I’m curious how software can be created and evolve over time. I’m afraid that at some point, we’ll realize there are issues with the software we’re using that can only be remedied by massive changes or a complete rewrite.
Are there any instances of this happening? Where something is designed with a flaw that doesn’t get realized until much later, necessitating scrapping the whole thing and starting from scratch?
Maybe not exaclly Linux, sorry for that, but it was first thing that get to my mind.
Web browsers really should be rewritten, be more modular and easier to modify. Web was supposed to be bulletproof and work even if some features are not present, but all websites are now based on assumptions all browsers have 99% of Chromium features implemented and won’t work in any browser written from scratch now.
The same guys who create Chrome have stuffed the web standards with needlessly bloated fluff that makes it nearly impossible for anyone else to implement it. If alternative browsers have to be a thing again, we need a new standard, or at least the current standard with significantly large portions removed.
we need to just rebuild the web, built on a decentralized LoRa or such mesh network.
WWW ≠ Internet.
Internet has some things to be fixed too (https://secushare.org/broken-internet), but is not as doomed as the web.
https://geminiprotocol.net/
That sounds like amp, no thanks.
Most of the standards themselves aren’t the problem, we just shouldn’t have to rely so badly on them that a site immediately is dead if a small item is not available
So, it’s Servo?
https://servo.org/
It’s also written in Rust.
Agreed. I mean, metadata should be protocol stuff, not document stuff. And rendering (font size etc) should be user side, not developer side. Browser should be modular, not a monolith. Creating a webpage should be easy again.
If you want a browser truly written “from scratch”, you need to check-out Ladybird:
https://ladybird.dev/
Compartmentalization is absolutely necessary to diversify the browser market. Not even Microsoft could maintain their own engine anymore. Guarantee you Safari’s not long for this world, once the EU kills Apple’s monopoly on iOS.
All I’ve wanted out of browsers, for twenty-five years, is for updates to security and whatnot to stop getting lashed to forced UI changes. When it’s just icons and menus - okay, sure, whatever. But these companies keep rolling out grand new visions for how the most basic shit works, and then act appalled at folks who resist updating. Like it’s a fucking mystery.