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 speed. Although, Pale Moon's JS offer no speed too, many sites require Chromium-specific JS support actually.

[*]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.

Vibe-coding tech = many hidden bugs. Good luck with that.

[*]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).

Everything could be disabled. Especially, OCSP and 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.

How about Windows?

[*]Lower resource footprint — no multi-process GPU/compositor stack; runs in environments where a Gecko fork would struggle.

Pale Moon is single process. Still does not helps with memory usage on specific heavy JS using sites, though. Or streaming media.

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.

It can't be a browser until it could render most of modern websites correctly. Including streaming media.

Also, with no plugins / add-ons, who will adblock? Current web is practically unusable without it.