Ladybird browser spreads its wings (lwn.net)

Article summary

The Ladybird browser project, initially part of the SerenityOS project, has been forked and is now an independent open-source project aimed at building a web browser from scratch, not based on Chrome. The project is written in C++ and licensed under a two-clause BSD license. Ladybird is still in early development and not yet ready for mainstream use, but it shows promise. The project has had over 880 commits from 49 authors in the past month, indicating significant momentum.

Main themes

• Browser Development
• Open-Source Software
• Web Standards
• Alternative Browsers
• Programming Languages
• Security

What commenters say

• The Ladybird project is exciting because it shows that a modern web browser can be written from scratch without significant funding or resources from a major tech company.
• Some commenters question the practical value proposition of Ladybird, given its current limitations and the existence of established browsers like Firefox.
• There are concerns about the security and safety of using a browser written in C++, a memory-unsafe language, and the potential lack of sandboxing.
• Others see Ladybird as a potential alternative to Firefox, which is seen as being influenced by Google's funding, and appreciate the community-driven approach to browser development.
• Some argue that Ladybird's goal is not to replace existing browsers immediately, but to develop an independent web stack and identify inefficiencies and pain points in the current web stack.
• A few commenters suggest that Ladybird's efforts might be better spent on forking Firefox or using a safer language like Rust, rather than starting from scratch with C++.