User Guide

Hermes is deliberately small: it gives you tabs, an address bar, native input, content blocking, and Servo's view of the web without pretending to be a finished everyday browser.

This guide helps you get useful results from the technical preview and recognize the difference between a site problem, a missing media component, and a known engine limitation.

Start here

1. Install Hermes and its native Linux dependencies.
2. Start browsing with a URL or DuckDuckGo search.
3. Keep the privacy and security model in mind.
4. If a page is blank or incomplete, work through Troubleshooting.

Current platform support

Platform	Status	Notes
Linux x86-64	Primary development platform	X11 and Wayland are supported; multimedia uses system GStreamer plugins.
Windows x86-64	Build foundation	Native GStreamer is not packaged yet, so media support is limited.
macOS	Not currently packaged	No supported release workflow is available.

Note

Source builds follow Servo's own platform requirements. A successful build does not imply that every web platform feature is implemented.

The short version

Hermes is a good fit for:

• Exploring Servo on real websites
• Testing browser-shell ideas in a native Rust application
• Following the project's progress
• Reproducing and reporting focused compatibility issues

It is not yet a good fit for:

• Passwords, payments, private accounts, or sensitive browsing
• A primary browser profile
• Sites that depend on extensions or DRM
• Adaptive streaming players that require Media Source Extensions