4 ms·

If someone writes a browser in their teens, they will probably learn more about the web than if they were just writing web pages

ignoramous 2mo ago
A few did. [Blake Ross] worked as an intern at Netscape at the age of 16 ... Ross became disenchanted with the browser he was working on and the direction given to it by America Online, which had recently purchased Netscape. Ross and Hyatt envisioned a smaller, easy-to-use browser that could have mass appeal, and Firefox was born from that idea ... in 2003 all of Mozilla's resources were devoted to the Firefox and Thunderbird projects. Released in November 2004, when Ross was 19, Firefox quickly grabbed market share ... with 100 million downloads in less than a year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Ross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Ross
- topham 2mo ago
  Sure, you had to pick the browser I despise worse than Netscape 4.
- nwatson 2mo ago
  In the meantime Mozilla was mocked on slashdot.org and elsewhere relentlessly after the first two years of the project when nobody believed there would be any value in the effort. Hats off to the team that took around five years to get to Firefox 1.0 (and released Mozilla browser in the interim). It took a lot of conviction to see it through.
paulryanrogers 2mo ago
They'll learn so much more that won't transfer to as many job opportunities. For ex, say more about C++ and less about cutting edge CSS (because modern browser tech is an ocean). I suppose they might luck into other adjacent or unrelated roles with the same skills.
- bigfishrunning 2mo ago
  Are you asserting that C++ is not a marketable skill? If anyone reading this has this un-marketable skill, Carnegie robotics in Pittsburgh is hiring carnegie-robotics.breezy.hr/p/2d85f5321cc7-software-engineer
  - ryandrake 2mo ago
    I think he's saying that building a browser is not a transferrable skill, like making a generic web page is. Employers don't like specialists. I used to build display drivers for graphics cards. Wonderful learning opportunity but other employers not in the graphics card manufacturing business didn't give a shit--those three years were essentially treated as an employment gap. "Well that's nice, but we really wish you had general experience writing CRUD apps..."
    - QuercusMax 2mo ago
      But building a web browser isn't a niche skill - it requires a whole bunch of them. You need to be a generalist to write a web browser.
    - bigfishrunning 2mo ago
      I would argue that in a post-LLM world, becoming as specialized as possible is the only way to survive. If you have the serious systems programming skills required to write graphics drivers, your talent would be wasted writing CRUD apps anyway. I hope you eventually found/will find something more appropriate for your skillset!
      - CamperBob2 2mo ago
        I'd argue the exact opposite. If I want a graphics driver, I'll ask the clanker for one. But if I don't know enough to even know what I want, there's no path forward.
    - hnlmorg 2mo ago
      CRUD didn’t exist in the early days of the web. People keep talking about a browser in the modern context but the GP specifically said “early days of the internet” (which, in fairness, would mean pre-web. But I think it’s safe to assume they meant “web” not Internet). In those days, it was actually a much simpler exercise to write a browser than it is today. I even wrote one! And writing a browser absolutely teaches you how HTTP and HTML worked. Plus a lot of backed development was forms data sent to CGI and thus written in languages we wouldn’t even dream of using for web development nowadays, including C++. So in the early web, writing a browser absolutely was a transferable skill. It might not be now, but in the context defined by the GP, it was.

ignoramous 2mo ago

A few did. [Blake Ross] worked as an intern at Netscape at the age of 16 ... Ross became disenchanted with the browser he was working on and the direction given to it by America Online, which had recently purchased Netscape. Ross and Hyatt envisioned a smaller, easy-to-use browser that could have mass appeal, and Firefox was born from that idea ... in 2003 all of Mozilla's resources were devoted to the Firefox and Thunderbird projects. Released in November 2004, when Ross was 19, Firefox quickly grabbed market share ... with 100 million downloads in less than a year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Ross https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Ross

topham 2mo ago
Sure, you had to pick the browser I despise worse than Netscape 4.
nwatson 2mo ago
In the meantime Mozilla was mocked on slashdot.org and elsewhere relentlessly after the first two years of the project when nobody believed there would be any value in the effort. Hats off to the team that took around five years to get to Firefox 1.0 (and released Mozilla browser in the interim). It took a lot of conviction to see it through.

paulryanrogers 2mo ago

They'll learn so much more that won't transfer to as many job opportunities. For ex, say more about C++ and less about cutting edge CSS (because modern browser tech is an ocean). I suppose they might luck into other adjacent or unrelated roles with the same skills.

bigfishrunning 2mo ago
Are you asserting that C++ is not a marketable skill? If anyone reading this has this un-marketable skill, Carnegie robotics in Pittsburgh is hiring carnegie-robotics.breezy.hr/p/2d85f5321cc7-software-engineer
- ryandrake 2mo ago
  I think he's saying that building a browser is not a transferrable skill, like making a generic web page is. Employers don't like specialists. I used to build display drivers for graphics cards. Wonderful learning opportunity but other employers not in the graphics card manufacturing business didn't give a shit--those three years were essentially treated as an employment gap. "Well that's nice, but we really wish you had general experience writing CRUD apps..."
  - QuercusMax 2mo ago
    But building a web browser isn't a niche skill - it requires a whole bunch of them. You need to be a generalist to write a web browser.
  - bigfishrunning 2mo ago
    I would argue that in a post-LLM world, becoming as specialized as possible is the only way to survive. If you have the serious systems programming skills required to write graphics drivers, your talent would be wasted writing CRUD apps anyway. I hope you eventually found/will find something more appropriate for your skillset!
    - CamperBob2 2mo ago
      I'd argue the exact opposite. If I want a graphics driver, I'll ask the clanker for one. But if I don't know enough to even know what I want, there's no path forward.
  - hnlmorg 2mo ago
    CRUD didn’t exist in the early days of the web. People keep talking about a browser in the modern context but the GP specifically said “early days of the internet” (which, in fairness, would mean pre-web. But I think it’s safe to assume they meant “web” not Internet). In those days, it was actually a much simpler exercise to write a browser than it is today. I even wrote one! And writing a browser absolutely teaches you how HTTP and HTML worked. Plus a lot of backed development was forms data sent to CGI and thus written in languages we wouldn’t even dream of using for web development nowadays, including C++. So in the early web, writing a browser absolutely was a transferable skill. It might not be now, but in the context defined by the GP, it was.