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posted by martyb on Wednesday March 17 2021, @11:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the starting-over dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday March 18 2021, @12:47PM (4 children)

    by Pino P (4721) on Thursday March 18 2021, @12:47PM (#1125739) Journal

    Go back to apps that run in an O.S. instead of on a browser?

    Say a friend recommends a particular "app[] that run[s] in an O.S." to you, and you discover that it is made for macOS. Yet your computer does not run macOS because it was made by a company other than Apple. How would you go about legally running this app on your computer? And how would you prevent it from disclosing or overwriting arbitrary files in your home directory?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 18 2021, @01:24PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 18 2021, @01:24PM (#1125746)

    You use crossplatform software. Duh.

    • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday March 19 2021, @02:56AM

      by Pino P (4721) on Friday March 19 2021, @02:56AM (#1126123) Journal

      Good luck getting all your contacts to migrate to exclusively cross-platform software.

  • (Score: 2) by Common Joe on Thursday March 18 2021, @04:35PM (1 child)

    by Common Joe (33) <{common.joe.0101} {at} {gmail.com}> on Thursday March 18 2021, @04:35PM (#1125827) Journal

    and you discover that it is made for macOS. Yet your computer does not run macOS

    Well, ignoring web applications and focusing on normal apps and applications, we get that that now. Some apps only run on Android and some only on iPhone. Yes, it's a downside, but we've been dealing with that for quite a few decades. Java is the first major multi-OS language that was widely used and despite it's multiple shortcomings in this area, it was a good first attempt. We've had two decades to try to improve upon it and there are other products now (.NET, QT). I'm not saying they are great solutions yet, but it is possible.

    How would you go about legally running this app on your computer?

    Don't drag legal stuff into a technical conversation. The legal side of IT has been serious fucked up by big corporations and government in the past decade or two. (Although the battle has definitely been brewing longer than that.)

    And how would you prevent it from disclosing or overwriting arbitrary files in your home directory?

    I am unimpressed with Windows, Linux, and Mac as a desktop operating system. Android has a rudamentary system to prevent apps from over stepping their bounds and gives the user control over what apps can and cannot do. It currently sucks and can be implemented much better, but that is the start of a solution. There is no reason the all operating systems can't do something better.

    • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday March 19 2021, @03:11AM

      by Pino P (4721) on Friday March 19 2021, @03:11AM (#1126128) Journal

      We've had two decades to try to improve upon it and there are other products now (.NET, QT).

      Last I checked, .NET had no official Mac GUI layer. The existing Windows Forms implementation was 32-bit and thus died with Catalina. Should people use Xamarin Forms until MAUI [microsoft.com] comes out?

      The developer of a Qt app must still recompile it, which means the developer must own a specimen of all platforms on which to test a program before distributing its executable form to the public. Maintaining a Windows PC, an Intel Mac, an M1 Mac, an X11/Linux PC, an iPhone, and an Android phone is a big task for smaller ISVs.

      How would you go about legally running [a Mac-exclusive] app on [a non-Apple] computer?

      Don't drag legal stuff into a technical conversation.

      By "legally" I meant "other than hackintosh".

      There is no reason the all operating systems can't do something better.

      Other than perhaps money and time (which is money). One person trying to do better all by himself results in TempleOS.