Servo is a web browser rendering engine written in Rust, with WebGL and WebGPU support, and adaptable to desktop, mobile, and embedded applications.
Essentially it is an alternative to chromium based web browser engines. The other (major) web browser engines are WebKit for iOS and Gecko for Firefox. You can see a list at Wikipedia.
At Mozilla, Servo was basically a research branch that tried new approaches to push performance. Mozilla would merge parts from servo that brought significant performance boost. But when they were pushed to cut budget, instead of lowering executive pay, they shut down the servo team.
They report a score which is not very correlated with the number of tests passed (there was a big increase in the number of tests that pass in 2023 but the score barely rose). I could not figure out how to show the score for other browsers on wpt.fyi.
I'm curious about why they aren't stable yet. It's been a while. And there should be a lot incentives. Like cash. If one wants some.
My guess is that something is not right with the project or the chosen technology. And that some other project will be first to deliver the new memory safe browser engine reference implementation. Maybe I'm just being grumpy.
25 Comments
tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden · 38 pts · 298d
I clicked the link and read the site and still have no idea what that is
AliasAKA@lemmy.world · 59 pts · 298d
Essentially it is an alternative to chromium based web browser engines. The other (major) web browser engines are WebKit for iOS and Gecko for Firefox. You can see a list at Wikipedia.
Overshoot2648@lemmy.today · 13 pts · 298d
Minor correction: Blink is the browser engine, Chromium is the open source browser project.
ISOmorph@feddit.org · 50 pts · 298d
It's the next big hope for a browser engine besides the 3 current ones, powering chrome, firefox and safari
Their github: https://github.com/servo/servo
Aatube@kbin.melroy.org · 33 pts · 298d
(there's also Ladybird but Servo is more exciting as the Rust one that used to be supported by Mozilla and now by the Linux Foundation)
mondoman712@lemmy.ml · 27 pts · 298d
Ladybird also has rather questionable politics https://hyperborea.org/reviews/software/ladybird-inclusivity/
Griffus@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 298d
Oh, and it has just taken a turn for the worst as well, seeing the latest update in the article
tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden · 4 pts · 298d
Man, that would be great
RmDebArc_5@piefed.zip · 19 pts · 298d
Servo is a web browser rendering engine written in rust. It was originally started by Mozilla but then abandoned
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 298d
Why did they abandon it? I thought they merged it in a while back.
0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 298d
At Mozilla, Servo was basically a research branch that tried new approaches to push performance. Mozilla would merge parts from servo that brought significant performance boost. But when they were pushed to cut budget, instead of lowering executive pay, they shut down the servo team.
Servo, then spun off as independent project.
fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 298d
They were merging parts. They cut active maintance as part of the budget crunch they are under with Google being the primary funding.
Zerush@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 298d
Browser engine
kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 298d
A web engine, like Gecko, Blink and so on.
sixty@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 298d
My exact thought
limonfiesta@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
cornshark@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 298d
The page just says it's equivalent to the nightlies. No indication how usable it is, what is/isn't working, what's next.
GraveyardOrbit@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 298d
cornshark@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 298d
I have no idea what to expect, thus my wish to know more
GraveyardOrbit@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 298d
wiki_me@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 297d
They report a score which is not very correlated with the number of tests passed (there was a big increase in the number of tests that pass in 2023 but the score barely rose). I could not figure out how to show the score for other browsers on wpt.fyi.
danielquinn@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 298d
Does this mean we can finally ditch all those memory-hungry Electron apps?
mmmac@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 298d
Think you're looking for Tauri
fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 298d
Does tauri use Servo under the hood already?
semi@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 298d
No, it uses the WebView that comes with the operating system to minimize memory usage.
snikta@programming.dev · -1 pts · 297d
I'm curious about why they aren't stable yet. It's been a while. And there should be a lot incentives. Like cash. If one wants some.
My guess is that something is not right with the project or the chosen technology. And that some other project will be first to deliver the new memory safe browser engine reference implementation. Maybe I'm just being grumpy.
clot27@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 297d
its not easy to develop browser engine from scratch. Also theyve only started working actively on the project for like 2 years now
snikta@programming.dev · 2 pts · 297d
Fair enough.