Andreas Kling, the creator of the SerenityOS operating system, announced that he is stepping down as the 'benevolent dictator for life' (BDFL) of the project and is switching to the development of a fork of the Ladybird web browser, which was previously developed as part of SerenityOS. According to Andreas, for the past two years he has distanced himself from the operating system's development and has focused solely on advancing his own browser engine and the Ladybird application based on it. As a strong community of over a thousand members has formed around SerenityOS and is capable of operating without him, Andreas decided to fully concentrate on developing the Ladybird browser and promoting it as a self-sufficient and independent project from SerenityOS.
The Ladybird browser has evolved from a simple HTML viewer specific to SerenityOS into a cross-platform product using its own browser engine. In fact, the browser has outgrown SerenityOS and split the community into two groups — developers of the OS and developers of the cross-platform browser. As the developers of the browser and the operating system gradually grew more distant and lost common interests over time, it was ultimately decided to fully separate these projects. After the split, Andreas will lead the development of the browser, while a group of main maintainers will take over the management of SerenityOS.
After the separation, the developers of the Ladybird browser will cease support for SerenityOS and focus on development for Linux and macOS platforms. The SerenityOS developers will be able to return to the original development model for enjoyment, networking with like-minded individuals, and as a hobby. Unlike SerenityOS, the Ladybird project will lift restrictions that prohibited the use of third-party code in the project. The old Ladybird repository has been switched to an archived mode.
The Ladybird browser uses its own engine LibWeb and a JavaScript interpreter.
Source: opennet.ru
