web browsers

Microsoft is winding down Internet Explorer mode in its Edge browser, retiring the compatibility feature that allowed businesses and users to open legacy websites built for the old Internet Explorer engine. The move pushes organisations still relying on aging internal sites to modernise their web applications or seek alternative solutions.

Rockstar Games has taken down a free browser-based port of Grand Theft Auto V after it went viral, letting people stream the full game without owning or installing it. The project spread quickly online for making GTA 5 playable in a web browser, but the shutdown highlights Rockstar's firm enforcement of its intellectual property, with fans debating whether the takedown was justified.

An old browser game called Wood Tape, released in 2004 and hosted on the site Games by Email, is being shared again online. It is a small title from the early era of play-by-email web gaming, and its renewed attention appears to be nostalgic interest in simple, quirky games from that period. Little recent coverage or commentary exists beyond the link being circulated.

An unofficial port of Grand Theft Auto V built to run in a web browser was removed just hours after going live. The project was created using WebAssembly and reportedly built with AI assistance, but the takedown came quickly, underlining how firmly Rockstar Games protects its most profitable title, which continues to sell more than a decade after release.

Developer and Microsoft Edge advocate Nolan Lawson has published a new blog post asking why so many web developers bypass built-in browser capabilities in favour of frameworks, libraries and tooling. He argues the platform's native features are underused and explores the ecosystem habits, hiring pressures and tooling culture behind that choice, sparking debate among developers about framework dependency versus standard web APIs.

A developer reviewed several Gopher client apps for Android and found them all incomplete, awkward, or losing compatibility with the old hypertext protocol. In the end he returned to Lagrange, a Gemini browser that handles Gopher well, comparing it favorably to how Netscape once handled the early web. The post highlights the fragile state of niche retro-protocol software on modern mobile platforms.

The Verge has published a running roundup covering reverse-engineered video game projects, including decompilations, recomps, and ports of classic games to VR, web browsers, and 3D platforms. The hub collects coverage of fan and open-source efforts to rebuild games from machine code so they can run natively on new hardware, a scene that keeps growing as communities preserve and modernize older titles.

Long-time Slashdot reader Andreas(R) has announced Northstar, a minimalist web browser written entirely from scratch in C. The browser is available for Linux, Mac, and Windows. The announcement, shared via Slashdot, is drawing attention from internet and browser enthusiasts curious about a from-scratch alternative to mainstream browsers, at a time when most browsers rely on shared engines like Chromium.

Grand Theft Auto V has reportedly been ported to run in WebAssembly, allowing the game to run inside a web browser. The achievement is drawing attention from developers impressed by pushing WebAssembly beyond typical use cases, with discussion focused on how a demanding AAA title could be made to run in this environment and what it signals for browser-based gaming.

A user reports that Mastodon's web interface, used on a 10-inch Android tablet through the Vivaldi browser, began misbehaving. Tapping the favourite star on a post with an image opens the image instead of liking it, and scrolling gestures have also stopped working correctly. The complaint highlights how web-based social clients can break on mobile browsers after changes.

Google announced Project Stream, a new service that streams console-quality video games through a web browser. The company is testing the platform with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, letting players run the full game in Chrome without a console or high-end PC. The move signals Google's push into gaming and cloud streaming technology.

Nolan Lawson has published a new essay asking why fewer web developers build directly on browser standards instead of layering frameworks and abstraction libraries on top. The piece revisits the long-running debate over the 'use the platform' philosophy, examining what browsers now offer natively and why developers still reach for React, build tools, and third-party packages despite steady improvements to the underlying web platform.

Kagi has published an update on the development of its Orion web browser for Linux and Windows. The post outlines the current state of the ports, which have been long-awaited by users of the privacy-focused browser previously available mainly on macOS and iOS. Discussion centres on progress timelines, feature parity with the Mac version, and what the expansion means for the browser's small but dedicated user base.

A tech reviewer known as Betty from SwitchAndClick has released a ranking of web browsers, offering recommendations on which one users should switch to. The lineup discussed includes Firefox, Vivaldi, Opera, Chrome and Waterfox. The piece is being shared with an invitation for others to say whether they agree with the ordering.

Android's Trusted Web Activity verifies that an app owns a domain by fetching a single file from a fixed, hard-coded path. Developers running Next.js are hitting a snag when their route handler sits one path segment away from that required location, producing a 404 that anyone can confirm in a browser. Web developers are debating workarounds for the mismatch.

A small browser game called Cá Viên Chiên puts players in charge of a Vietnamese fried fish ball street cart. Its developer shared that they used AI to generate 18 wallpapers for the game but had to fix three things by hand. The project has drawn attention in web development and coding communities.

Blanc, a new open-source, cross-platform web browser built on Electron, is drawing attention for its unusual design. Instead of a tab strip or address bar, it uses a 'dynamic island' element that doubles as a command palette, and its developers claim it uses less memory than Chrome or Vivaldi.

Developers are discussing the realities of web scraping and browser automation, arguing that an IP address functions as a fingerprint, a reputation, and the biggest vulnerability in the practice. The discussion notes that even well-built scrapers with refined DOM selectors and careful handling of asynchronous race conditions can still fail once an IP address is flagged or blocked.

Fundr Studio has released a free browser game titled 'Cancel Your Subscription', playable directly in a web browser. The game is being shared and discussed on tech forums, where commenters are trading reactions, though details about its gameplay and developers remain limited to the studio's game page.

A new open-source tool called KUREAS offers risk analysis directly through a web browser, requiring no specialised software or technical expertise. According to Bioengineer.org, the tool is aimed at making risk assessment accessible to a broad audience rather than a specialist few. Details on its features, developers and intended use cases remain limited.

An unofficial WebAssembly port of GTA V that let people play the game in a web browser was taken offline within hours of going live. The port was reportedly built with AI assistance and had no authorisation from Rockstar Games, leading to its rapid removal. The speed of the takedown has drawn attention among gamers discussing the limits of browser ports and copyright enforcement.

A new open-source project called Bez has appeared, taking the approach of generating a browser engine directly from web specifications and their test suites rather than writing rendering code by hand. The project is hosted on tangled.org and is drawing attention among developers interested in browser internals, spec-driven development, and alternatives to the small set of existing engine implementations.

Web developer Nolan Lawson has published a new essay asking why frontend developers so often skip native browser platform features in favour of third-party frameworks and libraries. The piece argues the web platform already offers many capabilities developers rebuild themselves. It is being shared and debated on developer forums, with early readers discussing whether framework culture keeps useful built-in APIs underused.

Web developer Nolan Lawson has published a new essay asking why so many developers ignore built-in browser and platform capabilities in favour of frameworks, libraries and custom solutions. The piece, shared widely in programming communities, reopens a familiar debate in web development circles about dependency-heavy tooling versus native standard features, with readers arguing over whether the platform's APIs are good enough to rely on directly.