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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, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 18 2021, @01:48AM (2 children)
Once of the major complaints Debian has against Chromium (the supposedly open-source base version) is the inclusion of *pre-compiled* Javascript in the official repository. No source code. No explanation of where it came from or who wrote it. Not even a licence statement so it isn't actually legal to distribute it. But Chromium depends on it to work properly. Google's response? 'Javascript is interpreted so you don't need to see the source code.'
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 18 2021, @01:43PM (1 child)
That seems like a complaint about Chromium not a complaint about Javascript.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 18 2021, @01:43PM
It's like arguing against C++ because Microsoft delivers binaries without source code.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.