From 2d2b1584cf19230e02fa67b1a0e96438b2c36c5b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Pierre Tachoire Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2026 09:46:14 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] update contribution and why section --- README.md | 31 +++++++++++++++---------------- 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 96b4f878..cdc8a541 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -332,32 +332,31 @@ zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast run ## Contributing -Lightpanda accepts pull requests through GitHub. +See [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/lightpanda-io/browser/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) for guidelines. +You must sign our [CLA](CLA.md) during the pull request process. +- [Discord](https://discord.gg/K63XeymfB5) -You have to sign our [CLA](CLA.md) during the pull request process otherwise -we're not able to accept your contributions. - -## Why? +## Why Lightpanda? ### Javascript execution is mandatory for the modern web -In the good old days, scraping a webpage was as easy as making an HTTP request, cURL-like. It’s not possible anymore, because Javascript is everywhere, like it or not: +Simple HTTP requests used to be enough for web automation. That's no longer the case. Javascript now drives most of the web: -- Ajax, Single Page App, infinite loading, “click to display”, instant search, etc. -- JS web frameworks: React, Vue, Angular & others +- Ajax, Single Page Apps, infinite loading, instant search +- JS frameworks: React, Vue, Angular, and others ### Chrome is not the right tool -If we need Javascript, why not use a real web browser? Take a huge desktop application, hack it, and run it on the server. Hundreds or thousands of instances of Chrome if you use it at scale. Are you sure it’s such a good idea? +Running a full desktop browser on a server works, but it does not scale well. Chrome at hundreds or thousands of instances is expensive: -- Heavy on RAM and CPU, expensive to run -- Hard to package, deploy and maintain at scale -- Bloated, lots of features are not useful in headless usage +- Heavy on RAM and CPU +- Hard to package, deploy, and maintain at scale +- Many features are not necessary in headless made ### Lightpanda is built for performance -If we want both Javascript and performance in a true headless browser, we need to start from scratch. Not another iteration of Chromium, really from a blank page. Crazy right? But that’s what we did: +Supporting Javascript with real performance meant building from scratch rather than forking Chromium: -- Not based on Chromium, Blink or WebKit -- Low-level system programming language (Zig) with optimisations in mind -- Opinionated: without graphical rendering +- Not based on Chromium, Blink, or WebKit +- Written in Zig, a low-level language with explicit memory control +- No graphical rendering engine