6 ms·

I don't think you can apply Unix philosophy to a (GUI) web browser, you don't use it compositionally.

• berkes 10mo ago
  Not literally. But in spirit. I don't want my web browser to be a mediocre PDF reader. I want my good and perfected PDF reader to be a PDF reader. I don't want my web browser to be a Web development IDE. I want a specialised (version of) a browser with all the developer tools and one that lacks all these features is lighter, safer and simpler for browsing. I don't want an FTP client in my web browser (I don't want one anywere lol). Firefox was extracted from Mozilla back in the days exactly because Mozilla had become a browser that was bloated and crammed full of features that were unpolished or just subpar. Firefox saved Mozilla and fought back by being lean, fast, and terribly focused at doing one thing and doing talhat well. I want a browser that's good and forever improving in letting me browse the web and run and use web-apps.
• cwillu 10mo ago
  But that's basically the promise, that the damn thing _can_ use arbitrary things compositionally.
• nonethewiser 10mo ago
  In fact, the web browser may be the best example of a program antithetical to the unix philosophy. It is a single program that does rendering, password management, video decoding, dev tools, notifications, extension systems, etc. Adding some new AI component is rather on-brand for browsers (whether a good decision or not).
• anuramat 10mo ago
  by this logic sockets are also non-unix
  • tadfisher 10mo ago
    I mean, that's not exactly wrong...
• ninalanyon 10mo ago
  > you don't use it compositionally. I would if I could!
  • yoavm 10mo ago
    Nothing really stops you from doing curl | awk , but you probably aren't.
    • ninalanyon 10mo ago
      curl is not a replacement for a web browser. No Javascript, no DOM.