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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) by DannyB on Thursday March 18 2021, @01:52PM
Yes, ActiveX accepted executables and ran them. But only if they were signed. Of course, anyone could buy a signing certificate and sign their executables to prove where the executable came from. It wouldn't be that difficult to set up some kind of fake company and buy a code signing certificate that could not be easily traced to an individual.
There were three other plugins for browsers that commited similar sins:
* Java Applets (in the browser, not to be confused with javascript)
* Adobe Flash
* Silverlight
All three of those allowed Javascript to interact with these plug ins in complex and difficult to predict ways. The plugins had access to things like the local file system, speakers, microphone, network, ability to launch other executables, etc. Talk about a security hole accessible through the browser.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.