more browser diversity
I’m always curious about new browsers. I personally use Librewolf, and if stuff is broken, I use Firefox. These days, it seems like people who care about what browser to pick don’t pick Firefox because they like it, but because “it’s not Google/Chromium”, and that’s sad.
I am also a bit disappointed in many of the decisions in the last years that Mozilla made in regard to Firefox as well as their own org or other products. Buying an ad company, the increased monetization and anti-privacy stuff in the browser, AI investment, removing options in the about:config, the lawsuit about wrongful termination because of cancer; even just from a user standpoint, constantly having to opt out of things or redo my settings and config file or having to slap away ads or news on home page or new tab after an update was annoying. I’m thankful for Librewolf that has everything set how I like it already.
Arc1 recently caught my eye. The sleek look and how differently they handle some of the UX (like where and how to display the content, tabs, bookmarks..) was intriguing, because it’s boring feeling like you’re having the choice between the same old look, just different engine under the hood. But then, the disappointment: another Chromium based browser.
I wish there wasn’t just Chromium, WebKit and Gecko as the most popular ones, with Chromium taking the lead. I want to see and support more browsers that aren’t relying on Chromium and may even develop their own thing. That’s why I’m closely following the development of Ladybird.
I first heard of it in connection to Andreas Kling and SerenityOS. That one almost deserves a post on its own, but to be short: SerenityOS is a retro looking, Unix-like OS initially made from scratch by Andreas Kling. It’s super impressive, open source and free. A small community of developers formed around it that keep developing it. Ladybird was included as a browser in SerenityOS, but has since been separated to grow into its own, bigger standalone project, instead of just being a component for that OS.
Ladybird is now developed by the Ladybird Browser Initiative, a non-profit funded through donations and a co-founder of GitHub. They take no code from other browsers, instead building a new engine. They promise no default search deals, crypto tokens, or other forms of user monetization on their website. More on their reasons for this project can be found here.
They aim for an alpha in 2026, which is still a long time away, but I am excited for it anyway.
Published 20 Sep, 2024, edited 6Â minutes ago
After posting, I came across this interesting blogpost.↩