The original founder of GitHub (Chris Wanstrath) has partnered up with the founder of SerenityOS and the Ladybird web browser (Andreas Kling) to create “The Ladybird Browser Initiative” — a USA-based non-profit dedicated exclusively to building a brand new web browser. From scratch.
While many have claimed that developing a new web browser “from scratch” is an impossible goal, the founders of The Ladybird Browser Initiative believe they can do it. What’s more, they are confident it can be done without taking any funding from corporate deals or advertising revenue.
Their goal? To have a fully functional “Alpha” version of the Ladybird browser ready sometime in 2026.
Ladybird Funding
Roughly one year ago, the Ladybird Browser received their first major sponsorship ($100,000 from Shopify). Now, with the creation of a 501(c)(3) non-profit (accompanied by a $1 Million dollar pledge from the GitHub founder), Ladybird is preparing to become the only major web browser which does not treat the user like the product being sold.
“Today, every major browser engine is open source, which is wonderful, but there’s still one issue: they’re all funded by Google’s advertising empire. Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, and Opera all use Google’s Chromium. Apple receives billions to make Google the default search engine in Safari, and Firefox has a similar deal where they receive hundreds of millions each year.
The world needs a browser that puts people first, contributes to open standards using a brand new engine, and is free from advertising’s influence.”
Why not start with a fork of Firefox is a big question. But, more engines welcome.