Honestly, my biggest fear if Apple ever allows other browser engines on iOS is that developers will stop testing on anything other than Chrome. And they will tell iPhone users to “just download Chrome.”
I’ve already heard so many places tell people not to use Firefox or Safari to access their website. It’s IE 6 all over again. I hate Chrome and refuse to use it.
I hate how everybody seems to be OK with this because Chromium is nominally open-source, when that ended up being the whole reason we are in this mess.
Being “open source” seems to be lead people to think it is altruistic or good for the community as a whole.
Being open source is really just a categorization. A fully for profit organization can make something valuable open source and then leverage that for commercial reasons (like building highly monetized additional code on top).
It is in Google’s best interests for Chromium to dominate the web even if it is open source due to Chrome’s broad reach and Google’s heavy leverage of the web for revenue, like its ad services.
It is shortsighted to see what is happening and then go “well I don’t see a problem”.
Exactly. So many browser developers adopted it because it’s open-source and eliminated the work of having to build the rendering engine.
Meanwhile, Google is basically dictating the future of the Web because of this. Web developers are only testing on Chrome, and Google is about to kill ad blockers on every browser except Firefox and Safari because they control the rendering engine. What else are you gonna do?
The extensive reach of Chromium is usually a bit understated too. For example, Chromium is what powers all Electron applications., and as much as we want to gripe about the nightmare Electron has enabled, it still has wide reach. Building for Electron means building for Chromium, and building for Chromium often entails leveraging what is available in Chrome/Electron/etc over what is standard. These frequently overlap, but when they don’t, the blame is then placed on the browser rather than on the website (i.e. why doesn’t XYZ work on Firefox, when the reason is the website developer chose not to test/ensure it does work).
This gets very funny in some situations where visiting a website in Firefox throws a “not supported” page but switching the user-string to Chrome/Chromium results in the same website working just fine.
Yes, it’s a sad state of affairs that Apple’s restrictions on iOS and iPadOS browsers are the only thing stopping an effective Google monopoly over web browsers. Ideally Firefox would still keep things in balance, but Mozilla doesn’t seem to know what it’s doing these days in terms of building market share - and I say that as a long time Firefox user.
I still remember the IE 6 era, and I hope we never see a single browser dominate the web again. To those wishing Apple would be forced to open up, be careful what you wish for.
Firefox is in a pickle, because unlike the IE/Firefox, where FF was winning share by the boatload against a stagnant competitor, Chrome is super actively developed, active and heavily pushed by Google. Basically FF is now kept alive by Google the way you’d keep a single competitor city alive in Civilization to ensure you game wouldn’t end with a military/domination victory. FF is a Native American reservation surrounded by white folks not giving a shit about what happens on your dust bowl.
Honestly, my biggest fear if Apple ever allows other browser engines on iOS is that developers will stop testing on anything other than Chrome. And they will tell iPhone users to “just download Chrome.”
I’ve already heard so many places tell people not to use Firefox or Safari to access their website. It’s IE 6 all over again. I hate Chrome and refuse to use it.
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this is why I still have to have Chrome installed
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I hate how everybody seems to be OK with this because Chromium is nominally open-source, when that ended up being the whole reason we are in this mess.
Being “open source” seems to be lead people to think it is altruistic or good for the community as a whole.
Being open source is really just a categorization. A fully for profit organization can make something valuable open source and then leverage that for commercial reasons (like building highly monetized additional code on top).
It is in Google’s best interests for Chromium to dominate the web even if it is open source due to Chrome’s broad reach and Google’s heavy leverage of the web for revenue, like its ad services.
It is shortsighted to see what is happening and then go “well I don’t see a problem”.
Exactly. So many browser developers adopted it because it’s open-source and eliminated the work of having to build the rendering engine.
Meanwhile, Google is basically dictating the future of the Web because of this. Web developers are only testing on Chrome, and Google is about to kill ad blockers on every browser except Firefox and Safari because they control the rendering engine. What else are you gonna do?
“lol just download Chrome!”
The extensive reach of Chromium is usually a bit understated too. For example, Chromium is what powers all Electron applications., and as much as we want to gripe about the nightmare Electron has enabled, it still has wide reach. Building for Electron means building for Chromium, and building for Chromium often entails leveraging what is available in Chrome/Electron/etc over what is standard. These frequently overlap, but when they don’t, the blame is then placed on the browser rather than on the website (i.e. why doesn’t XYZ work on Firefox, when the reason is the website developer chose not to test/ensure it does work).
This gets very funny in some situations where visiting a website in Firefox throws a “not supported” page but switching the user-string to Chrome/Chromium results in the same website working just fine.
They’ll pry Firefox from my cold dead hands.
Yes, it’s a sad state of affairs that Apple’s restrictions on iOS and iPadOS browsers are the only thing stopping an effective Google monopoly over web browsers. Ideally Firefox would still keep things in balance, but Mozilla doesn’t seem to know what it’s doing these days in terms of building market share - and I say that as a long time Firefox user.
I still remember the IE 6 era, and I hope we never see a single browser dominate the web again. To those wishing Apple would be forced to open up, be careful what you wish for.
Firefox is in a pickle, because unlike the IE/Firefox, where FF was winning share by the boatload against a stagnant competitor, Chrome is super actively developed, active and heavily pushed by Google. Basically FF is now kept alive by Google the way you’d keep a single competitor city alive in Civilization to ensure you game wouldn’t end with a military/domination victory. FF is a Native American reservation surrounded by white folks not giving a shit about what happens on your dust bowl.
But yes, FF for life for me!
First time someone defends Apple, and for a good reason too.