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For the first time in years, someone is building a web browser from scratch:
For more than two decades, building a new web browser from scratch has been practically unheard of. But a small company called Ekioh has its reasons.
The Cambridge, U.K.-based company is developing a browser called Flow, and unlike the vast majority of browsers that have arrived in recent years, it's not based on Google's Chromium or Apple's WebKit open-source code. Instead, Flow is starting with a blank slate and building its own rendering engine. Its goal is to make web-based apps run smoothly even on cheap microcomputers such as the Raspberry Pi.
There's a reason companies don't do this anymore: Experts say building new browsers isn't worth the trouble when anyone can just modify the work that Apple and Google are doing. But if Flow succeeds, it could rethink the way we browse the web and open the door to cheaper gadgets. That at least seems like a goal worth pursuing.
"It's a huge task, but if you want something which is very small and very fast, you typically can't start with one of the other engines," says Stephen Reeder, Ekioh's commercial director.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Wednesday March 17 2021, @12:10PM (1 child)
Good luck getting anything other than a blank page on the "modern" web if you are not bug-for-bug compatible with Google Chrome, which changes on a day to day basis.
Also, how far are you going to get running on small computers when every web site already requires the ability to run an over 9000 Petabyte set of script files?
(Score: 3, Touché) by loonycyborg on Wednesday March 17 2021, @12:27PM
Even the smallest embedded system nowadays packs more cpu power than desktop workstations that were running web browsers originally. And basic html paradigm didn't change much over the years, with the exception of all this scripting stuff. Yet JS engine is still faster than Flash player.