Beaker (web browser)

Beaker
Developer(s)Blue Link Labs.[1]
Initial release1 August 2017; 7 years ago (2017-08-01)
Stable release(s)
1.1.0 (December 8, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-12-08)[2]) [±]
Preview release(s)
1.0.0 Pre-release 4 (June 4, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-06-04)[3]) [±]
Repository
Operating systemLinux, Microsoft Windows, macOS
Platformx86-64
TypeOpen-source web browser
LicenseMIT License
Websitebeakerbrowser.com

Beaker is a discontinued[4] free and open-source web browser[5] developed by Blue Link Labs.[6][7] Beaker Browser peer-to-peer technology allows users to self-publish websites and web apps[8] 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.[9] The browser also supports the HTTP protocol to connect to traditional servers.[5]

Beaker is built using the Electron framework and therefore uses the Chromium browser as a renderer for webpages.[10]

Content sharing

Files stored in a local folder can be published as a Dat website and made accessible to other users through the peer-to-peer protocol.[11]

The files are seeded from the local folder while the browser is active. To make them also available while the browser is closed, the user may use several alternative options to host the content:

  • Ask other users of the browser to share a copy. The content will be accessible as long as any of the users are using the Beaker browser.
  • Publish the content through a third-party server.
  • Create a permanent self-hosted homebase server[12] for the Dat protocol, and publish the content in it.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Beaker is a more powerful browser, for a more powerful Web". Beaker browser. Retrieved 24 Jul 2018.
  2. ^ "Beaker Browser 1.1". Blue Link Labs. 2020-12-08. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  3. ^ "Beaker 1.0, Beta 4". beaker browser Blog. 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  4. ^ "Is Beaker still being worked on?". Beaker GitHub thread. Retrieved 2022-08-20.
  5. ^ a b Faife, Corin (13 July 2017). "A New Browser Is Making Peer-to-Peer Web Hosting More User-Friendly". Vice.
  6. ^ "Blue Link Labs". bluelinklabs.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-16. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  7. ^ "beakerbrowser/beaker". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  8. ^ "Peer-to-peer Web applications". beakerbrowser.com. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
  9. ^ "Dat Protocol". www.datprotocol.com. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
  10. ^ "Project of the Week: Beaker Browser | Electron Blog". electronjs.org. 7 February 2017. Retrieved 2018-07-27.
  11. ^ "All about seeding". beakerbrowser.com. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
  12. ^ GitHub - beakerbrowser/homebase: Self-deployable tool for seeding dat:// websites., Beaker Browser, 2019-07-30, retrieved 2019-07-31