Anyone else getting strong clanker vibe here? Or are we just not talking about that?
On Sun, Oct 25, 2026 at 10:58 AM Andreas Røsdal <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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 > >
