SUMMARYAndreas(R) has released Northstar, a minimalist open-source web browser written entirely from scratch in C and available in version 1.0.11. The browser is free software under GPLv3 or later, runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and is designed around privacy features such as no telemetry, no update pings, origin-partitioned storage, and local safe-browsing checks.
Long-time Slashdot reader Andreas(R) announces Northstar, a "minimalist" web browser written entirely from scratch in C - now available in version 1.0.11:
One window, one page, one process - about 160,000 lines of original C, small enough for one person to read and audit end-to-end. It carries no upstream browser engine: no Gecko, no WebKit, no Blink. It is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later, and it runs on Linux, macOS and Windows... Compliance is not inherited from an upstream engine; it is measured, section by section, against the specification text... Private by construction. No telemetry, no update pings, and no AI assistant or AI-style web APIs. Safe browsing checks a top-level navigation's host against a local SHA-256 blocklist before it is fetched - the check never leaves your machine. Cookies, storage and the cache are partitioned by origin.
It's logo reminds me of the old Netscape logo. (And I love the "Best viewed in..." GIF at the upper-right of its web site.)