Linux is Linux thanks to large involvement of big tech. It remains to be seen if any Big Tech companies would be interested in seriously supporting development of an open source browser.
Big tech used Linux to wage a proxy war against Microsoft from a safe distance without needing to actually commit to anything.
Linus Torvalds had nothing to his name when he started working on Linux. He was just some kid from Finland, but the audacity the project gave it attention and visibility, and visibility came with funding.
I think in general a hint of audacity along with being able to demonstrate capabilities to follow through is a great recipe for having people throw money at you, and the more money you have to work with, the more options you have to keep demonstrating what you can do.
A lot of people have a vested interest in shaking up the tech world. It's just a matter of finding the right fuses to light.
> A lot of people have a vested interest in shaking up the tech world.
I'd imagine you're one of us, considering you went full-time on your search engine :)
We had Andreas demo his OS / browser [0] at Handmade Cities [1]. These conferences are what I run full-time independently. I'm excited to see a flourishing of audacity, so to speak!
Yeah. Andreas is an inspiration and a trailblazer, and although we're on slightly different journeys, we have similar ambitions I think :D
It's weird, it's become this truth in software development that one should lower their ambitions, try to do something small and not overextend. Don't try to reinvent the wheel, stay in your lane.
Which I guess is sage advice for a beginner, but I think it sort of stuck with the developer hive mind and as a result, what you get is these small low-impact projects instead of this kind of a moonshot.
While I don't think just anyone could make a browser or a search engine, I also don't think most who could would ever think to try because of these self-imposed limitations.
