The Servo project is joining Linux Foundation Europe | Hacker News Reader

The Servo project is joining Linux Foundation Europe

igalia.com

88 pointspabs38 comments

> Servo can be used to build embedded applications with web technologies, such as kiosk interfaces and digital signage. At present, Servo is especially suited to applications that use WebGL or WebGPU, as well as CSS-based applications where the developer has control over how components are implemented. Servo's layout engine can similarly be used as the basis for Rust-based native UI frameworks.

It feels like there's alignment between the Servo Web Rendering Engine and https://tauri.app, an alternative to Electron, another staple in the Blink hegemony.

Last I checked, Tauri isn't using an embedded Chromium, but the system's "native" WebView widget. Bundling a browser engine would be a step backward from that approach because it would become similar to Electron (e.g. big install size, increased resource usage when many applications run side by side - the only difference would be that the embedded browser engine differs).

That's a good point and I hadn't considered that perspective, thanks!

A build time decision on whether to use WebView or Servo could be beneficial to some vendors but to what degree I don't know.

There are pros and cons. Something like Tauri but with Servo would be independent from the system's webview but the binary would be heavyweight.

Edit: A compromise would be a post-install step where some minimal code downloads something like libservo.so (for Linux) for all Servo-based apps. I am not sure about that.

Wishing nothing but the absolutely best for Servo - and that I could do more for it. I truly believe that in addition to Gecko it has potential to counter the awful hegemony of Chrome's Blink.

Did Servo manage to become a full-featured browser rendering engine - I thought the project was abandoned by Mozilla?

Mozilla did do that, but other folks including Igalia are working on it now.

Is this a good thing? I don't know anything about the politics and previous results of LFE.

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