OdysseusFirst!
I wanted a place to comment on the development of the Odysseus web browser, and any web standards of particular note. For that reason I started this blog.
Odysseus values
To give you an idea of where I’m coming from on this blog, I will take the chance to explain my values in regard to the Web.
Most predominantly I believe users should have full control over the software that runs on their computer.
I also think the greatest feature of the Web is the ability to view a page’s source, and also that this feature is vital to maintain user control. This can be seen in Odysseus as you can view the source of even the “view source” pages.
Finally as mentioned in the project README I believe users should have control over their private data (of which control of their software is a prerequisite), and that may come up on this blog.
Third party philosophies
I quite agree with the views expressed here (as well as the previous links):
Mozilla Manifesto, though I disagree with the several additional views which come across in their other writings.
Why should you trust me with your online safety?
You may have heard advice online to stay away from browsers from smaller vendors, which definitely would include me as I’m currently the sole developer. However the problem comes when that vendor attempts to reimplement the underlying tech or repackage someone else’s software as it’s easy to mess up. I am not doing this, as I leave the packaging of WebKit (code shared between Apple Safari, formerly Google Chrome, and other smaller browsers) to Debian. All I do is add window dressing and avoid getting in their way.
Apple is keen to improve user privacy, collaboration, OS integration, and broad spectrum page performance. Meanwhile Debian is keen on maintaining the values of the Free Software movement. These, plus the elementary experience are the values I want in Odysseus and I couldn’t deliver it any better than they do.