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I'm fed up with it, so I'm writing a browser
(adayinthelifeof.nl)
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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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The author of the article can't even be bothered to keep his server up-to-date (my first attempt at viewing the article bounced me with a warning that suggests he only has obsolete crypto protocols available for SSL—why bother with SSL at all, then?). He's quite correct that this initiative is going to come to nothing.
There are currently only four web rendering engines that could be considered remotely usable as daily drivers: WebKit, its fork Blink, and Gecko, with its fork Goanna. WebKit and Blink both have major corporate backing (Apple and Google respectively). Gecko has the Mozilla Foundation paying the major bills. Even Pale Moon's Goanna has multiple people working on it (and since it's my daily driver, I know it has persistent issues with a few sites that have to be papered over with extensions). And the rendering engine is not the only thing you need for a browser, just the largest single part. A one-man project starting from scratch is not going to be viable in this day and age.
It's a pet project; it doesn't need to be "viable".
I think this attitude is part of the reason why we have so few browsers. Every time someone tries to start their own browser, even just for fun, a lot of the response is just bitching about how big and complex browsers are and how the effort to start a new one is wasted. It makes it so that people interested in writing their own browser (for fun or profit) are less likely to share about it and probably less likely to pursue it seriously
Not everyone is making something for you to consume.
He did say he was doing it to learn. Maybe when he’s done he will be able to appreciate what goes into making a viable browser.
Don't forget the greatest rendering engine of all: Lynx
I concede the point, although Lynx is of limited usefulness on the Javascript-burdened modern Web.
I suppose that what bothers me about the original announcement is that it strikes me as something that shouldn't have been announced until he had something with at least a Lynx level of viability. You don't have to tell the world at large about every single hobby you take up.
Maybe I'm just too old and too private to understand People These Days and how they choose to go about their lives. 😅
I was only trying to make a joke. Your point definitely stands, and I agree with you.
Welcome to modern CV-padding.
Write a blog post about something (basic) you did.
Never mind that you just did it to have something to write about.
Go to conferences to talk about the blog post.
And the next time you change jobs you can pad your resume with all this stuff as if it makes you special.
A lot of companies actively encourage this behavior to market themselves as to better attract candidates.
And then a lot of companies indirectly encourage it through both their hiring process and possibly even their job ads.
Now, don’t take this the wrong way; there’s plenty of good talks at most conferences. There are people blogging about worthwhile software projects too, but there is a high volume of low effort content which really doesn’t add anything.
I’ve even been on both sides of the argument I’m making. Stuck listening to someone who doesn’t really know the topic, and stuck giving a talk about something I don’t really know enough about.
Oh my.. Lynx really brings me back. I used to slack off at work by having an ssh connection to my home computer and browsing through Lynx (or was it Links?)
Never really got into Linux beyond basic use, but I was always proud at myself for managing to get this working :)
For a second I thought I was reading a comment on orangesite by mistake.