Hi, my name is John Mercouris. I am a computer scientist with a passion for changing the world. The instrument for change I employ is software. I've designed Next with the singular goal of making its users more productive, and by extension the world, a better place (hopefully).
Through supporting this campaign, you'll enable a whole new set of users (GNU/Linux) to gain access to Next, as well as contributing to the continued support and development of the project.
Why Funding?
Most of the funding for the project will be coming out of my own pocket, but additional support would be very helpful, as my resources are limited. The funding you provide will be used for the following things:
- Paying for professional C development time (I've already partnered with a C developer)
- Paying for infrastructure, domain names, servers, build automation
In the event that the funding goal is not met, we'll take whatever we've amassed, and the rest will come out of my pocket in order to fund the project to its goal. I'm very passionate about Next, and I want to make it of the highest quality, so that its users may be fully empowered.
The Impact
Next has been a passion project for over two years. It arose out of a need to create a web browser more useful for something beyond merely "browsing". Modern browsers have eschewed power in favor of simplicity. Their UI and feature-set is tailored to being as simple as possible to use. This has led to a compromise in their capability.
Next tips the power balance the other way. Next is not designed for the common denominator, but rather for the expert tool user. It is infinitely customizable, and designed to make you more productive, at whatever it is you do.
Project Status
Next has gone through 8 releases, each time evolving significantly. On macOS it is fully usable as a main web-browser.
In order to facilitate better cross-platform support, I consulted the Lisp community and heeded the advice of Robert Strandh. Robert Strandh suggested a distributed architecture involving a Lisp core controlling a "dumb" GUI frontend.
This distributed Lisp core design has been something I've been working on for over 6 months. The API, design, and its principles have been validated in an Objective-C port, but in order to bring it to GNU/Linux, a GTK and (given enough resources, Qt) port implementing the remote server protocol have to be constructed (the purpose of this campaign).
Other Ways You Can Help
If you haven't already, please star or follow the project on Github (https://github.com/atlas-engineer/next) it means a lot to me, and really increases the visibility of the project.
If you want to visit the official project website, you can do so at https://next.atlas.engineer.
Other things that you can do involve simply spreading the word to your friends via messages, social media, etc.
Why Lisp?
Lisp (http://lisp-lang.org/) is a powerful language that allows any part of Next to be modified and reprogrammed. For example, while you are running Next, you may decide that you want youtube videos to automatically download when they contain the word "programming" somewhere in the title. Normally you'd write a plugin, stop, and restart the browser and try reloading your plugin. In Next, because it is written in Lisp, you can write changes, and test them immediately.
There is a lot to say about Lisp, many articles have been written as per its suitability, a few of my favorites are provided below:
http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/introduction-why-lisp.html
http://ivy.io/common-lisp/2015/03/03/guerilla-lisp-opus.html
Thank You
Lastly, I would like to offer some words of gratitude for those who have contributed to the project in the form of pull requests, issues, support, words of encouragement, and more. Thank you so much for making this project possible. I hope that together we can make the world if not a better place, at least a more productive one!
-John
