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There is a new application available for Sparkers: Beaker Browser
What is Beaker Browser?
Beaker is an experimental peer-to-peer Web browser. It adds new APIs for building hostless applications while remaining compatible with the rest of the Web. It is an open-source application in development by Blue Link Labs.
From Wikipedia:
- Chromium Edge is, of course, build on the open source Chromium browser project, and many of the customizations it has made to the base Chromium browser are also open source. I can't find any details about whether the browser uses any of Microsoft's own closed source code, but I'm fairly certain it includes some third party closed source.
- Beaker is an experimental peer-to-peer Web browser based on Electron, Chromium, and Node.js. Beaker includes new Dat-based APIs for building hostless applications while retaining compatibility with th.
- Linux Lounge Minds: Lounge Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/linuxlounge/.
Beaker Browser peer-to-peer technology allows users to self-publish websites and web apps directly from the browser, without the need to set up and administrate a separate web server or host their content on a third-party server. All files and websites are transferred using Dat, a hypermedia peer-to-peer protocol which allows files to be shared and hosted by several users. The browser also supports the HTTP protocol to connect to traditional servers.
Beaker is built using the Electron framework and therefore uses the Chromium browser as a renderer for webpages.
Installation (Debian/Sparky testing 64bit only):
It is a prerelease2 version so can be installed from Sparky unstable repository.
It requires nodejs (>= 12.0) which will be installed/upgraded from Sparky unstable repos too. That version removes (but provides too) ‘libnode64’ and ‘npm’ packages.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install beaker-browser
License: MIT
GitHub repo: github.com/beakerbrowser/beaker
This week we caught up with Paul Frazee, creatorof Beaker Browser. Beaker is an experimentalpeer-to-peer web browser that uses the Dat protocol to host sites from users’devices.
What is Beaker and why did you create it?
Beaker is a participatory browser. It's a browser for indie hackers.
The Web is closed source. If you want to influence how social media works, you have to work at Facebook or Twitter. For search, Google. Control is in the hands of companies, rather than the users themselves.
With Beaker, we have a new Web protocol: the Decentralized Archive Transport. 'Dat.' It creates sites on demand, for free, and then shares them from the device. No servers required. That's our innovation.
When you visit a Dat site in Beaker, you download the files. The site is yours, forever. You can save it, fork it, modify it, and share your new version for free. It's all open-source.
So that's what it's about: We're making a browser for open-source Websites. We want it to be a toolkit for social hacking.
Who should be using Beaker?
Hackers. Modders. Creative types. People who like to tinker.
How do I create a new project that uses Dat?
We've got a command-line tool called bkr that's kind of like git + npm. Here's creating a site:
And here's forking a site:
Those sites then get hosted out of your browser. It's a little like BitTorrent; you share the sites in a P2P mesh.
If you want a GUI, we have some basic tools built into the browser, but we're pushing those tools into userland. It's all going to be moddable user apps.
Beaker Browser Android Download
Why did you choose to build Beaker on Electron?
It was obvious for this project. If I forked Chrome myself, I'd be writing C++ right now! Nobody wants to do that. I know the Web stack, and I can work quickly with it. It's a no-brainer.
Beaker Browser Portable
The truth is, I'm not sure I could do any of this without Electron. It's a great piece of software.
What are some challenges you've faced while building Beaker?
Half of it is poking at the tools and figuring out how much I can get away with.
Making the browser itself was pretty easy. Electron is practically a toolkit for making browsers. ...Except for the browser tabs; that took me forever to get right. I finally broke down and learned how to do SVGs. It's much better looking, but it took 3 or 4 iterations before I got that right.
In what areas should Electron be improved?
It'd be really great if I could dock the devtools inside a webview.
What's coming next in Beaker?
Secure DNS names for Dat sites. A socially configurable URL scheme, called the 'app scheme.' More Dat APIs.
For folks who may be interested in contributing to the project, in what areas does Beaker need help?
We have lots of open issues. Don't be afraid to ping me. #beakerbrowser on freenode. We keep a page for contributors and we'll add you to it. And if you visit Austin, I'll buy you a beer.
Any Electron tips that might be useful to other developers?
- Use the build tooling that's out there. You don't want to wrestle with your own solutions, trust me. Use electron-builder. Use a boilerplate repo.
- If you need to open an issue in the Electron repo, go the extra mile to make it easy to reproduce. You'll get a response much more quickly, and the team will appreciate it. Even better, try fixing it yourself. It's actually pretty interesting to see the innards.
- Read through all the guides and advanced docs at least once.
- Don't build a browser, it's a saturated market.
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