søn. 25. okt. 2026, 03:15 skrev David C Rankin <[email protected]>:
> On 10/24/26 6:17 AM, Andreas Røsdal wrote: > > Web browsers are an important piece of software, which is exactly why > > there needs to be a variety of alternatives, and the current > > Chrome+Firefox duopoly controlled by Google, an advertising corporation, > > needs to be challenged by independent individuals. > > > > For the Northstar variant we are transitioning from mostly AI > > development, to mostly developed by humans in the traditional methods. > > > > Nordstjernen Sol Browser and Southstar-browser are still programmed by > > Claude mostly. > > Glad to see the project, there needs to be "recent" competition in the > browser market. If a programmer can count and is competent to track and > free their allocations, C is no more inherently unsafe than any any > other language. If you are reading this on Linux, you are running on > vibe-coded C as we speak. > > Fortunately, or unfortunately, frontier model coding agents can write > safe code better than most (not all) human programmers, for the same > reason they can create exploits well beyond the capabilities of most > hackers. But the code still needs review by an accomplished human > programmer. As good as they are, coding agents are not 100% reliable. > Like any other tool, they are only as good as the hands using them. > > I would encourage the project development to use as few external > libraries as possible (some will be unavoidable). The less external > baggage the project has, the better. The more you can show, in both the > case of C and Rust, that a human has reviewed and validated each line of > code, the less uncertainty the project(s) will have to deal with. > > With Mozilla attempting to hide more and more telemetry and ads in its > offerings, there is a real opportunity for a new browser to break > through and pick up users. > > Good luck. > > > > -- > David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. > Dear David, Thank you for writing this, you describe well the motivations for starting the Northstar web browser project. The US and EU governments have been looking closely at Microsoft and Google anti-competition practices, requiring fair access to develop applications for their operating systems. Unfortunately, Linux distributions, and Debian in particular, do not yet allow fair access to develop applications so they can be installed easily through their application managers. Sincerely, Andreas Røsdal
