At this point we need a serious effort to fork Firefox and maintain it as a sustainable open source project. I know there are a few forks floating around, but they’re small projects with only a handful of contributors. These kinds of efforts will never be a serious alternative.
A web browser is one of the most important piece of software nowadays, and currently neither Chromium nor Firefox are true community efforts. We need something on the level of the Linux Kernel Foundation in my opinion.
Just to add and remind, the amount of LOC and work in a web browser and its engine is more than Linux kernel itself at this point. This goes for both Gecko and Blink/WebKit browsers.
People underestimate the amount of work put in modern web browsers. They are ecosystems at this point.
A fork that trimmed features would be unable to render many websites. The problem is more the protocol than the implementation.
My position is that the way forward is ultimately to abandon the web (ie. HTTP), and replace it with alternative protocols for each thing it does. Gemini for example for the “primary” use case of the web (publishing documents).
There exist things like NetSurf. Or, remove JS execution from web browsers, and now you have un-bloated web browser that cannot access… 80% of clearnet, and cannot comment on Lemmy.
There have been ideas explored in this direction, like Gemini and Gopher protocols. Some people use them.
Or to get enough community funding as non-profit. The whole problem with Mozilla is precisely that it depends on profit and it’s driven by accountants.
At this point we need a serious effort to fork Firefox and maintain it as a sustainable open source project. I know there are a few forks floating around, but they’re small projects with only a handful of contributors. These kinds of efforts will never be a serious alternative.
A web browser is one of the most important piece of software nowadays, and currently neither Chromium nor Firefox are true community efforts. We need something on the level of the Linux Kernel Foundation in my opinion.
Just to add and remind, the amount of LOC and work in a web browser and its engine is more than Linux kernel itself at this point. This goes for both Gecko and Blink/WebKit browsers.
People underestimate the amount of work put in modern web browsers. They are ecosystems at this point.
Yeah, a browser is effectively an operating system at this point.
Thats because todays browsers are way too bloated. A fork that trims unnecessary features could be very effective.
There are browsers that try that only to have broken websites left and right. cough*(GNOME Web)
A fork that trimmed features would be unable to render many websites. The problem is more the protocol than the implementation.
My position is that the way forward is ultimately to abandon the web (ie. HTTP), and replace it with alternative protocols for each thing it does. Gemini for example for the “primary” use case of the web (publishing documents).
There exist things like NetSurf. Or, remove JS execution from web browsers, and now you have un-bloated web browser that cannot access… 80% of clearnet, and cannot comment on Lemmy.
There have been ideas explored in this direction, like Gemini and Gopher protocols. Some people use them.
If you want something like the linux kernel, then those forks also have to be profitable enough to support firefox.
Or to get enough community funding as non-profit. The whole problem with Mozilla is precisely that it depends on profit and it’s driven by accountants.