Nordstjernen, Northstar, Southstar: minimalist webbrowsers in C and Rust

Nordstjernen is a family of independent, standards-focused browsers built around a small, from-scratch web engine. The main browser is written in C and runs on major desktop systems, with additional builds for several other platforms. Its developers measure compatibility against web standards and test suites: the C browser reports 141 HTML specification areas fully implemented, 31 partly implemented and none wholly absent, plus 91.5% of selected HTML and DOM tests and 73.2% of CSS tests passing. The project emphasizes a compact codebase, privacy without telemetry, and security through separate sandboxed processes, operating-system protections and the deliberate absence of just-in-time compilation. It also supports modern web features, video, printing, WebGPU and optional local-agent control.

Two related versions offer different trade-offs. Northstar reuses the C engine but simplifies the experience to one page in one process, omitting tabs and advanced graphics features while retaining WebExtensions, printing, video and sandboxing. Southstar is a Rust port of the original browser, completed in October 2026; its roughly 330,000 lines of project code use Rust implementations of the JavaScript, HTML, networking and WebAssembly components, with no C in its own code. Recent releases highlight continued work on standards support, video decoding, performance and security. Together, the browsers present minimalism not as a return to a primitive web, but as an attempt to combine a readable, independently built engine with useful modern capabilities and fewer privacy-invasive or high-risk features.