs fundamentally in its philosophy- rather than exposing a set of parameters for customization, Nyxt allows you to customize all functionality. Every single class, method, and function is overwritable and reconfigurable. You'll find that you are able to engineer Nyxt's behavior to suit almost any workflow.
- sourcepluck 2y ago
  TL;DR There's simply no grounds for rat-molesters to feel so triggered. No-one is saying "hacker" means someone who is allergic to mouses, it's not what's being said whatsoever. The Nyxt page there unfortunately leans a bit too heavily on the "keyboard" bit, but the fact that that has taken off as a hot take here in this HN discussion is nonetheless an inaccurate reading of the project. The point being made is that it's a browser for people who want to configure a browser in Common Lisp, i.e., what's sometimes called "power users" (I don't love that term, personally). It's fully FOSS, and the expected audience is people who know their way around terminals, IDEs, Emacs, vim, and so on. These types of people often learn the available shortcuts in order to get around faster. Not always. However, programmers and tinkerers who like keyboard shortcuts are first-class citizens in Nyxt, is the point. Vim and Emacs keybindings are available out of the box. However, CUA bindings and mouse-manipulation are also both fully supported. So, there's no issue.
sourcepluck 2y ago
Oh, one other thing I just wondered: has there been any progress on interacting with Nyxt from Emacs? I saw something about that at some stage.
123456789aaa 2y ago
out of 215 comments, how many have tried to use the software? (my #216: it can be hard to figure out how to get around in it because it is all text.)

471 points by OuterVale 2y ago

MrVandemar 2y ago

[flagged]

Y_Y 2y ago
Maybe they just mean Lisp, rather than LLM bullshit.
- GrantMoyer 2y ago
  We've already got Emacs
  - echo7394 2y ago
    Emacs isn't a browser though
    - herewulf 2y ago
      M-x eww
    - Y_Y 2y ago
      As a sibling mentions, ewe is pretty decent, but if you want all mod-cons then you can use EAF's browser, or even better use EXWM to embed Firefox (or Librewolf or whatever).
- jojohohanon 2y ago
  Because AI worked out great for lisp.
  - anthk 2y ago
    The most important book to learn Common Lisp it's basically about AI.
  - Y_Y 2y ago
    Be careful, or you'll summon one of the many locals here who have been very successful in AI and lisp. For example @marklwatson has a number of books on modern "AI" applications in various lisps (I particularly recommend checking out Hy, since it's so easy to move from python). If you're talking about AI winter, it might be fair to put some blame on the commercial Lisp Machine producers, but I think it's indisputable that the early failures were due to capricious government funding as well as the non-existence of big, cheap GPGPUs. Lisps existed long before any AI hype, and they'll happily continue long after.
jpk 2y ago
In the spirit of promoting curious conversation, I'll ask: Can you identify the specific feature(s) you don't like?
- MrVandemar 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - jpk 2y ago
    I'm well aware your take is a visceral reaction to the marketing copy in the FAQ (which to be honest, I can't blame you), but that's why I asked the question you didn't answer. :) I'd just encourage anyone with a knee jerk feeling like this to actually take a peek at what the buzz word actually alludes to. Your heuristic may have a false positive.
- lambda 2y ago
  When someone responds like this, it's not to specific features, but to the general over-saturation of "AI" features because they are trendy, despite the majority of such features being poorly thought out, misleading, poorly integrated, provide serious privacy concerns, don't address concerns about bias or hallucination, etc. If the marketing copy actually referred to specific features, rather than the "AI" buzzword of the day, people might be less likely to interpret it as a negative signal.
brunoqc 2y ago
Kinda related, but did you know that GitHub refer to itself as "The AI-powered developer platform"? I guess copilot is more important than being a decent forge.
jolmg 2y ago
https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/3386 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/3386 > The gist is this: we have a lot of tools built in to our analysis library, pagerank, tf/idf, things like this which we can use to generate summaries, extract, keywords etc. There isn't a giant opaque LLM behind everything. These tools are used in logical ways, for example, when you bookmark something, how should you tag it? Nyxt figures out some likely tag candidates and suggests them to you.
dang 2y ago
Please don't post snarky dismissals to HN. You may not owe "deep AI integration" better, but the effect of comments like the one you posted here is toxic on the community regardless of how right you are. For the sake of having a decent community, we ask people not to post like this. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Curiositry 2y ago

A few years ago I doggedly tried to switch to Nyxt for everyday use. I really liked the concept, but at the time, it was too buggy, and constantly crashed on me. I'm going give it another shot.

nextos 2y ago
Nyxt is very promising, and I hope it gains momentum. The obvious advantage of Nyxt is programmability and keyboard-driven workflows. However, I use old hardware, and it's a bit slow and laggy. Chromium behaves the same way, so I imagine this is due to WebKit and Blink being significantly heavier than Gecko. Firefox is really snappy on old hardware, at least when running Linux, and uses a modest amount of memory.
- dotancohen 2y ago
  What's considered old nowadays? My current desktop had some ~3Ghz AMD processor from ~2020, I don't even remember what it is. Maybe 16 GiB of memory. Runs Firefox and Jetbrains good enough that I've not had to consider upgrading. I use a Debian based distro.
  - olejorgenb 2y ago
    Not GP, but I have an i5 from around 2015. 4 cores, no hyper threading), 32GB ram. And it's still good enough for most things. Adding ram and a decent SDD gave it many extra years. In the prosess of switching it out completely now though.
    - chickenbigmac 2y ago
      What kind of work do you do with those specs? I have a machine from around the same period with similar upgrades and I feel that it really is good enough, especially if you don't play video games.
      - wafflemaker 2y ago

phplovesong 2y ago

Is this standalone or an emacs plugin? I rather use vim motions, so is this locked to emacs, or can i do vim style for things instead?

markasoftware 2y ago
standalone
brabel 2y ago
The only connection between this and emacs is that both use a Lisp language (Nyxt is written in Common Lisp)... and that Nyxt is inspired by how emacs works. Anyway, why did you assume it is an emacs plugin? It doesn't say that anywhere.
- shikck200 2y ago
  My first impression was the same. Mostly from the screenshots, each one had multiple places with an "emacs" text element. If this is not bound to emacs, what the hell is the emacs thing doing there?
  - llm_trw 2y ago
    It's written in common lisp which is universally written in Emacs.
    - vindarel 2y ago
      (which can be written in other editors: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/editor-support.html https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/editor-support.ht... vim, VSCode with LSP support, Jetbrains, Atom/Pulsar, Sublime, Jupyter notebook…) (just saying to not scare people. Emacs is still the best for CL IMO)
      - llm_trw 2y ago
        Yes, I can also wear underwear as a hat.

hassannawaz 2y ago

Anyone interested can also check out the Vimium browser extension.

derN3rd 2y ago
There is also Homerow (homerow.app) for MacOS that does this on a system level
- aterp 2y ago
  Homerow looks very cool. Is it actively being supported? Looks like it still uses App Center despite that being sunset, plus the change log shows the last update in June 2024, and before that in April 2023
the_gipsy 2y ago
Or Tridactyl.
OvidNaso 2y ago
Tridactyl for firefox is amazing too
- poincaredisk 2y ago
  Or VimFx
beanaroo 2y ago
Surfingkeys is my preferred extension

ramenbytes 2y ago

The one thing holding me back from this is not being able to run UBlock origin on it yet. I keep telling myself that eventually I'll have the spare time to change that myself....

wongogue 2y ago
It already has an adblocker. Check the FAQ.
- ramenbytes 2y ago
  AdBlocker, yes. UBlock Origin, no. Maybe it's since reached feature parity, last time I checked it hadn't from what I could tell.
swhalemwo 2y ago
so much this.. probably once a year I remember that nyxt would be really cool to use, but then I see it still doesn't support adblock on youtube and thus forget it again.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

patrickkidger 2y ago

So why this over qutebrowser [1] ? (Which has been my go-to keyboard-first browser for a long time.) This isn't mentioned in the FAQ despite I think being the natural comparison. [1] https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser

llm_trw 2y ago
Vim vs Emacs bindings for one.
- yasser_kaddoura 2y ago
  You can configure both to use either. List of emacs-like config in Qutebrowser: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/main/doc/help/configuring.asciidoc#emacs-like-config https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/blob/main/doc/hel...
  - llm_trw 2y ago
    Like always it's a second class citizen. I spend a stupid 6 months trying to use emacs like vim. Emacs isn't a text editor. If you need to edit text as a rectangle of characters then you can drop in evil mode. Expecting to use emacs control characters from evil mode it a bit like using Kanji to write English.
    - jolmg 2y ago
      It was my experience too that it's better to commit to using Emacs like Emacs. `C-x SPC` is the Emacs way to select a rectangle of characters.
    - emptysongglass 2y ago
      Evil (VIM emulation mode in Emacs) does not in any way behave like a second-class citizen. I use evil every single day and it's fantastic. Emacs is a text editor, yes, among other things. If anyone is reading this who hasn't tried Emacs, don't let takes like this spoil you giving Emacs a try. Doom Emacs is a fantastic experience to get started but there are more minimal starter kits that give you just evil-mode to start.

nelsonfigueroa 2y ago

The tree based history feature is amazing

bmacho 2y ago
IMO browsers should remember browsing history (what pages have I been on, and how did I get there), yet I never seen a browser that can do that.
- olejorgenb 2y ago
  Firefox does, but does a really poor you if exposing that info. (See places.sqlite)
  - jolmg 2y ago
    Huh, you're right. I thought it only kept record of the last visit to any URL, because that's what it shows in the GUI, but the DB does have prior records... It's weird how they went through the trouble of hiding entries in the GUI.
    - slightwinder 2y ago
      What do you mean with hiding? There is a whole submenu for history, with multiple different interfaces for navigating the history. For me it's right under bookmarks in the app-menu/burger-menu, or in the sidebar.
      - jolmg 2y ago
        If you're on site foo, then go to bar, then baz, then bar again. The history GUI, whether the sidebar or the history manager (Ctrl-Shift-h), is not going to show foo, bar, baz, bar. It's going to show foo, baz, bar. The first time you went to bar is hidden. It's present in the DB, but no part of the GUI AFAICT is going to mention a visit to bar between visits to foo and baz.
  - agumonkey 2y ago

dang 2y ago

Related. Others? Nyxt – The Hacker's Browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39183823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39183823 - Jan 2024 (2 comments) Nyxt: The Hacker's Browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36006423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36006423 - May 2023 (252 comments) Nyxt 3.0.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35869378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35869378 - May 2023 (30 comments) Why Lisp? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35852321 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35852321 - May 2023 (327 comments) Nyxt 3 Pre-release 1 (a Lisp powered web browser) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32097424 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32097424 - July 2022 (66 comments) Lisp in Production: an interview with the guys behind Nyxt Browser [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30271989 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30271989 - Feb 2022 (15 comments) Nyxt browser annotations beat pen and paper - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30184792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30184792 - Feb 2022 (46 comments) “Why should I use Nyxt if I can use Vimium?” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632422 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632422 - Sept 2021 (10 comments) Nyxt 2.2.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28623720 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28623720 - Sept 2021 (35 comments) Nyxt – The Internet on Your Terms - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28037300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28037300 - Aug 2021 (1 comment) Show HN: Nyxt Browser 2.0.0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27219646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27219646 - May 2021 (121 comments) Nyxt Browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26509612 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26509612 - March 2021 (125 comments) Nyxt browser: mouseless copy/paste - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25956152 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25956152 - Jan 2021 (56 comments) Dashboard for Nyxt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25151976 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25151976 - Nov 2020 (2 comments) Nyxt Browser 2.0.0 Pre-release - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24353927 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24353927 - Sept 2020 (11 comments)

opan 2y ago
It used to be called Next Browser, so older posts might call it that.
- dang 2y ago
  Ah thanks! Extending backward: Next browser 1.3.2: Hooks, file manager and clipboard ring - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21023816 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21023816 - Sept 2019 (1 comment) Next browser 1.3.0: your Lisp daily driver - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20613661 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20613661 - Aug 2019 (3 comments) Next browser – web browser in Common LISP - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064589 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064589 - May 2019 (49 comments) Show HN: Next Browser native on Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18608454 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18608454 - Dec 2018 (114 comments) Next browser campaign: last week of fundraising - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18308031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18308031 - Oct 2018 (2 comments) Next Browser Feedback (Lisp) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18038967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18038967 - Sept 2018 (2 comments) Next – extensible keyboard-oriented web browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16985119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16985119 - May 2018 (15 comments) Show HN: NEXT Browser – A Lisp-based browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16108081 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16108081 - Jan 2018 (3 comments) nEXT Browser: A nEXT Generation Extensible Lisp Browser – Alpha - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15797548 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15797548 - Nov 2017 (12 comments) Show HN: nEXT Browser – A Lisp-based browser - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15418719 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15418719 - Oct 2017 (44 comments)

OsrsNeedsf2P 2y ago

> Instantly switch between your tabs [...] Easily find relevant tabs with a fuzzy search I personally use virtual desktops for organizing windows of tabs, but if I was one of the masochists who had 100+ open tabs, I would be moving to this immediately

jolmg 2y ago
As one such masochist, I hesitate because the tabs aren't tabs. I'm not saying there should be tabs, but this is different. I tend to see a page and open interesting links in new tabs, so the tabs to the right of the current tab are related to this tab. So, there's a tree-like organization to the tabs, even though they're presented linearly. In this browser, that kind of information seems lost, at least in its stock configuration. Windows are also about particular topics, but here all windows have all buffers available. The fuzzy search doesn't really do anything for me. I'm not really interested in seeing e.g. all Amazon tabs together. I'd prefer to see some Amazon tabs that are about particular selections of books next to other tabs of various URLs and titles that are also about those particular selections of books, and in the tree/linear-like order they were opened in. Also, the tree-like order isn't always from following a link. I may, for example, check out a book on an Amazon product page, and a reviewer makes mention of other similar books, so I may open tabs next to this one that search those titles somewhere (DDG/Amazon/etc). If I were to make this usable for me, it's probably by automatically keeping record of what buffer I was on when I opened a new one, then making a buffer that presents this information in a modifiable tree. The fuzzy search can be replaced by a search in this buffer. It would simply scroll to the spot, so I'd have access to ancestors and descendants from the match. A benefit of generalizing to buffers rather than webpages is that presumably I could make simple placeholder buffers that act as parents representing topics where I would have used windows in the past. Also, I'd need keybindings to walk the tree like Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab. Maybe also a way to set the root node for a window, to limit the navigation of Ctrl-Tab in it. Another thing is that it also facilitates closing tabs when one's done with a topic. Firefox has "close all tabs to the right" for that, though one can also middle click a tab repeatedly until enough tabs have been closed to close a (sub)topic. The buffer tree would simply need to have some "close this and descendants" type of option.

binary_slinger 2y ago

Some good ideas here especially the history tree and keyboard history. Don't care much for the hacker = keyboard mentality, I enjoy using my mouse.

softwreoutthere 2y ago
"I don't want to learn. I don't want to drive. The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."
sourcepluck 2y ago
Please, it's only in the comments that people are reducing a complex reality to a silly and childish "hacker = keyboard" thing. Nyxt aims to provide a great experience for emacs and vim users from the first run, but also has CUA bindings, and also has absolutely standard support for pointing, clicking, dragging, you name it. Get your mousing hand ready, binary_slinger, because the 1s and 0s are ready to get slung inside Nyxt

Valodim 2y ago

Pretty wise comment about web extension support by the main dev here: https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2875#issuecomment-1482996905 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2875#issuecomm...

mikae1 2y ago
> People tend to think in terms of what they could lose, and not in terms of potential gains. It's easier for users to take familiar extensions to a new browser, than having to learn how to use an analog. How is this thinking wise? What are the potential gains and analogs for the end (without having to learn how to code)? What is the analog to Bypass Paywalls Clean and Cookie AutoDelete as an example? If writing new extensions in Common Lisp was so easy, why do they only list two extensions as available?[1] Nyxt and qutebrowser target power users but leave out WebExtension support. I think they'd be a lot more popular if they didn't. [1] https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/extensions https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/extensions
- trenchgun 2y ago
  They do not leave out WebExtension support, they are working to get there: > We're focusing on #2989 since it will allow running Nyxt on macOS and support WebExtensions. https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2875#issuecomment-2414725149 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2875#issuecomm...
  - trenchgun 2y ago
    Like, they are working on it right now. Or the prerequisite, to get electron version of Nyxt working. https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/3544 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/3544
- Valodim 2y ago
  Did you interpret the comment as an argument for not having web extensions and recreating the features builtin instead? Because I'm fairly sure it's saying the opposite, even the last you quoted.

Ylpertnodi 2y ago

Took a while to find this (windows user, me - always looking for something new): For which operating systems is Nyxt available? Linux BSD (unofficial) macOS (experimental) Windows (unofficial (via WSL)) Official ports for Windows and macOS are in development.

pjmlp 2y ago

As someone that started in computing when affordable computing was all about keyboard, and mices only existed in computers with prices similar to buying a car or a mortgage, I don't get the hype of keyboard == hacker mentality. Specially since that on my hacker circle of Demoscene, during the 16 bit days, we were mostly on Atari and Amiga systems, then we had plenty of mouse time, and no one ever stop to wonder we weren't hackers because we had mices.

lll-o-lll 2y ago
Even outside of the “hacker” community, keyboard has always been associated with higher expertise. Average “MS Word” user - Navigate through various menus to find what they want to do. Power Users - Memorized all the “shortcuts”. I think that’s mostly what it is. A keyboard (and a bunch of memorizing), gives mastery over the applications UI.
- anonzzzies 2y ago
  I still miss Wordperfect for that reason: messing around with Word wysiwyg, even with people who have decades of experience, is just painful to watch or do.
  - gcanyon 2y ago
    WordStar!!! :-) I wrote two novels in that thing.
    - anthk 2y ago
      Check WordTsar
- pjmlp 2y ago
  Some shortcuts are helpful, until one needs to do anything that affects visual position or drawing. Very few people master shortcuts that require three key chords or more.
- pdntspa 2y ago

airtonix 2y ago

[dead]

guerrilla 2y ago

WebKit backend though, right?

jolmg 2y ago
Yes, but they're trying to add a Chrome-based one: https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2989 https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt/issues/2989 They have this repo for Common Lisp bindings to QtWebEngine, but it's been archived: https://github.com/atlas-engineer/cl-webengine https://github.com/atlas-engineer/cl-webengine Seems they're currently trying Electron: https://github.com/atlas-engineer/cl-electron https://github.com/atlas-engineer/cl-electron
- guerrilla 2y ago
  Oh, that's disappointing. I want this on Gecko, to support the competition and get away from Firefox's increasingly user-unfriendly UI.
  - ethagnawl 2y ago
    Have you checked out Zen? https://zen-browser.app/ https://zen-browser.app/

Bigie 2y ago

I've used this browser for a long time. At first, it was very promising, but later on, I found it quite distracting when I needed to work, so I had to give up. If you enjoy the vim-style feel of operation, you might want to try this browser's extension, as it can accommodate your habits along with normal web browsing. Of course, I still hope that the browser can improve, and I will try downloading it again to use for a while. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/vimium/dbepggeogbaibhgnhhndojpepiihcmeb?hl=en https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/vimium/dbepggeogbai...

sam_lowry_ 2y ago
I am using Vimium all the time. It's so ingrained in my muscle memory that I do not remember the key combinations anymore.
- in9 2y ago
  I feel I could use it more. I use the link jumping all the time, but that's basically it. What other features do you guys use?
  - snarkyturtle 2y ago
    Shift-T: triggers a tab switcher D-U: is Page Up/Page Down /: find in page

brimstedt 2y ago

Any initiative to make a fast powerful UI is a good one imo. Some features, like clipboard history and window management (i.e "tabs") are better left to the desktop environment though. Every app shouldn't need to reimplement this logic.

forgotpwd16 2y ago
The homepage probably to broaden the audience talks about tabs but as can see in screencasts, in-program, they're called (borrowing from Emacs) buffers. In contrast to tabs, buffers don't belong to a specific window and can switch to one within another window.

falqun 2y ago

I don't know, I feel like some of the more pressing features of this browser are already provided with add-ons such as Vimium. And I would really like to see this on a Firefox back-end / compatible with the likes of uBlock origin. I don't want to have another chrome derivative that has a fancy new UI to boast.

bitvoid 2y ago
> I don't want to have another chrome derivative that has a fancy new UI to boast. It uses WebKitGTK, not Chrome. As for why not vimium? https://nyxt-browser.com/article/nyxt-versus-plugins.org https://nyxt-browser.com/article/nyxt-versus-plugins.org

ecef9-8c0f-4374 2y ago

The comments got me already antagonistic towards the project. But what I saw was quite nice. I mean I won't switch my default browser but there were some good ideas.

jpgvm 2y ago

Not sure if anyone else remembers uzbl but I'm sad that didn't catch on. Will give this a go I guess.

theiasson 2y ago
I definitely remember ( and miss) both uzbl and luakit.

sylware 2y ago

A hacker browser is either: - an headless big tech engine (blink|webkit|geeko) with AI bots strapped to a virtual mouse and virtual keyboard, probably installed on compromised systems, and remotely controlled. - a real everyday hacker browser, namely certainly not with a c++ big tech engine (blink|webkit|geeko), but along the line of a simple no-gc computer language which does not require an insane compiler (excluding de-facto c++,java,rust,etc). Ofc, they will have to piggy back the planned obsolescence of Big Tech browsers and shadowy permanent compatibility breaking of Big Tech with their engine (don't forget big tech wants to make you dependent on their own complexity, not anything else).

jarbus 2y ago

As long as qutebrowser still works, I'll stay loyal. Designed for vim keys first and foremost + python config is plenty for me.

wruza 2y ago

I love visual navigation and exploration and wish programming was mouse-only too (with an on-screen keyboard to help with names). I’m actually using this setup for browsing - lots of bookmarks and gestures and an on-screen kbd. Typing is overrated. Very sad that our tools are all typing-based. (Yes I can point at least at prolog, epilog, mov reg,imm and int nn parts in a 8086 hexdump, if you’re curious how true of a hacker this is.)

ezequiel-garzon 2y ago

This is a timely coincidence for me. I started using yesterday Shortcat [1] for the Mac, and I'm very pleased. It gives you access to pretty much everything with the keyboard, not just the browser. To be fair, Nyxt provides other features such as scripting. [1] https://shortcat.app/ https://shortcat.app/

hiatus 2y ago
I really wish it was open-source. I loved the concept and the app worked in most applications (though not the best with Slack). But I have reservations when it comes to granting full screen access to an app made by some unknown developer.
- Vegenoid 2y ago
  I feel the same, so I simply block its network access (via LuLu), and it works just fine that way. I wish it was open source so I could hack on it and so development could continue - it's a really cool idea and works pretty well.

ethagnawl 2y ago

I was intrigued until I saw this in the FAQ: > What is Nyxt? > Nyxt is a browser with deeply integrated AI and semantic document tools that work as a second brain to help you process and understand more, more quickly. No mention of what sort of "AI", where it's run, etc. If nothing else, this sounds like a recipe for a warm laptop and unreliable results.

medo-bear 2y ago
im inclined to believe this is gof ai not nn ai
- sourcepluck 2y ago
  Had to look that up: "Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Intelligence"
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
sigmonsays 2y ago
The AI plug is obligatory. They have to ride the hype train too. This browser was around before AI was popular and when I used it, it was great. The only downside is the lack of ability to run extensions, like bitwarden.
- goku12 2y ago
  Nyxt is supposed to be as extensible as Emacs and way more extensible than mainstream browsers that use WebExtensions. The lack of extensions is likely due to its miniscule market share.
  - avodonosov 2y ago
    Somebody should use the extrnsibility to integrate it with blockchain then, to make even more cool. (and more hot)

kelsey98765431 2y ago

Pretty sure firefox is the hackers browser

sourcepluck 2y ago
Somebody call jwz, quick

geddawm 2y ago

It's a show stopper that there's no macos support (afaiu). Eagerly awaiting that...

alanbernstein 2y ago

What I want is a hacker's bookmark manager, but integrated into my existing browser (Firefox).

irthomasthomas 2y ago
I use nyxt browser and a lisp function to send my bookmarks to GitHub issue. my domain https://undecidability.com https://undecidability.com redirects to it. And the code for it is at https://GitHub.com/irthomasthomas/label-maker https://GitHub.com/irthomasthomas/label-maker (it started as an gh issues ai manager. Bookmarks is just my main use-case for that)
- alanbernstein 2y ago
  Thanks for sharing. I use Firefox partly to support open source and/or degoogle a bit, but I'm also mostly pretty happy with the multi-device sync features. Any support for that stuff in nyxt? Or if not, do you use anything else for them?

TheRealPomax 2y ago

Does still need "show multiple pages in the same window" functionality though. If I can segment emacs, I should be able to segment my hacker browser.

sourcepluck 2y ago

When are we getting a web engine written in SBCL? :) or how hard would it be, I wonder... One thing about Nyxt that's great is this idea of trying to push towards being renderer-agnostic. I'm not sure how achievable that is in reality, but when you hear the idea you think oh yeah, surely that would make sense if we want to have good things in the world. To all the people saying "I like my mouse! Why are these keyboard people so elitist!", the Nyxt people are not on a crusade against your lovely mouse. This isn't ratpoison (a window manager I adored using for a while, but that's a different story). I have never seen anything on the Nyxt blog or elsewhere claiming mouse-users aren't humans, with full rights, deserving of fine browsing experiences like the rest of us. If I missed something, go ahead, please link it to us all and prove your point.

sourcepluck 2y ago
https://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/inspiration.html https://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/inspiration.html That's linked to from the ratpoison page, I enjoyed reading it a few years ago, it hasn't gotten any less funny in the meantime. Why did I ever leave ratpoison...
- medo-bear 2y ago
  gold. thank you for this. as regards ratpoison, have you looked at stumpwm?
  - sourcepluck 2y ago
    No, but I've been meaning to get around to trying it out! Is it wonderful?
    - medo-bear 2y ago
      its what ive been using for years

vtodekl 2y ago

[dead]

vtodekl 2y ago

[dead]

arminiusreturns 2y ago

I wish it was a GPL compat license, but a common lisp renderer agnostic system has me super curious! edit: ok this is fast and I like it! eww take a backseat!

anthk 2y ago
>https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/License:BSD-3-Clause https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/License:BSD-3-Clause It's compatible. You have it under Guix too.
- arminiusreturns 2y ago
  I meant more copyleft, not just compat, but you are correct!

ThinkBeat 2y ago

I have been interested in this project for a while now. That somebody has now added to the documentation: "Nyxt is a browser with deeply integrated AI" Made me entirely lose interest. It sounds like it could be a privay problem I did however dig deep to figure out what their EULA and whatnotstates. (or the code)

anthk 2y ago
Classical AI, not the bullshit parroter.
- sourcepluck 2y ago
  I still find it confusing - was that a thing, historically, that the mere use of Common Lisp meant that the thing written in Common Lisp was considered "AI"? I thought it was a general-purpose, high-level language, that was sometimes used for projects which might be called Artificial Intelligence projects, depending on the whims of authors. Or is something more specific being referred to?
- tremon 2y ago
  Classical AI? Like what the Greeks used? Or are you referring to the post-Gothic renewal era?

drakenot 2y ago

Every time I've tried to use Qutebrowser, or similar -- I end up bouncing from it because I want proper extension support.

igneo676 2y ago

It's a great browser, but sadly my 2fa keys don't work with it. Looking forward to the day the underlying engine adds support

emrah 2y ago

So "hacker" is someone who is allergic to using a mouse. We've come a long way from what it used to mean..

bitvoid 2y ago
> Nyxt differs fundamentally in its philosophy- rather than exposing a set of parameters for customization, Nyxt allows you to customize all functionality. Every single class, method, and function is overwritable and reconfigurable. You'll find that you are able to engineer Nyxt's behavior to suit almost any workflow.
sourcepluck 2y ago
TL;DR There's simply no grounds for rat-molesters to feel so triggered. No-one is saying "hacker" means someone who is allergic to mouses, it's not what's being said whatsoever. The Nyxt page there unfortunately leans a bit too heavily on the "keyboard" bit, but the fact that that has taken off as a hot take here in this HN discussion is nonetheless an inaccurate reading of the project. The point being made is that it's a browser for people who want to configure a browser in Common Lisp, i.e., what's sometimes called "power users" (I don't love that term, personally). It's fully FOSS, and the expected audience is people who know their way around terminals, IDEs, Emacs, vim, and so on. These types of people often learn the available shortcuts in order to get around faster. Not always. However, programmers and tinkerers who like keyboard shortcuts are first-class citizens in Nyxt, is the point. Vim and Emacs keybindings are available out of the box. However, CUA bindings and mouse-manipulation are also both fully supported. So, there's no issue.

sourcepluck 2y ago

Oh, one other thing I just wondered: has there been any progress on interacting with Nyxt from Emacs? I saw something about that at some stage.

123456789aaa 2y ago

out of 215 comments, how many have tried to use the software? (my #216: it can be hard to figure out how to get around in it because it is all text.)