[HN Gopher] Wolvic, a new browser project picking up where Firef...
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Wolvic, a new browser project picking up where Firefox Reality
leaves off
 
Author : Vinnl
Score  : 126 points
Date   : 2022-02-03 17:01 UTC (5 hours ago)
 
web link (www.igalia.com)
w3m dump (www.igalia.com)
 
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| The name is a little confusing, and makes it clear they are not
| native English speakers. It's not a bad name, but if someone says
| to me, "Hey, did you try Wolvic yet?" I'll spell it "Wolfic" or
| "Wolfik" or "Wolfick", definitely not "Wolvic". Confusing.
 
  | jraph wrote:
  | I would pronounce the 'v' in Wolvic like in "vision" and the in
  | your words 'f' like in "elfic". Which would make it clear
  | Wolvic is written with a v. Would I be wrong?
  | 
  | (not a native English speaker)
  | 
  | (we have a town called Volvic here, known for its water.
  | Pronounced like in "vision". I would pronounce Wolvic the same
  | way, except the first letter would be pronounced like in
  | "well")
  | 
  | (the English pronunciation is not a gift)
 
    | bialpio wrote:
    | Also not a native speaker, I'd use the same pronunciation as
    | you ("v" in "wolvic" is the same as in "elven", "f" in
    | "wolfic"/"wolfish" is the same as in "elfic"/"elfish"). But
    | the difference is quite subtle, I see it can be hard to tell
    | apart in casual conversation when people pay less attention
    | to enunciation.
 
    | TingPing wrote:
    | It is clear to me as a native English speaker. We do have
    | "wolves" already.
 
  | bkardell wrote:
  | Interesting observation. Fwiw, I am definitely very much a
  | native english speaker (in fact, I don't speak any other (non-
  | programming) language very well), and I proposed the name. As
  | the post says at the end - it doesn't hurt that the domains are
  | available if you don't use a "real" world. I guess we'll see if
  | this happens.
 
    | nkurz wrote:
    | Apologies if it's not the type of feedback you are looking
    | for, but I strongly agree with the OP. I find the name so
    | confusing that I have trouble even thinking about it. Quite
    | possibly the problem is me, but if you are trying to reach an
    | American audience, consider doing further audience testing
    | before investing too heavily in the name.
 
  | darrenf wrote:
  | Whereas to my UK eyes it's instantly reminiscent of Volvic[0]
  | mineral water, which is definitely a V sound and doesn't read
  | or sound strange at all (see also: pelvic, civic, Slavic). It
  | wouldn't occur to me that there might be an F sound.
  | 
  | [0] https://www.volvic.co.uk/
 
    | jraph wrote:
    | Indeed, and wolves seems to be pronounced with a v both in
    | the US and in the UK.
    | 
    | > UK: /wUlvz/ US: (woolvz)
    | 
    | https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/wolves
    | 
    | You did think of Volvic as well!
 
      | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
      | Sounds good. Guess they'll do well with that name then.
 
    | laurent123456 wrote:
    | Never great when a product name looks like a misspelling of
    | another more well known product name.
 
| josephcsible wrote:
| I'm always in favor of new browsers that are FOSS and don't use
| Blink!
 
| freediver wrote:
| Looks like they are jumping on the whole "Meta" train, with
| enough expertise to make a dent.
| 
| I would be astonished though, if people used a web browser in
| virtual reality to do serious work.
 
  | andybak wrote:
  | A VR browser is however very useful eitherfor browsing 3d
  | content or having access to content that is useful for other VR
  | apps. Especially for standalone headsets where you can't just
  | switch to your pc desktop.
 
  | ghotli wrote:
  | I've used passthru on the Quest 2 with a browser window hanging
  | in my living room. There absolutely is an allure to having a tv
  | as big as my wall playing a youtube video while I'm folding a
  | mountain of laundry. Working, serious work it's a bit of a
  | stretch at this moment yeah
  | 
  | I haven't used immersed yet, but the whole "I can see my
  | environment and my hands and type on a keyboard I can see with
  | N floating windows" thing is neat and will only get nicer as
  | the resolution improves
 
  | voakbasda wrote:
  | I continue to be astonished (and dismayed) that people use a
  | browser on the desktop to do serious work. Really, the browser
  | provides a horrible user experience, no matter where you use
  | it.
  | 
  | I miss native apps and the engineering that went into them, as
  | compared to the slapdashery of web apps.
 
    | freediver wrote:
    | Serious work can be as little as searching for something and
    | reading content. No reason why a web browser can not do this
    | - in fact it was built for this purpose.
 
  | bkardell wrote:
  | I get this take... You might find my post on this topic
  | interesting https://bkardell.com/blog/wolvic.html
 
    | astlouis44 wrote:
    | Very excited to see this, my ongoing prediction is that the
    | metaverse will be WebXR based. No 30% cut from walled
    | gardens, and sites can evolve from static, 2D flat
    | experiences to immersive ones. Of course, apps will work day
    | one on any headset in a platform-agnostic manner. And for the
    | spark, just wait until the Apple headset ships with WebXR and
    | WebGPU supported by default....
    | 
    | Also, my team are currently working on bringing Unreal Engine
    | to WebXR.
 
| stanlarroque wrote:
| We are going to integrate this in our Lynx R-1 headset! Great to
| have something else than just chromium in this space.
 
| flakiness wrote:
| "As of today, Igalia has secured partial funding over the next
| two years"
| 
| Wondering who is funding the project, or does this mean they use
| their own money to fund this? That sounds more brave than Brave
| imo. Good luck!
 
| ushakov wrote:
 
  | dang wrote:
  | " _Please don 't post shallow dismissals, especially of other
  | people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something._"
  | 
  | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  | 
  | It poisons (and dumbs down) the ecosystem to post generic
  | dismissals like this, so please don't. Of course, most projects
  | end up failing - but that's a bad reason to direct this sort of
  | barb at specific ones.
  | 
  | If you have a substantive point, make it thoughtfully; if not,
  | please don't comment until you do.
 
| jraph wrote:
| It seems based on Gecko?
| 
| > Mozilla invested a lot into R&D in XR in the late 2010s, and in
| late 2018 they released an experimental browser called Firefox
| Reality. It was a great entry into the XR field, helping
| establish what a browser in these devices really looks like, and
| figure out the unique challenges. Today we're excited to take up
| this experiment and continue this work as a complete project.
| 
| > [links to https://blog.mozilla.org/mozilla/update-on-firefox-
| reality/]
| 
| A Gecko-based browser would be refreshing!
| 
| Igalia really seems to do interesting stuff.
 
  | eole666 wrote:
  | Well, I hope they'll contribute to Gecko to make it faster at
  | rendering 3D with WebGL, or even help adding WebGPU support.
  | Because for now, perfs aint good compared to chromium based
  | browsers... Firefox is often way slower when using heavy 3D
  | apps.
 
    | skywal_l wrote:
    | I didn't know that. Why would firefox be slower than say
    | chrome when if you use WebGL, the work is being done by the
    | GPU anyway?
 
      | colonwqbang wrote:
      | Perhaps Chrome utilises the GPU more efficiently than
      | Firefox does.
 
  | orra wrote:
  | > Igalia really seems to do interesting stuff.
  | 
  | A lot of which is WebKit based, so this is indeed an
  | interesting twist.
 
    | jraph wrote:
    | Yes, they even say it in the post, which is a bit confusing
    | since I was specifically looking for this.
 
  | bkardell wrote:
  | We do right?! Thanks.
 
    | fabrice_d wrote:
    | Can you confirm this is a Gecko based browser? I find the
    | wording a bit ambiguous in the article. Thanks!
 
      | flakiness wrote:
      | It is clear from the website https://www.wolvic.com/ >
      | Wolvic begins a new branch of the evolutionary tree of the
      | Firefox Reality Browser.
 
      | bkardell wrote:
      | Wolvic begins its evolutionary fork pretty close to where
      | Firefox Reality left off, so yes, it is Gecko based.
 
        | fabrice_d wrote:
        | Nice! Is Igalia planning to work on webXR support for
        | Gecko?
 
  | mauricioc wrote:
  | Firefox Reality also supports Servo as a browser engine, so
  | this might be even more exciting!
  | https://github.com/MozillaReality/FirefoxReality#experimenta...
 
    | nicce wrote:
    | Isnt Servo kinda dead project?
 
      | qw3rty01 wrote:
      | Well the linux foundation picked it up when mozilla dropped
      | it so it's not dead, but the last commit was also 8 days
      | ago so not very active either
 
        | fire wrote:
        | As far as oss projects go, eight days ago seems pretty
        | active compared to the usual "inactive project" having
        | last commit dates of months ago
 
      | DiabloD3 wrote:
      | Not in a way that doesn't also state Firefox is dead.
 
        | gilrain wrote:
        | Servo does not have a paid team of developers, whereas
        | Firefox does. How about that?
 
| binarynate wrote:
| This is really interesting. Last night I was looking at FireFox
| Reality's repo and was pleasantly surprised to see [some newer
| commits][1]. Now today I see that Wolvic is [a fork of FireFox
| Reality][2] and that the commits were contributed from that
| project. I'm happy to see a private company fund new work on this
| front.
| 
| [1]:
| https://github.com/MozillaReality/FirefoxReality/commits/mai...
| 
| [2]: https://github.com/Igalia/wolvic
 
| [deleted]
 
| aloisdg wrote:
| > There is, of course, Firefox. Brave has a lion as a mascot,
| there are Puma and Dolphin browsers, and many smaller and
| historical browsers and projects within the browser space are
| named after animals
| 
| But the wolf name is already taken and on a browser based on
| Firefox too https://librewolf.net/
| 
| Note that I am still mad that librewolf was not named Windwolf or
| Waterwolf instead.
 
  | jeroenhd wrote:
  | I think Waterwolf would get confused with Waterfox. Only a
  | matter of time before wind and earth also get claimed by
  | Firefox forks, though. New ones seem to pop up every year or
  | so.
 
    | ilyu wrote:
    | Volvic is a brand of water then Wolvic is probably a mineral
    | water wolf
 
| lucic71 wrote:
 
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(page generated 2022-02-03 23:00 UTC)