Hello guys, today I wanted to talk about a project I deeply care about and I’m actively contributing to, as I believe its good for everyone, including privacy concerned users

Ladybird Browser

This browser comes from the project “SerenityOS”, and has since evolved and separated from it. The founders are Andreas Kling, and Chris Wanstrath. The main goal of this project is to create a browser from scratch, avoiding chromium, gecko, etc. The main keypoints that should be of interest for Privacy Oriented Users are the following:

  • Ladybird lead (Andreas Kling) states “We’re not monetizing users, in any way. This is uncharted territory for browsers. So we’re not going to do any default search deals. We’re not going to do cryptocurrencies or try to monetize user data, just sponsorships and donations”

  • While** Ladybird will implement current web standards including cookie handling and tracking mechanisms for compatibility**, the browser’s philosophy puts the user in control of these decisions, not the company. The browser won’t have built-in incentives to encourage data collection since it doesn’t profit from it.

  • It aims to be “free from advertising’s influence” Ladybird, representing a shift away from the current web ecosystem where users like us are the product. This allows the project to implement privacy features without worrying about harming advertising partners or revenue streams.

As of now, the project has hired several developers with money coming from donations, from partners such as FUTO, Shopify, Cloudflare, among many, and is also seeing lots of volunteer activity on github. So well, if you like the web having more diversity and us having another alternative to google, check them out https://ladybird.org/

  • scytale@piefed.zipEnglish
    531·
    4 个月前

    I hope they come out with extension support immediately and uBO follows up with compatibility after.

    • d-RLY?@lemmy.ml
      22·
      4 个月前

      Extension support is basically a minimum requirement for me (especially uBO, but also some others like Bypass Paywalls Clean, FastStream, and SponsorBlock). They can add overhead to the browser, but if the browser itself is solid and as efficient as they are pushing for. Then I can handle knowing that any extra RAM or processes are my fault. I imagine that if they truly keep all the data collection and telemetry we see in other browsers. Then the overhead of extensions might just make resources only about as bad as a clean install of the others without extensions. Which would still be a win in my book. Even if they don’t have extensions, it will still be fun to have around and see how it evolves over time. Might even inspire folks to try doing the hardest part of making new browsers instead of endless forks that are at the whim of the base they came from.

    • shaytan@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
      141·
      4 个月前

      I’m sure they’ll get extension support at some point. They also said they intend to add a built in adblocker

      • Pup Biru@aussie.zoneEnglish
        32·
        4 个月前

        i wish they wouldn’t add a built in adblocker… i just want it to be the most minimal browser engine, and i want to be able to choose the adblocker

        • shaytan@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
          7·
          4 个月前

          I believe they are building it to have it as long as they don’t have extension support and market

          I doubt they’ll force it on release

      • 18107@aussie.zoneEnglish
        19·
        4 个月前

        I don’t mind an adblocker extension installed by default (for non tech-minded users), but a built in adblocker is just irritating. I want to have control over which extensions I use. Building an adblocker into the browser just takes more development time, and reduces freedom for everyone.

        • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
          2·
          3 个月前

          having a pre-installed adblock extension is also a great way to dogfood the extension implementation, whereas if it’s a built-in adblocker it’s likely to use a bunch of special privileged code and when extension developers complain about being unable to do things the browser devs will just say “yeah we can’t be bothered to fix this, just use the built-in adblocker dude”

  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    351·
    4 个月前

    When I first became aware of this project I was pretty dismissive.

    I’m very happy to admit in this case that the project has come further than I thought it would.

    Their FAQ says they have 8, paid, full time devs and resources for something like 18 months. IDK how much it really takes to get a browser off the ground but they’ve got something, at least.

    I’m looking forward to their Alpha release in 2026, and really hope they can achieve that.

    • pipes@sh.itjust.works
      34·
      4 个月前

      My guess would be to have their business less dependant on Google’s whims and more reliant on actual web standards

    • shaytan@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
      24·
      4 个月前

      They give a good Image to this kind of developer and enthusiasts group

      Also, a possible chance of not having to depend on google, for 100k bucks, thats a really cheap ticket for them

  • Ging@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    131·
    4 个月前

    Lady/Thunder/Betterbird seem excellent.
    What other fowl software is worth a try?

  • Lumisal@lemmy.world
    165·
    4 个月前

    I’ve donated to them before, but I remember some anti-LGBTQ+ issues from one of the lead developers I think a few years ago. Has that been addressed?

    • shaytan@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
      131·
      4 个月前

      I believe the project has been parked on neutrality and common respect for a while, the biggest “controversy” I know of is that the lead developer and founder said something about hiring back when he worked at apple, based on inclusivity vs talent, being a bad way of doing things, and people went crazy over that

      • 4am@lemmy.zip
        30·
        4 个月前

        The controversy was about a pull request being submitted that changed documentation to have gender-neutral pronouns, and there was some back and forth with the lead dev about not making “political” statements. Also lead dev is German and apparently (just what I have been told) in German the male pronouns are used when making gender-neutral references; so that muddied the waters of the back and forth - he may have assumed he was doing intended grammar in English and others may have assumed he was fighting against inclusivity (which as been going around a lot lately, in case that was not obvious…)

        As far as I know it was eventually straightened out and the changes were implemented

    • shaytan@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
      12·
      4 个月前

      Alpha is expected sometime 2026 (but far from perfect) A more polished now beta, in 2027 And if all goes well, the first 1.0 release in 2028

      Still, probably for most people it won’t be worth using until the beta releases, or even until 1.0

  • N4kt0@lemmy.zip
    123·
    4 个月前

    Are they going to cram a bunch of AI bullshit into it like Mozilla is doing with Firefox?

    • shaytan@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPM
      181·
      4 个月前

      Companies and organizations earn money by selling user data from these intrusive AIs, and ladybird is the complete opposite, so I doubt it, probably the closest thing to that will be allowing users to have their preferred AI linked on the sidebar, which is normal and non-intrusive by itself

      Edit: Some companies earn even more money just by keeping investors happy with this AI bubble

  • fdnomad@programming.dev
    7·
    4 个月前

    Looking forward to try it in Summer 2026. I hope long term theres going to be support for uBO, separating sessions, and maybe jxl :')

  • pfr@lemmy.sdf.org
    6·
    4 个月前

    It’s so far from being ready. I built it on void recently and well, it ran, but it was very bare bones. At this stage I still prefer netsurf.

    Looking forward to the finished product.