Which internet browser?

[Master]

Yeah, I do fear for what it would mean if Firefox kicked the bucket, I just hope that there's enough will in the FOSS community to keep it going if it did come to that.

[PluMGMK]

Plus let's not forget the fact Google is killing off uBlock Origin on Chrome... This is why we need more competition in the browser space overall.

Really? I hadn't heard that, but it doesn't exactly surprise me…

Yeah, I do fear for what it would mean if Firefox kicked the bucket, I just hope that there's enough will in the FOSS community to keep it going if it did come to that.

I don't know if Gecko could be maintained without the corporate backing of Mozilla though. Browser engines are some of the most complex code on the planet at this point (I seem to recall hearing they're even more complex than OS kernels now!), and if something goes wrong, you could end up exposing a lot of people to a lot of security risks. I don't know if volunteers alone could take that on in this day and age

[Reese Riverson]

Really? I hadn't heard that, but it doesn't exactly surprise me…

Sadly so, and I'd be more than happy to ditch Chrome in favor of something else due to this as well.

[PluMGMK]

At any rate, I'm still using Luakit, which uses WebKitGTK, so I'm not exactly supporting Gecko myself! My mother uses Firefox on her laptop though, and I always use it at work, so there's that

[Master]

I don't know if Gecko could be maintained without the corporate backing of Mozilla though. Browser engines are some of the most complex code on the planet at this point (I seem to recall hearing they're even more complex than OS kernels now!), and if something goes wrong, you could end up exposing a lot of people to a lot of security risks. I don't know if volunteers alone could take that on in this day and age

Jesus. I knew browsers were signficantly more complex these days, but I didn't realise it was to such an extent

[PluMGMK]

I must try to remember where I read that… It makes sense since they include execution engines for both JavaScript and WebAssembly now, and the modern web is so stuffed with those that they need to be highly optimized…

[Reese Riverson]

At any rate, I'm still using Luakit, which uses WebKitGTK, so I'm not exactly supporting Gecko myself! My mother uses Firefox on her laptop though, and I always use it at work, so there's that

Hey, you're good at making stuff aren't you? Why don't you make a new browser to beat the socks off Chrome.

[PluMGMK]

Hey, you're good at making stuff aren't you? Why don't you make a new browser to beat the socks off Chrome.

My knowledge of making stuff is still stuck in the DOS era, so it'll be another few years before I'm capable of anything like that

[Reese Riverson]

My knowledge of making stuff is still stuck in the DOS era, so it'll be another few years before I'm capable of anything like that

Oh, well then I bet you could make some cool stuff to run on my 486 computer then!

[PluMGMK]

Oh, well then I bet you could make some cool stuff to run on my 486 computer then!

I mean, that's the aim of my Rayman TPLS TSR! In theory, it should be able to fix Rayman's soundtrack even on a 486!

[LoveMetal]

Browser engines are some of the most complex code on the planet at this point (I seem to recall hearing they're even more complex than OS kernels now!),

Yeah I remember taking a look at Chromium repo, it was wild. Even the contribution guidelines were a 50-ish slides presentation with stuff to install or learn about.

[PluMGMK]

Yeah I remember taking a look at Chromium repo, it was wild. Even the contribution guidelines were a 50-ish slides presentation with stuff to install or learn about.

I haven't seen that, but I'm guessing it's a bit like Android. Hacking on Android is a nightmare compared to anything else I've ever taken an interest in (Another reason I called it "just a mess" last night )

[Reese Riverson]

It is crazy to think about browsers now days for those reasons. Once upon the time all they did were load up some code for a basic webpage. Now look where we stand with full applications, almost as if the browser was an OS of it's own... they certainly eat up memory like crazy.

[dr_st]

Well, fortunately, memory is plentiful these days. But, yes, it's definitely almost an OS of its own.

[LoveMetal]

I haven't seen that, but I'm guessing it's a bit like Android. Hacking on Android is a nightmare compared to anything else I've ever taken an interest in (Another reason I called it "just a mess" last night )

That wouldn't surprise me. Working in a big tech company I see how those projects are structured. There were probably 50+ software engineering teams at Google working on Chrome at one point. Then with the funding fluctuations, it likely diminished, and there may be 10% of the manpower left trying to reconcile what's left of the codebase and maintain the backlog.

[Reese Riverson]

What I do find fun is being able to browse the old web on my Windows 98SE machine, since there seems to be a community trying to more or less restore some of that. I forget what it's called but you just edit some settings in IE on there to use their servers.

[PluMGMK]

What I do find fun is being able to browse the old web on my Windows 98SE machine, since there seems to be a community trying to more or less restore some of that. I forget what it's called but you just edit some settings in IE on there to use their servers.

http://theoldnet.com ?

There's also WebOne, which is a proxy server you can run on another computer on your network…

[Reese Riverson]

There's also WebOne, which is a proxy server you can run on another computer on your network…

Yes, thank you! That's the one. My brain is so fried right now I couldn't think of it.

Do you use either one?

[PluMGMK]

There's also WebOne, which is a proxy server you can run on another computer on your network…

Yes, thank you! That's the one. My brain is so fried right now I couldn't think of it.

Do you use either one?

I have a setup where I can "tether" my PC running Windows 3.1 to my phone using a USB-C to serial adapter. Then I have a server in another room running WebOne, which IE on Win3.1 is setup to connect through. Performance sucks, but hey, that's part of the charm

[Reese Riverson]

I have a setup where I can "tether" my PC running Windows 3.1 to my phone using a USB-C to serial adapter. Then I have a server in another room running WebOne, which IE on Win3.1 is setup to connect through. Performance sucks, but hey, that's part of the charm

I should try doing that for my actual Windows 3.1 rigs. I do have actual network card in those 486 machines.