cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5599990
A new browser with a “new engine” apparently (“that being chromium, gecko and webkit” according to one comment).
Your overall thoughts on it? The video is less than 20 minutes so far. Looks 'ight so far too, afaik. But I’m no expert.
I tested it the last week from the main git branch, it doesn’t open YouTube homepage, yet.
Wait, where can I download it?
Is it any good at all?
https://github.com/LadybirdBrowser/ladybird
It takes a time to compile the whole project, but a way less than Firefox and Chrome. There is an AUR package for ArchLinux.
IMHO, it is not yet daily-drive usable. Really slow for JS. The window manager is extreme limited (I can not drag tabs outside the window). It can not render steampowered neither youtube (I didn’t test any more websites, just these two). The current setting page is just a window popup with a checkbox for one option. But competition is always good for the users. A web browser is a big project for today standards. Good luck to these developers 💪👍
Yeah, I wish the best of luck, but I think I’ll stick with Firefox!
Tbf, they don’t claim that it is ready for regular use yet:
When is it coming?
We are targeting Summer 2026 for a first Alpha version on Linux and macOS. This will be aimed at developers and early adopters.
The main idea “ lest create a new browser because chromium and Firefox have bad reputation in privacy “ is fine, but looking deeper into the project feels more like a monetary opportunity than a real interesting project in this times of privacy fear (VPNs already did billions). And there are concerns with this one, related to the license. The whole things has much propaganda. More of pay for privacy shit. I really hope developers time are not wasted or used with a fake idea. Like happened so many times.
Ah, I see.
The project received some substantial funding recently, so I think I can see where this fear is coming from. However, I also think that a lot of what you say is not true.
The project wasn’t started “because chromium and Firefox have bad reputation” and the website doesn’t even mention either of them or privacy at all. It was the browser of serenityOS, a from-scratch OS created many years ago by Andreas Kling to help himself overcome drug addiction. The browser part simply got so much traction that he recently decided top split the projects.
The project uses the BSD 2-Clause license which is a very common, OSI approved open source license, so I’m not sure what concerns you have in this regard.
Furthermore, I don’t see where you got the “pay for privacy” claim. While they do not state whether the browser will require a license, I would be very surprised if it did, given the projects history. Lastly, a lot of open source projects post monthly updates online and Andreas has done so four many years now. Calling it “propaganda” seems unnecessary and inflammatory.
Please do some research before making big claims like this.
Have a good day, friend!