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The Nigerian Teenagers Who Built Crocodile Browser

64 points by crablar 11y ago

stann 11y ago
This is impressive. As a player in the Nigerian tech market, it is good to see budding local talents
whalesalad 11y ago
Seriously? Have you seen their website? http://www.bludoors.com/ http://www.bludoors.com/
- state 11y ago
  Somehow it's still kind of fascinating.
- awfullyjohn 11y ago
  They're kids. Give them a break. Would you like to show us the website you had when you were 16?
- smtddr 11y ago
  The sliding effect and animations are cool at least. You should have seen my first webpage. Animated rainbow gifs, crazy backgrounds on crazier font-colors. Their site is much better. Mine looked like those Myspace pages from back in the day. autoplaying midi music included.
- hackuser 11y ago
  Please consider deleting your comment. Imagine if those kids find out they're on Hacker News, and find this. It's not very interesting to your fellow commenters either.
- ams6110 11y ago
  IMO it's no worse than yours.
  - userbinator 11y ago
    At least his site is viewable without JavaScript.
    - nickpsecurity 11y ago
      That much I'll go with. I have NoScript. I click on a Nigerian site and see nothing but a whole list of scripts? I'll pass...
josebalius 11y ago
How does something like this make it to the front page of HN?
- smtddr 11y ago
  1) It's totally on topic, I don't see how you could argue otherwise. 2) As a person from a Nigerian family myself, I happen to like seeing people of my heritage being seen in a different light rather than the same old scam-email-Nigerian-prince thing that's always being presented. Unless I'm missing something, this browser isn't opensource which is kind of a shame. But solid effort nonetheless. I kinda wish a company equiv of YCombinator could show up in Lagos, Nigeria to give hopefully developers a better chance out there.
- sliverstorm 11y ago
  The opening quote: What is it like to be a young software engineer in Nigeria? How could something like this not make it to the front page of HN?
hackuser 11y ago
To Osine and Anesi, if you read this: 1) Awesome job, keep going! 2) You'll find some naysayers, nitpickers and other critics here: Your heroes, including Gates, Zuckerberg, and Musk, all had to deal with them too, before they were legends (and still do to some extent). You can't avoid them; they are drawn to risk-taking and [EDIT: innovation] like ants to a picnic. Just ignore them, their criticisms are just wind in your face as you move forward. They wish their projects made the front page of Hacker News! 3) We'd love to hear from you; feel free to leave a comment!
- Osine_I 11y ago
  Thanks
  - hackuser 11y ago
    Welcome! Out of curiousity, why did you choose to make a web browser (and not something else)? It's a great project, just curious what motivated your choice.
    - Osine_I 11y ago
      You have made a few games in the past, and creating a browser has always seemed cool to me. So when the Anesi needed a browser to work on his phone, I took it as an opportunity to do something that seemed cool to me.
      - ayel_mao 11y ago
        Did you write the rendering engine and the Javascript engine yourselves?
        Osine_I 11y ago
        No, we worked on an already existing one. We are currently in the process of building one
pratyushag 11y ago
THIS is awesome! Great to see some positive news of talent coming from NIgeria. <as somebody who moved from SF to Nigeria>
pratyushag 11y ago
THIS is awesome! Great to see some positive news of talent coming from NIgeria. <as somebody who moved from SF to Nigeria>
clark-kent 11y ago
The interview is cool, and even inspirational. They needed a faster browser for slower networks, so they did the research, found an appropriate rendering engine and built it. They solved their own unique problem and built a better browser for Nigerian networks. Osine and Anesi, you guys can ping me, if there's anyway I can help.
bobajeff 11y ago
So did they build the Rendering Engine, JavaScript Engine, Network Interface etc. stuff from scratch? If so I'm impressed. I also wonder how it's supposed work better on bad connections.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
userbinator 11y ago
Did they write their own rendering engine and everything? If so, that would be very impressive indeed. The Web really needs more diversity in browsers, for a wide variety of reasons. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any detailed information about it; Google the name and almost all the pages are about how amazingly awesome its creators are, and not the product itself... potential users really want to know about what makes this better than existing browsers.
- kumarm 11y ago
  In the link there is interview where they explained. No they did not build a Browser from Scratch. They wrote a UI for Default webkit engine that comes with Android. Is it a technical accomplishment? Not by any means for a professional. But it is awesome that these kids figured how to do this and mostly appear to be self learners. Edit: Reddit Thread here talks about using a GPL Browser (built over Webkit engine that comes with Android). https://www.reddit.com/r/coding/comments/38vbme/13_15_yrs_old_nigerian_brothers_built_mobile_web/ https://www.reddit.com/r/coding/comments/38vbme/13_15_yrs_ol...
- bootload 11y ago
  "Unfortunately I can't seem to find any detailed information about it" Listen to the talk. All the good questions are asked & answered.
aninteger 11y ago
I think this might be a violation of the GPL More discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/coding/comments/38vbme/13_15_yrs_old_nigerian_brothers_built_mobile_web/ https://www.reddit.com/r/coding/comments/38vbme/13_15_yrs_ol...
- Osine_I 11y ago
  It is not a violation of GPL because we referenced tint browser in the about section of the app.
  - userbinator 11y ago
    If you distribute a program based on GPL sources you have modified, you have to also distribute that source code. That is, unless the original authors gave you the sources under a different license.
  - nickpsecurity 11y ago
    He is right. If you modify and distribute GPL code, whatever changes you made have to be distributed with it in source code form. The BSD licensed code doesn't have this restriction, which is why it's used in place of GPL for those not wanting to redistribute their source. Maybe use that in the future for such things. For now, if you're app forks GPL code, you have to release the source, pull it, or hope nobody cares. Good to start noticing these little, but important, things early to develop good habits.
nickpsecurity 11y ago
Keep at it! You're off to a great start. :)

64 points by crablar 11y ago

stann 11y ago

This is impressive. As a player in the Nigerian tech market, it is good to see budding local talents

whalesalad 11y ago

Seriously? Have you seen their website? http://www.bludoors.com/ http://www.bludoors.com/

state 11y ago
Somehow it's still kind of fascinating.
awfullyjohn 11y ago
They're kids. Give them a break. Would you like to show us the website you had when you were 16?
smtddr 11y ago
The sliding effect and animations are cool at least. You should have seen my first webpage. Animated rainbow gifs, crazy backgrounds on crazier font-colors. Their site is much better. Mine looked like those Myspace pages from back in the day. autoplaying midi music included.
hackuser 11y ago
Please consider deleting your comment. Imagine if those kids find out they're on Hacker News, and find this. It's not very interesting to your fellow commenters either.
ams6110 11y ago
IMO it's no worse than yours.
- userbinator 11y ago
  At least his site is viewable without JavaScript.
  - nickpsecurity 11y ago
    That much I'll go with. I have NoScript. I click on a Nigerian site and see nothing but a whole list of scripts? I'll pass...

josebalius 11y ago

How does something like this make it to the front page of HN?

smtddr 11y ago
1) It's totally on topic, I don't see how you could argue otherwise. 2) As a person from a Nigerian family myself, I happen to like seeing people of my heritage being seen in a different light rather than the same old scam-email-Nigerian-prince thing that's always being presented. Unless I'm missing something, this browser isn't opensource which is kind of a shame. But solid effort nonetheless. I kinda wish a company equiv of YCombinator could show up in Lagos, Nigeria to give hopefully developers a better chance out there.
sliverstorm 11y ago
The opening quote: What is it like to be a young software engineer in Nigeria? How could something like this not make it to the front page of HN?

hackuser 11y ago

To Osine and Anesi, if you read this: 1) Awesome job, keep going! 2) You'll find some naysayers, nitpickers and other critics here: Your heroes, including Gates, Zuckerberg, and Musk, all had to deal with them too, before they were legends (and still do to some extent). You can't avoid them; they are drawn to risk-taking and [EDIT: innovation] like ants to a picnic. Just ignore them, their criticisms are just wind in your face as you move forward. They wish their projects made the front page of Hacker News! 3) We'd love to hear from you; feel free to leave a comment!

Osine_I 11y ago
Thanks
- hackuser 11y ago
  Welcome! Out of curiousity, why did you choose to make a web browser (and not something else)? It's a great project, just curious what motivated your choice.
  - Osine_I 11y ago
    You have made a few games in the past, and creating a browser has always seemed cool to me. So when the Anesi needed a browser to work on his phone, I took it as an opportunity to do something that seemed cool to me.
    - ayel_mao 11y ago
      Did you write the rendering engine and the Javascript engine yourselves?
      - Osine_I 11y ago
        No, we worked on an already existing one. We are currently in the process of building one

pratyushag 11y ago

THIS is awesome! Great to see some positive news of talent coming from NIgeria. <as somebody who moved from SF to Nigeria>

pratyushag 11y ago

THIS is awesome! Great to see some positive news of talent coming from NIgeria. <as somebody who moved from SF to Nigeria>

clark-kent 11y ago

The interview is cool, and even inspirational. They needed a faster browser for slower networks, so they did the research, found an appropriate rendering engine and built it. They solved their own unique problem and built a better browser for Nigerian networks. Osine and Anesi, you guys can ping me, if there's anyway I can help.

bobajeff 11y ago

So did they build the Rendering Engine, JavaScript Engine, Network Interface etc. stuff from scratch? If so I'm impressed. I also wonder how it's supposed work better on bad connections.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

userbinator 11y ago

Did they write their own rendering engine and everything? If so, that would be very impressive indeed. The Web really needs more diversity in browsers, for a wide variety of reasons. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any detailed information about it; Google the name and almost all the pages are about how amazingly awesome its creators are, and not the product itself... potential users really want to know about what makes this better than existing browsers.

kumarm 11y ago
In the link there is interview where they explained. No they did not build a Browser from Scratch. They wrote a UI for Default webkit engine that comes with Android. Is it a technical accomplishment? Not by any means for a professional. But it is awesome that these kids figured how to do this and mostly appear to be self learners. Edit: Reddit Thread here talks about using a GPL Browser (built over Webkit engine that comes with Android). https://www.reddit.com/r/coding/comments/38vbme/13_15_yrs_old_nigerian_brothers_built_mobile_web/ https://www.reddit.com/r/coding/comments/38vbme/13_15_yrs_ol...
bootload 11y ago
"Unfortunately I can't seem to find any detailed information about it" Listen to the talk. All the good questions are asked & answered.

aninteger 11y ago

I think this might be a violation of the GPL More discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/coding/comments/38vbme/13_15_yrs_old_nigerian_brothers_built_mobile_web/ https://www.reddit.com/r/coding/comments/38vbme/13_15_yrs_ol...

Osine_I 11y ago
It is not a violation of GPL because we referenced tint browser in the about section of the app.
- userbinator 11y ago
  If you distribute a program based on GPL sources you have modified, you have to also distribute that source code. That is, unless the original authors gave you the sources under a different license.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  He is right. If you modify and distribute GPL code, whatever changes you made have to be distributed with it in source code form. The BSD licensed code doesn't have this restriction, which is why it's used in place of GPL for those not wanting to redistribute their source. Maybe use that in the future for such things. For now, if you're app forks GPL code, you have to release the source, pull it, or hope nobody cares. Good to start noticing these little, but important, things early to develop good habits.

nickpsecurity 11y ago

Keep at it! You're off to a great start. :)