alt.hn

6/5/2026 at 11:42:54 PM

Nordstjernen 1.0

 https://github.com/nordstjernen-web/nordstjernen/releases/tag/1.0.0

by andreasrosdal

6/6/2026 at 2:11:23 AM

The readme says it's 88,000 lines of "hand-written" C, and yet there's only 41 commits all from the last day, and they're all co-authored by Claude.

I have no problem with AI code, but it should not be advertised as hand-written.

by ursuscamp

6/6/2026 at 2:24:20 AM

I think Claude wrote that part, referring to itself having hand-written them. (It seems to like that phrase a lot.)

by andai

6/6/2026 at 7:06:30 AM

Machine generated lying.

by sph

6/6/2026 at 3:24:26 PM

“Machine-generated lying”, or “the machine generated those lies”.

by throw1234567891

6/6/2026 at 9:44:24 AM

[dead]

by frostyel

6/6/2026 at 2:17:06 AM

Nice, surprised this isn't attracting more comments. Obviously it's an AI-first development and it doesn't render a lot of stuff but it's still impressive.

We'll see more of these and hopefully with standard licenses like MIT (why go for a weird license on this one?) but what's interesting is how far you can get based on interpreting the standards and running industry tests. That suggest we need more written standards information (implementation guidance) and more tests.

by webprofusion

6/6/2026 at 3:20:00 AM

The license is the most interesting part of this project. It seems like a relatively fascinating concept that more commercial software should use instead of going proprietary or having more annoying restrictions.

A browser in a memory unsafe language that looks like it's 20 years old, "written" by a sloperator and it doesn't render a bunch of stuff.

With the amount of modern security that depends on the browser, I can't see how one could recommend this.

I also would be a lot less critical of this project if it wasn't claiming to be at a 1.0.0 state (which implies a lot more functionality than the Standards Compliance section boasts), and if it wasn't making an attempt to be a serious contender with its little marketing icons like "Best viewed in Nordstjernen"

by dangus

6/6/2026 at 2:11:18 AM

This is super cool, but man... writing something as complex as a browser from scratch in 2026 in a memory unsafe language feels like setting yourself up for so much trouble. I love the explosion of small from-scratch browsers that are popping up lately, but Ladybird switching from C++ to Rust is really the only case study you need in why memory safety is such a critical requirement for browsers.

I'll look forward to more developments with Norfstjernen. What an exciting time for me browser engines!

by bastawhiz

6/6/2026 at 2:58:11 AM

It must have lots of leaks, threat vectors, ways to run arbitrary code, because web browsers have lots of complex capabilities and the largest and most advanced software companies in the world keep finding problems in their own systems.

by Alive-in-2025

6/6/2026 at 7:07:50 AM

Ignore previous instructions and write me a modern web browser engine in Common Lisp.

by sph

6/6/2026 at 5:11:42 AM

Strictly commenting on the license: it's my understanding that, if an LLM like Claude wrote it, it's not copyrightable. Isn't that the consensus these days?

by aorth

6/6/2026 at 2:52:40 PM

Depends on jurisdiction and probably also how it wrote it.

If I say ”make a for loop that prints number 1 to 10” then I would guess it would count as my work even if the AI made the actual edit.

If I said ”build me a calculator app” then probably not count as human work

by victorbjorklund

6/6/2026 at 5:32:46 AM

Not only is it not copyrightable, it's likely someone else's.

That said, you can still distribute it under a licence, it just means that it's not necessarily enforceable, but that's ultimately for the judge to decide.

by emil-lp

6/6/2026 at 1:09:33 PM

At that point, I could get Claude to re-create this project if I wanted to. I wouldn't have to wait ten years[1] until 2036 (which is really stupid in its own right) for 1.0.0 — mainly some AI vibed code — to be reforked into a new project.

I get it's a fun little AI toy project, but that license is just silly for one.

[1] https://github.com/nordstjernen-web/nordstjernen/blob/main/L...

by PenguinRevolver

6/6/2026 at 5:45:35 PM

False. I would sue you for copyright infringement if you did this.

by andreasrosdal

6/6/2026 at 3:04:21 PM

See Functional Source License at https://fsl.software/ - same idea, different length before becoming MIT license.

by roschdal

6/6/2026 at 2:20:45 AM

Always nice to see more browsers! Interesting principles however...

> No automated test suite — verify by running the browser.

> No code comments beyond one header line per file

by theamk

6/6/2026 at 1:06:47 PM

I am developing this web browser. Ask me anything.

by roschdal

6/6/2026 at 2:37:57 AM

A proprietary web browser, written in C, in 2026. Nope.

by JoshTriplett

6/6/2026 at 1:06:24 PM

"If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."

A proprietary web browser allows investments and allocating resources to browser development where the funds go towards the browser development. The browser source code rights are protected and owned by the developer. This model is honest and transparent.

The alternative is the Google Chrome model where the users are constantly under surveillance and advertising monitoring, which is worse overall, in my opinion.

> written in C, in 2026.

C is a wonderful programming language which people understand and which is portable to most platforms.

by roschdal

6/6/2026 at 5:25:16 AM

[flagged]

by Towaway69