Verso

[!NOTE]
Verso is currently no longer maintained. The Verso web browser project was an effort to build a functional web browser on top of the Servo web engine, with the goal of identifying what is needed for Servo to evolve into a mature browser. Several major contributions from this project have been integrated into Servo, as detailed in Behind the Scenes of Verso Browser Development.

As the project progressed, multiple significant revisions to Servo were released, and the Verso browser was unable to keep pace with these updates due to limited manpower and funding. Therefore, we will be archiving the repository for now and look forward to a future opportunity to revitalize the project and continue contributing to the Servo ecosystem.

A web browser that plays old world blues to build new world hope.

<img src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ca124b2b-c54c-4796-b2cb-0819228495b6" width="600" alt="The Verso logo with a sitting cat, written in ASCII art, rendered in orange on black as on an old CRT monitor" />

Verso is a web browser built on top of the Servo web engine. We aim to explore embedding solutions for Servo while growing it into a mature browser one day. This means we want to experiment with multi-view and multi-window first and then build UI elements entirely from Servo itself. At the moment, Servoshell should provide a better user experience.

Verso is still under development. We don't accept feature requests at the moment, and the whole navigation workflow hasn't been polished yet, either. But if you are interested, feel free to open bug-fix PRs.

Usage

Getting Started

Windows

• Install scoop and then install other tools:

scoop install git python llvm cmake curl
pip install mako

You can also use chocolatey to install if you prefer it.

• Build & run:

cargo run

MacOS

• Install Xcode
• Install Homebrew and then install other tools:

brew install cmake pkg-config harfbuzz python@3 # Install required dependencies CMake, pkg-config, HarfBuzz, and Python 3.
pip3 install mako # Install the Mako templating engine
curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh # Install Rust and Cargo

• Build & run:

cargo run

Linux

Flatpak

For unified environment setup and package experience, we choose Flatpak to build the project from the start. Please follow the Flatpak Setup page to install Flatpak based on your distribution.

• Install flatpak runtimes and extensions:

flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Platform//24.08
flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Sdk//24.08
flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.rust-stable//24.08
flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.llvm18//24.08

• Generate manifests and build: // TODO Exporting to a repository instead

python3 ./flatpak-cargo-generator.py ./Cargo.lock -o cargo-sources.json
flatpak-builder --user --install --force-clean target org.versotile.verso.yml
flatpak run org.versotile.verso

Nix

We also support building Verso in nix shell. But we don't bundle it in nix at the moment.

• For NixOS:

nix-shell shell.nix --run 'cargo r'

• For non-NixOS distributions:

nix-shell shell.nix --run 'nixGL cargo r'

If you prefer to build the project without any sandbox, please follow the instructions in Servo book to bootstrap. But please understand we don't triage any build issue without flatpak or nix setup.

Nightly Release

Nightly releases built with CrabNebula Cloud can be found at releases.

Packages are unsigned currently. If you have problem opening the app on macOS, try xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/verso.app after installation.

Future Work

• Multi-window support.
• Enable multiprocess mode.
• Enable sandbox in all platforms.
• Enable Gstreamer feature.