3 ms·

I'm not entirely interested in relitigating a past I literally lived through. On the other hand, it is objectively true that there is only one browser platform

by pfooti 9y ago

I'm not entirely interested in relitigating a past I literally lived through. On the other hand, it is objectively true that there is only one browser platform for iOS. WebKit or nothing. If they actually supported chrome or Firefox instead of requiring them to be wrappers on webkit renderers, I would not have this complaint. Of course, the reason this isnt being taken up by anti-trust folks is that iOS doesn't dominate the market the way windows did. So: i guess the answer is to convince my users to stop buying idevices. Whee.

alwillis 9y ago
Of course, the reason this isnt being taken up by anti-trust folks is that iOS doesn't dominate the market the way windows did. So: i guess the answer is to convince my users to stop buying idevices. Whee. No. Monopolies themselves aren't illegal, especially when they're natural monopolies. It is illegal for a company to use its monopoly to stifle competition in other, unrelated markets. The classic case is Microsoft using its monopoly in operating systems when Windows had 95% marketshare in the emerging browser market. Remember that Microsoft threatened to cancel HP and Compaq’s Windows licenses if they continued to ship Netscape Navigator instead of IE. That's illegal. It's not illegal to have a rules and guidelines for a platform a particular company owns. Game consoles are way more restrictive than the iOS App Store and nobody is suing them.
millstone 9y ago
How do you feel about ChromeOS?
pjmlp 9y ago
I am so glad people can use another browser on ChromeOS, oh wait...
- lern_too_spel 9y ago
  The difference is that it was technically infeasible to run another browser on ChromeOS, not policy infeasible. The technical infeasibility was recently removed. https://www.google.com/amp/www.techrepublic.com/google-amp/article/4-alternatives-to-the-chrome-browser-on-chrome-os/ https://www.google.com/amp/www.techrepublic.com/google-amp/a...
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    No difference at all, in regards to the end user experience, but Google tends to have a green card from HN crowd.
    - lern_too_spel 9y ago
      If I really wanted to, I could have built another browser using PNaCl and run it and distributed it on ChromeOS even before it supported Android apps where users trivially have access to other browsers. That remains impossible on iDevices to this day. If you can't see the difference, you are only deceiving yourself.

by pfooti 9y ago

alwillis 9y ago

Of course, the reason this isnt being taken up by anti-trust folks is that iOS doesn't dominate the market the way windows did. So: i guess the answer is to convince my users to stop buying idevices. Whee. No. Monopolies themselves aren't illegal, especially when they're natural monopolies. It is illegal for a company to use its monopoly to stifle competition in other, unrelated markets. The classic case is Microsoft using its monopoly in operating systems when Windows had 95% marketshare in the emerging browser market. Remember that Microsoft threatened to cancel HP and Compaq’s Windows licenses if they continued to ship Netscape Navigator instead of IE. That's illegal. It's not illegal to have a rules and guidelines for a platform a particular company owns. Game consoles are way more restrictive than the iOS App Store and nobody is suing them.

millstone 9y ago

How do you feel about ChromeOS?

pjmlp 9y ago

I am so glad people can use another browser on ChromeOS, oh wait...

lern_too_spel 9y ago
The difference is that it was technically infeasible to run another browser on ChromeOS, not policy infeasible. The technical infeasibility was recently removed. https://www.google.com/amp/www.techrepublic.com/google-amp/article/4-alternatives-to-the-chrome-browser-on-chrome-os/ https://www.google.com/amp/www.techrepublic.com/google-amp/a...
- pjmlp 9y ago
  No difference at all, in regards to the end user experience, but Google tends to have a green card from HN crowd.
  - lern_too_spel 9y ago
    If I really wanted to, I could have built another browser using PNaCl and run it and distributed it on ChromeOS even before it supported Android apps where users trivially have access to other browsers. That remains impossible on iDevices to this day. If you can't see the difference, you are only deceiving yourself.