"Ladybird" - A New Hope

I consider myself a long-time fan of Star Wars, and the first of the original movie trilogy, Episode 4, has the subtitle "A New Hope." Recently, I came across some news that considerably reminded me of that name. The news concerned the founding of the Ladybird Browser Initiative, a non-profit organization that seeks to develop a completely new web browser from scratch.

As news on "The Ladybird Browser Initiative" has been covered by numerous Japanese media outlets, some readers may already be aware of the project. A sample of recent coverage is below (please note that all links are to Japanese-language content).

• A new web browser unaffected by Google advertising fees is needed - former GitHub founders launch the "Ladybird Browser Initiative" to develop a web browser from scratch - Publickey
• Ladybird, developing its own browser engine from scratch and receiving zero funding from Google to be a truly open, constraint-free web browser, has raised over 160 million yen from GitHub founder - GIGAZINE
• Organization Founded to Develop the Ladybird Open Source Web Browser | TECH+ (Tech Plus)

The reason for this news triggering a sense of "new hope"? Well, if you read my Column "Thoughts on the Ongoing Oligopoly of Rendering Engines (in Japanese)," which I wrote in December 2018, you will understand. Web browser engines, upon which many had abandoned the notion that they could increase in number, and would, rather, continue to decrease, are now witnessing the birth of a new one.

The history of the spread of the web is also a history of various stakeholders continuing to work vigorously to maintain and improve said web interoperability. In this context, we understand that the existence of choice in web browser engines has played an extremely important role.

Therefore, I'm convinced that an increase in the number of engine options, even if only by one, is necessary and meaningful for the healthy development of the web. Also worthy of note is the Initiative's simultaneously published article "Why we need Ladybird." In it, Chris Wanstrath, a co-founder, makes a strong case for the decision to move away from Google with regard to funding based on an advertising model. The article contains the following striking sentence:

The world needs a browser that puts people first, contributes to open standards using a brand-new engine, and is free from advertising's influence.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees this announcement as somehow related to the developments introduced in my March 2024 Column titled "A New Phase in the EU's Browser Competition" (in Japanese) as well as our June 2024-released Mitsue Tech Radio episode #51, "EU Digital Markets Act." (in Japanese). This series of developments can also be seen as a kind of pushback, a counterattack, aimed at restoring a balance that was being lost in the digital world.

In any case, the alpha version of the Ladybird browser for Linux and macOS is scheduled to be released in the summer of 2026 - two years from now. This may sound a long way off, but developing a highly complex web browser from scratch takes time. However, the Ladybird browser is not completely lacking a presence at this point in time:

We can already do some of our daily browsing with Ladybird, like managing GitHub issues and pull requests, and commenting on Hacker News.

So, it seems fair to say that this is a realistic "new hope." And in the future, when the Ladybird browser is realized and released for Windows and other operating systems, it will be interesting to see whether browsers currently based on Chromium, specifically web browsers including Microsoft Edge and Vivaldi, will actually switch to this engine.

Going forward, I would like to keep monitoring developments regarding the Ladybird Browser Initiative.