33 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
33 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
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---
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date: 2021-04-18
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---
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Beaker uses a [[peer-to-peer]] [[protocol]] called [[Hypercore]], or Hyper for short. "Hyperdrives" are like websites. They store webpages, pictures, media, user data, and so on. Hyperdrives power a lot of Beaker's best features.
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"Hyperdrives" are folders you host from your computer. They contain web pages which you can browse and edit. You can create and share hyperdrives using Beaker. [Learn more](https://docs.beakerbrowser.com/beginner/creating-new-hyperdrives).
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## Why is Beaker different?
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Beaker is built with Chromium and should feel exactly like any other [[Web browser]]. The big difference: Beaker can host websites.
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Hosting a website is traditionally done by "servers" which are specialized computers in the cloud. Servers require a variety of skills to run, and while there are some great services out there to make it easier, we wanted to try something new. We figured, what if anybody could host a website from their laptop?
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We call those self-hosted sites "Hyperdrives."
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- "Hyper" because they're kind of magical, and
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- "Drives" because they're collections of files.
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- It's not just a harddrive, it's a Hyperdrive!
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You can create a Hyperdrive from Beaker, add your website's HTML, and then share the Hyperdrive link with any other Beaker user. Their computer will connect directly to yours, as if you were running a server up in the cloud.
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## What does Beaker do better than other browsers?
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Beaker makes building a Website weirdly easy. We have a builtin editor, tools to sync folders with your website, and some pretty fun APIs for reading and writing the files in your website.
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If you're a teacher in a digital classroom, especially if you're teaching web development, Beaker is really handy. Your students don't need to learn Git, the commandline, or any other piece of server administration. They can download Beaker and get straight into the business of building Websites.
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Dev teams may also find Beaker handy for working on site prototypes. All you have to do is load the prototype into Beaker and share the hyper:// link around the office. If somebody wants to make a change, they can fork the site and share their version back.
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Beaker takes the drudge work out of hosting sites.
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