General Discussion • Re: Nordstjernen web browser

Nordstjernen — strengths vs Pale Moon

• No JIT — QuickJS is a pure bytecode interpreter. Pale Moon keeps SpiderMonkey's JIT, the single biggest source of browser RCE (type-confusion, codegen bugs). Nordstjernen eliminates that bug class entirely.
• No WebGL / WebGPU — no GPU-driver or shader-compiler attack surface. Pale Moon ships WebGL.
• Tiny, auditable codebase — ~30 .c files, clean-room, readable by one person. Pale Moon carries a large Gecko-derived tree no single person can fully audit.
• Zero phone-home — no telemetry AND no automatic update/blocklist/start-page pings. Pale Moon avoids telemetry but still makes default outbound connections (update checks, add-on blocklist, OCSP, hosted start page).
• OS-level sandbox by default — Linux Landlock + seccomp privilege drop (src/security.c). Pale Moon's sandboxing is weaker/older than modern Gecko's and not a project focus.
• Lower resource footprint — no multi-process GPU/compositor stack; runs in environments where a Gecko fork would struggle.
• Memory-safe media decoding — images go through Wuffs (transpiled, bounds-checked C). Pale Moon uses conventional C/C++ decoders.
• Clean-room, no legacy baggage — modern stack (lexbor, libcurl HTTP/2, Cairo/Pango) without years of accumulated Gecko cruft and dead code paths.

Honest counterweight : Pale Moon still wins decisively on raw compatibility — mature Gecko layout, far broader CSS/DOM/JS coverage, an extension ecosystem, and better real-world site support. Nordstjernen's edge is security, leanness, and privacy, not feature breadth.