Mozilla Quantum: New Browser Engine Based On Servo/Rust For Firefox

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  • phoronix
    Administrator
    • Jan 2007
    • 67400

    Mozilla Quantum: New Browser Engine Based On Servo/Rust For Firefox

    Phoronix: Mozilla Quantum: New Browser Engine Based On Servo/Rust For Firefox

    Mozilla's latest secret project to go public is Quantum, a new browser engine for Firefox. But before wondering what happened to Servo, don't worry, Quantum makes use of Servo and Rust...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite
  • danieru
    Senior Member
    • Apr 2014
    • 160

    #2
    I'm disapointed, just one more layer of abstraction? why not 5 or 8 layers of abstraction just for the engine?
    Why not write it in a moder and fast language like JavaScript or python? That way we can add another 2-3 layers of abstraction.

    Because everyone knows layer of abstraction == modern

    Comment

    • Kemosabe
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2013
      • 695

      #3
      Originally posted by danieru View Post
      I'm disapointed, just one more layer of abstraction? why not 5 or 8 layers of abstraction just for the engine?
      Why not write it in a moder and fast language like JavaScript or python? That way we can add another 2-3 layers of abstraction.

      Because everyone knows layer of abstraction == modern
      Could you add some content to you rage so other people do know what you are referring to?

      Comment

      • smitty3268
        Senior Member
        • Oct 2008
        • 6968

        #4
        Originally posted by danieru View Post
        I'm disapointed, just one more layer of abstraction? why not 5 or 8 layers of abstraction just for the engine?
        Why not write it in a moder and fast language like JavaScript or python? That way we can add another 2-3 layers of abstraction.

        Because everyone knows layer of abstraction == modern
        I hate to break it to you, but web browser code bases already have abstraction layers in them. It's not clear to me that this will add any (or remove any), and ultimately when the performance is going up 500% I really don't care.

        Comment

        • schmidtbag
          Senior Member
          • Dec 2010
          • 6618

          #5
          Originally posted by Kemosabe View Post
          Could you add some content to you rage so other people do know what you are referring to?
          I actually get what he means. Though it's a lot more blunt than I'd have put it, I don't necessarily disagree.

          Abstraction basically means writing something on top of something else in order to accomplish the tasks of lower layers in a more simple or organized manner, usually at the cost of system resources. So in the case of Firefox, we now have Quantum, which is build upon Servo and Rust, which is probably built with C++, and so on. And that's just for the browser itself. I didn't even get into the layers above or below Quantum, Servo, Rust, and Firefox itself.
          I'll admit this is a very crude definition so I'm sure someone is bound to come up and disagree with me.

          Comment

          • Tomin
            Senior Member
            • Apr 2012
            • 721

            #6
            Quantum CSS, Quantum Render, Quantum Compositor, Quantum DOM, and Quantum Flow
            I guess I need to get a Quantum Computer to run this future Firefox...

            Comment

            • oooverclocker
              Senior Member
              • Jun 2016
              • 420

              #7
              Originally posted by danieru View Post
              I'm disapointed, just one more layer of abstraction? why not 5 or 8 layers of abstraction just for the engine?
              Why not write it in a moder and fast language like JavaScript or python? That way we can add another 2-3 layers of abstraction.

              Because everyone knows layer of abstraction == modern
              What do you mean? Rust is by far the most competitive object oriented language compared to C if you exclude C++ regarding the performance. Thus you have about the same ease of use like using Java. You can also embed assembly code if you like or even C++.

              Comment

              • shmerl
                Senior Member
                • Dec 2009
                • 3514

                #8
                Why not simply build a UI on top of Servo? Or it's not ready yet to be a full featured engine?

                Comment

                • yzsolt
                  Junior Member
                  • Jun 2015
                  • 49

                  #9
                  I don't really understand it either... When they introduced the first Rust component in Firefox (which was a tag parser for MP3/4 maybe? - very basic stuff), it used the standard C interface, thus missing the whole point of writing something in Rust in my opinion - not to mention, the code was ugly because of the noise of FFI an unsafe blocks. And now, using bigger pieces of Servo through C FFI from C++? I don't really see the point... They could put more effort into Servo instead.

                  Comment

                  • TheCycoONE
                    Senior Member
                    • May 2010
                    • 173

                    #10
                    My understanding was that servo is becoming a sort of gecko sandbox. As pieces of it are ready for prime time, they will through this Quantum project replace that piece in Gecko. This way we can be transitioned to servo without painful regressions.

                    Comment

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