[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":581},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-44523409":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":10,"maker":11,"posted_at":12,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rank_in_year":16,"shown_in_year":17,"top":18,"tier":19,"category":20,"subcategory":21,"format":22,"keywords":23,"reception":29,"sentiment":30,"stance_mix":31,"scored_comments":36,"aspects":37,"strip":50,"post_text":52,"what":53,"said":103,"maker_in_thread":222,"shape":233,"grid":236,"attempts":543,"same_week":544,"maker_shows":39,"maker_hidden":573,"reader_version":574,"card":575},"44523409","BrowserOS","Open source alternative to Perplexity Comet","title","Show HN: Open source alternative to Perplexity Comet","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.browseros.com\u002F","browseros.com","felarof",1752168787,2025,291,122,191,3837,5,"legend","productivity","ai browser","desktop_app",[24,25,26,27,28],"open source browser","ai browser agent","privacy browser","local llm","chromium fork","mixed",-0.147,{"positive":32,"neutral":33,"mixed":34,"critical":35},9,30,2,20,61,{"idea":38,"privacy":41,"execution":44,"design":46,"pricing":47,"performance":48,"docs":49},{"positive":39,"critical":40},6,12,{"positive":42,"critical":43},0,1,{"positive":42,"critical":45},7,{"positive":42,"critical":42},{"positive":43,"critical":42},{"positive":42,"critical":42},{"positive":42,"critical":42},[43,43,43,43,43,43,51,18,42,43,51,51,43,43,51,43,51,43,51,51,42,51,18,18,18,18,34,43,18,51,43,51,51,18,51,43,51,51,43,18],3,"Hey HN, we're a YC startup building an open-source, privacy-first alternative to Perplexity Comet.\n\nNo invite system unlike bunch of others – you can download it today from our website or GitHub: https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fbrowseros-ai\u002FBrowserOS\n\n--- Why bother building an alternative? We believe browsers will become the new operating systems, where we offload much bunch of our work to AI agents. But these agents will have access to all your sensitive data – emails, docs, on top of your browser history. Open-source, privacy-first alternatives need to exist.\n\nWe're not a search or ad company, so no wei",{"problem":54,"audience":60,"pricing":71,"motivation":80,"time_to_build":84,"stack":85,"openness":100,"stage":101,"team_size":102},{"value":55,"source":56,"evidence":57},"Privacy risk of AI agents accessing sensitive browser data","maker",[58],{"id":59},"post",{"value":61,"source":62,"evidence":63},"Privacy-conscious users and non-technical users wanting browser automation","inferred",[64,68],{"id":65,"by":66,"text":67},"44527426","azinman2","The demo buying toothpaste shows the difficulty of these tasks. Toothpaste itself was very underspecified, and it essentially randomly chose from a huge list. Some tasks may have…",{"id":69,"by":11,"text":70},"44527559","Great points! For sure, the whole agentic browsers space is still super early. We are also just getting started and trying to narrow down on a high-value niche use-case. There…",{"value":72,"source":56,"evidence":73},"Free consumer browser; paid enterprise licenses planned",[74,77],{"id":75,"by":11,"text":76},"44533201","> How does this make money? Surely this will have a cloud offering? Our plan is to make the consumer version of the browser for free and sell licenses for enterprise version.…",{"id":78,"by":11,"text":79},"44524818","Thank you! plan is to sell licenses for Enterprise-version of browser, same as other open-source projects.",{"value":81,"source":56,"evidence":82},"Browsers will become operating systems for AI agents, and sensitive data needs privacy-first alternatives",[83],{"id":59},null,[86,90,96],{"value":87,"source":56,"evidence":88},"Chromium (C++)",[89],{"id":59},{"value":91,"source":56,"evidence":92},"Gemini API",[93],{"id":94,"by":11,"text":95},"44526971","The default model is Gemini. You can bring your own API keys and change the default to any model you local. Or better run model locally using Ollama and use that!",{"value":97,"source":56,"evidence":98},"Ollama",[99],{"id":59},"open_source","beta","team",{"praise":104,"objections":125,"requests":152,"questions":178,"alternatives":197},[105,117],{"value":106,"source":107,"evidence":108},"Watching the agent act locally is appealing","commenter",[109,113],{"id":110,"by":111,"text":112},"44530876","anupj","Love the direction here. Local-first, open-source agentic browsers feel inevitable as AI gets more deeply embedded in our workflows. Watching the agent actually click around (vs.…",{"id":114,"by":115,"text":116},"44525674","zebomon","This is very exciting given the rumor that OpenAI will be launching a (presumably not open source) browser of their own this summer. I've joined your Discord, so will try it soon…",{"value":118,"source":107,"evidence":119},"Open-source local-first agentic browser is needed",[120,121],{"id":110,"by":111,"text":112},{"id":122,"by":123,"text":124},"44545225","ertok","I use OpenAI deep research feature a ton, what's cool about this is being able to see it do the research live vs. being told just hte steps in text format (I always have to go…",[126,133,144],{"value":127,"source":107,"evidence":128},"Agent is slow and needs hand-holding",[129],{"id":130,"by":131,"text":132},"44536066","dockercompost","I didn't realize you all had changed your name and I'd already installed Nxtscape and thought something was wrong when I opened up BrowserOS and saw the same UI and fox emoji…",{"value":134,"source":107,"evidence":135},"Chromium fork maintenance and CVE patching burden",[136,140],{"id":137,"by":138,"text":139},"44526983","mdaniel","> --- How we built? We patch Chromium's C++ source code with our changes, so we have the same security as Google Chrome. We also have an auto-updater for security patches and…",{"id":141,"by":142,"text":143},"44623197","andy_ng","I love the vision of a privacy‑first, open‑source browser that runs AI agents locally, but shipping a custom Chromium fork is a huge maintenance lift so how will you handle…",{"value":145,"source":107,"evidence":146},"Demo tasks are not compelling",[147,151],{"id":148,"by":149,"text":150},"44529746","askl","The demo looks like a mediocre solution looking for a problem. I can order toothpaste without an LLM faster and more reliably.",{"id":65,"by":66,"text":67},[153,164,171],{"value":154,"source":107,"evidence":155},"Linux support",[156,160],{"id":157,"by":158,"text":159},"44524170","eGQjxkKF6fif","Whats the roadmap looking like for Linux? I don't have Mac or Windows.",{"id":161,"by":162,"text":163},"44548069","avallark","Where is my linux version? A lot of researchers who could really use this project would be sitting with a dual gpu setup on a linux machine. Would be an instant hit with the…",{"value":165,"source":107,"evidence":166},"Homebrew availability",[167],{"id":168,"by":169,"text":170},"44526965","o_____________o","Would love to see this show up on homebrew!",{"value":172,"source":107,"evidence":173},"Benchmarks",[174],{"id":175,"by":176,"text":177},"44527067","arjunchint","Do you have any benchmarks to share like Halluminate's Web Bench?",[179,190],{"value":180,"source":107,"evidence":181},"How the business makes money",[182,186],{"id":183,"by":184,"text":185},"44528374","rvz","> But we strongly believe that a privacy-first browser with local LLM support is more important than ever – since agents will have access to so much sensitive data. How does this…",{"id":187,"by":188,"text":189},"44533585","jerrygenser","What is your future revenue model?",{"value":191,"source":107,"evidence":192},"Why Chromium instead of Firefox",[193],{"id":194,"by":195,"text":196},"44531006","MasterYoda","If this is a privacy first browser, why wasn´t Firefox used when it is much better out of the box for this approach? All security and privacy focused webbrowser use Firefox. Like…",[198,209,215],{"value":199,"source":107,"evidence":200},"Perplexity Comet",[201,205],{"id":202,"by":203,"text":204},"44614290","xebulon","My main gripe - and I cannot sufficiently emphasise how fundamental this is - is that it seems, just as with Comet, this is not actually the integration of LLM agency into the…",{"id":206,"by":207,"text":208},"44528502","tzury","This is not Open source alternative to Perplexity Comet This is the real thing, the original if you will. As for Perplexity, to me this company and line of product are seemed as…",{"value":210,"source":56,"evidence":211},"Brave",[212],{"id":213,"by":11,"text":214},"44532827","This was definitely a hard choice. We spoke to folks who had built browser on top of webkit and they spent nearly 2years just fixing random bugs and getting sites to work. I'm…",{"value":216,"source":107,"evidence":217},"Nanobrowser",[218],{"id":219,"by":220,"text":221},"44527117","darkmuck","This is similar to the chrome extension nanobrowser. https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fnanobrowser\u002Fnanobrowser",{"comments":223,"answered":224,"key":225},35,19,[226,227,230],{"id":69,"text":70},{"id":228,"text":229},"44527615","True, there are plenty of libs already available to do such an automation if you are (or can hire a) dev. But for non-technical folks, agentic browsers seems like a good UX to…",{"id":231,"text":232},"44536717","Yeah, decided to change the name to avoid any troubles. Also, previous name was hard to pronounce :) Thank you for the feedback. Would love to chat more on discord…",{"commenters":36,"max_depth":45,"maker_replies":223,"first_comment_mins":234,"lifespan_hours":235},57,231,[237,239,241,245,246,250,252,254,255,258,262,264,265,268,270,274,276,279,283,285,288,290,294,296,300,302,304,307,310,312,315,318,320,323,325,327,330,333,336,339,342,344,346,348,350,353,355,356,358,360,363,366,369,371,373,375,377,381,384,387,390,393,396,398,402,405,407,409,412,415,417,420,421,423,424,427,429,431,433,436,438,440,444,448,450,451,453,456,458,460,464,466,470,472,477,478,480,482,487,489,493,495,497,499,501,505,507,509,512,514,516,518,522,524,526,527,531,534,536,539,541],[65,42,43,238,66,42],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea",[69,42,42,240,11,43],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[242,42,42,243,244,42],"44527583","commenter\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea","byteknight",[228,42,42,240,11,43],[247,42,51,248,249,42],"44547828","project\u002Fmixed\u002Fprivacy","moneywaters",[130,43,43,251,131,42],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fexecution",[231,43,42,253,11,43],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[194,34,43,238,195,42],[256,34,43,238,257,42],"44532024","lelanthran",[259,34,42,260,261,42],"44544061","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea","braebo",[213,34,42,263,11,43],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[137,51,43,251,138,42],[266,51,42,267,11,43],"44527026","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[269,51,43,251,138,42],"44528183",[271,51,42,272,273,42],"44539802","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution","swyx",[275,51,42,272,138,42],"44546804",[277,51,51,267,278,42],"44528457","paulirish",[280,281,43,238,282,42],"44524345",4,"layer8",[284,281,42,263,11,43],"44524916",[286,281,51,240,287,42],"44525458","esafak",[289,281,42,240,11,43],"44525486",[291,281,18,292,293,42],"44526840","project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea","jazzyjackson",[295,281,42,240,11,43],"44526902",[297,281,42,298,299,42],"44530171","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","Imustaskforhelp",[301,281,42,298,138,42],"44538439",[303,281,42,298,293,42],"44538945",[305,281,42,298,306,42],"44530495","nicoburns",[308,281,51,309,282,42],"44526251","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[311,281,42,240,11,43],"44526919",[313,281,43,238,314,42],"44527501","dotancohen",[316,281,42,298,317,42],"44527891","axus",[319,281,42,298,314,42],"44528314",[321,281,51,263,322,42],"44528989","esperent",[324,281,42,298,282,42],"44530889",[326,281,51,263,176,42],"44527064",[328,281,51,263,329,42],"44530334","tunnelfx",[331,281,43,332,176,42],"44527052","project\u002Fcritical\u002Fprivacy",[334,281,42,335,11,43],"44527600","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fperformance",[337,281,42,338,176,42],"44529464","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fperformance",[340,281,42,341,322,42],"44529016","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[343,281,43,251,176,42],"44529489",[345,281,42,263,11,43],"44534388",[347,281,18,292,299,42],"44530206",[349,281,42,240,11,43],"44534464",[351,281,43,238,352,42],"44529634","casslin",[354,281,43,238,299,42],"44530097",[219,18,51,309,220,42],[357,18,42,341,352,42],"44529647",[359,18,51,309,299,42],"44530094",[361,18,51,309,362,42],"44541351","lowwave",[364,39,51,309,365,42],"44529227","matheist",[367,39,43,238,368,42],"44531128","Daedren",[370,39,42,240,11,43],"44532891",[372,39,43,238,138,42],"44538419",[157,45,51,374,158,42],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[376,45,42,253,11,43],"44524877",[378,379,51,374,380,42],"44524044",8,"rpastuszak",[382,379,51,374,383,42],"44524182","patrickaljord",[385,379,42,298,386,42],"44524331","janalsncm",[388,379,42,341,389,42],"44524821","moscoe",[391,379,42,392,11,43],"44524862","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fperformance",[394,379,42,298,395,42],"44527332","lotyrin",[78,379,42,397,11,43],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing",[399,32,51,400,401,42],"44530596","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign","whatevsmate",[403,32,42,341,404,42],"44530638","cobalt60",[406,32,42,341,401,42],"44531028",[408,32,42,400,11,43],"44532706",[141,410,51,411,142,42],10,"project\u002Fmixed\u002Fexecution",[114,413,18,414,115,42],11,"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone",[416,413,42,298,11,43],"44525759",[418,413,42,298,419,42],"44529629","mrweasel",[122,40,18,292,123,42],[183,422,51,397,184,42],13,[75,422,42,397,11,43],[425,422,18,426,184,42],"44534891","project\u002Fpositive\u002Fpricing",[428,422,42,341,11,43],"44535876",[168,430,18,414,169,42],14,[432,430,42,374,11,43],"44526967",[434,430,51,253,435,42],"44527314","mh-",[202,437,43,238,203,42],15,[161,439,51,374,162,42],16,[441,442,43,251,443,42],"44542475",17,"oezi",[445,446,51,392,447,42],"44525500",18,"daureg",[449,446,42,392,11,43],"44525533",[206,224,18,292,207,42],[452,224,42,374,11,43],"44533221",[454,35,51,400,455,42],"44527992","thegeek108",[457,35,42,253,11,43],"44528025",[459,35,51,400,455,42],"44528759",[461,462,51,374,463,42],"44527163",21,"DANmode",[465,462,42,374,11,43],"44527624",[467,468,43,251,469,42],"44527968",22,"5xpB7n8tdbtoP",[471,468,42,263,11,43],"44527993",[473,474,51,475,476,42],"44526961",23,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fprivacy","ivape",[94,474,42,475,11,43],[479,474,51,475,476,42],"44526975",[481,474,42,475,11,43],"445275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