Ladybird
ladybird.org
We're building Ladybird, a truly independent web browser, backed by a non-profit.
  • onlinepersona@programming.devEnglish
    66·
    5 months ago

    I will never understand why people name stuff just by opening an English dictionary and simply picking a word.

    Also why start a browser with C++? Google and Mozilla don’t employ nincompoops to work on their browsers and still say 70% of their CVEs are due to memory management errors from C++. Instead of learning from that, they start yet another browser in C++.

    In theory it great that this org wants to make an alternative, and probably being funded by a millionaire (billionaire?) can’t hurt, but C++ man? Come on…

    Anti Commercial-AI license

    • Vik@lemmy.worldEnglish
      81·
      5 months ago

      From.the FAQ

      Why build a new browser in C++ when safer and more modern languages are available? Ladybird started as a component of the SerenityOS hobby project, which only allows C++. The choice of language was not so much a technical decision, but more one of personal convenience. Andreas was most comfortable with C++ when creating SerenityOS, and now we have almost half a million lines of modern C++ to maintain.

      However, now that Ladybird has forked and become its own independent project, all constraints previously imposed by SerenityOS are no longer in effect. We are actively evaluating a number of alternatives and will be adding a mature successor language to the project in the near future. This process is already quite far along, and prototypes exist in multiple languages.

    • constableunstable@lemm.ee
      17·
      5 months ago

      I will never understand why people name stuff just by opening an English dictionary and simply picking a word

      Naming stuff is hard.

      • onlinepersona@programming.devEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        Yeah, but not that hard.

        • La bird
        • BB.Bird (baby bird)
        • Birdanzo
        • Lanzango
        • Chicbee
        • Elburd (el bird)
        • Birday
        • Bowsun
        • Baysen
        • Lirsi
        • Slay BC

        You can even put effort into it and look for translations in other languages, combine them, use a colloquialism not found in the standard dictionary, or so many other things.

        Anti Commercial-AI license

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
      8·
      5 months ago

      For anybody else with the same question…

      The Ladybird browser started as a part of the SerenityOS Project. SerenityOS had adopted Ladybug imagery before the browser was conceived. “Ladybird” seemed like a perfectly reasonable name for a core component of the OS given its existing iconography.

      It was ( and is ) as good name in context.

      Ladybird has decided to split with its SerenityOS roots. I have pretty mixed feelings on that. Regardless, it would be silly to change the name at this point.

      The same history applies to C++. SerenityOS is written in C++. Until the split, the OS and browser were maintained in a mono repo with extremely deep code integration and coordination. They share the same custom C++ standard library and coding conventions for example.

      SerenityOS was started as a very personal project and the original author is ( or was ) a fan of C++. While I am personally not a fan, it seems like a perfectly reasonable language choice to write an OS in.

    • Zier@fedia.io
      7·
      5 months ago

      Agree with naming laziness. Ladybird is the name of a Lady Bug. Sick to death of things being named after animals. It’s a computer program not a living entity, it has no gender either. Even a nonsense word would be preferable to this mess. Lets call it Zalyo. No one else has that made up word, easy to search.

    • refalo@programming.dev
      4·
      5 months ago

      I will never understand why people are so miserable they feel the need to post grumpy and meaningless bad takes all day every day, with unenforceable anti-AI meme text in every post.

    • 7uWqKj@lemmy.world
      2·
      5 months ago

      I’ve seen C++ code written by Microsoft and I’ve got to say, they aren’t the brightest candles on the cake either.

      • onlinepersona@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        5 months ago

        I’ve seen C++ code holding up a Fortune 500 company with people actually sitting on the board of C++ and being part of the decision making process on what goes into C++. Even had an advanced course on it given by some of the people. Let me tell you, it doesn’t trickle down.

        You can add all the macros and idioms you like, there will always be somebody loading an entire table from SQL into memory and dereferencing the each row+column with a double for-loop to find the correct row, then hand parsing the resulting row into the “right” in-memory data structure. Once you hit a column with variable length storing binary data (don’t ask) and the length is in a column with that doesn’t make it into the Row object, there is fun to be had.

        My favorite is when you have a macro that hides what kind of pointer it is (shared, unique), but is only used when creating the variable, and someone uses a reinterpret_cast to solve some problem. Took a while to track that down. Bro, I fucking love the language.

        Best of all is when code only has to pass some regression testing and has no code review. Absolute genius.

        Anti Commercial-AI license

  • rekabis@programming.dev
    31·
    5 months ago

    We don’t have anyone actively working on Windows support, […] We would like to do Windows eventually, but it’s not a priority at the moment.

    As much as I applaud this focus on just one broad OS architecture, as it will greatly speed development, leaving out Windows is likely to cut off 85-90% of all early adopters. I just hope that the benefit of a simplified target will outweigh ignoring the vast majority of the market.

    And honestly, methinks they should focus on Haiku OS before Windows, as it is closer to a Unix heritage than Windows is. And Haiku OS desperately needs a native modern web browser with all the bells and whistles.

      • rekabis@programming.dev
        1·
        1 month ago

        There are plenty of programs out there which can end up being required for your workflow - as in, that exact program; no exceptions - and yet, have no Linux or even non-Windows version.

        Not everything is a platformm-agnostic subscription-based SAAS yet, nor should that ever be the case.

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
      3·
      5 months ago

      They do not need early adopters yet. They know it is too early. It makes sense to focus on progress. Outreach can happen later when they are more technically ready.

    • UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev
      3·
      5 months ago

      I’d hazard as guess that Linux users are at least a magnitude more likely to be an early adopter of this project than Windows users, at 4% market share it shouldn’t be that big of problem at the start.

    • Ferk@lemmy.ml
      2·
      5 months ago

      The average Windows user would easily be put off by the project if they tried it this early. I feel it’d actually be better if they don’t release on Windows until they are ready. That way they can get better press when it finally releases on Windows.

  • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
    25·
    5 months ago

    I mean, it is nice to have options. However, a first alpha release in 2026? That’s more than a year away. A lot of stuff will happen until then, not unlikely that this gets stomped before that.

  • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
    18·
    5 months ago

    Yeah… It’s going to take a whole lot more than $1m for this. I am skeptical.

    Also not super enthused about another browser written in C++. I skimmed some of their code and it seems pretty high quality, but still… this is going to be chock full of security bugs.

    Servo is definitely the more interesting project.

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
      21·
      5 months ago

      They’re already exploring other languages. C++ just happens be its origin by way of its heritage. It’s not their target anymore.

      Ultimately, we’ll see what happens. I agree that $1mil isn’t a ton for a big project, but we don’t know, yet, if they’ll be able to secure other big donations or not over the course of its life. People have sold stupider ideas to potential donors, so who knows?

    • rekabis@programming.dev
      8·
      5 months ago

      Also not super enthused about another browser written in C++. I skimmed some of their code and it seems pretty high quality, but still… this is going to be chock full of security bugs.

      If you are going to do anything stability-based these days, Rust should be a big consideration.

  • rah@feddit.ukEnglish
    15·
    5 months ago

    Chris Wanstrath … $1,000,000 donation

    So… not independent then.

    • f00f/eris@startrek.websiteEnglish
      32·
      5 months ago

      The website claims that sponsors have no direct influence on the project (“board seats are not for sale”). The reality is that no project of sufficient scale to fully implement web standards can survive without a significant amount of funding.

    • cerement@slrpnk.net
      24·
      5 months ago

      from the FAQ

      • How can you be “independent” if you have sponsors?
      • All sponsorships are in the form of unrestricted donations. Board seats and other forms of influence are not for sale.
        • cerement@slrpnk.net
          12·
          5 months ago

          (sad part is even if they sold out, they’d still be leagues ahead of the compromises Firefox and Chrome have made)

  • spikespaz@programming.dev
    5·
    5 months ago

    Not a good first impression (other comments have my thoughts covered) and I think I’ll stick with Firefox.

    Unless they impress us by re-writing it in a quality-first language, and make all configuration declarative, and drop support for some cruft. They’re going to have to try something bold and different to impress me, otherwise, this seems like more of the same, and an uphill battle at that.