4 ms·

iOS 14 does not let you use a different default browser engine. It's just the skin that change. It's still Webkit under the hood

by homarp 6y ago

slipheen 6y ago
As much as you and I may care about that, for many (most?) people the browser chrome is the most important part. Syncing bookmarks, UI, tab handling etc tend to be bigger pain points for individuals, as opposed to the more dev-focused aspects such as supporting a certain API in Javascript.
- izacus 6y ago
  > As much as you and I may care about that, for many (most?) people the browser chrome is the most important part. Except that for many/most people it's equally important to have a market choice which drives product improvements by competition. Not being able to choose a fully opensource browser engine (not even Firefox!) on iOS is a severe blow to opensource as a whole and browser engine competition in general. It's way worse than it ever was in times of IE6 - you never needed Microsoft's private signing keys to switch to Firefox or Chrome.
- bad_user 6y ago
  If you're technologically illiterate, this might be true. Witness however Firefox for Android (vs iOS), the most important differences for me being: - Extensions support, so uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, the best ad-blocking combination that far surpasses Safari's content blockers, which are pretty shitty; and extensions are useful for more than ad-blocking — e.g. I have another one on my tablet that turns all web pages to dark mode, whether they support it or not - Web push notifications - (Up until very recently) webp format support On Android I wouldn't even install many apps, like Facebook, or Twitter, or Fastmail, I'd simply use them as PWAs (web apps), in Firefox with ads blocking on, because I could. I still use Firefox on iOS for the history / bookmarks syncing, but it's a shadow of actual Firefox.
californical 6y ago
Yeah it's not ideal, but it lets me sync with Firefox at least. I really only ever use my phone browser for a few things, anyways. Neither situation is perfect, but the browser's rendering engine is surpassed by other priorities when choosing a phone. I do look forward to the day I can use something like Pine as a daily phone though
bad_user 6y ago
This is true and regrettable, but that skin is still important. I get to use Firefox, it comes with nice tracker blocking out of the box, it keeps my history in sync with my other devices and I find the UI to be a little nicer (personal taste). Of course I'd like the Firefox that's available on Android, with extensions capabilities and web push support. But having the ability to open links from Mail in iOS Firefox would still be nice and I can't wait for it.

iOS 14 does not let you use a different default browser engine. It's just the skin that change. It's still Webkit under the hood

by homarp 6y ago

iOS 14 does not let you use a different default browser engine. It's just the skin that change. It's still Webkit under the hood

slipheen 6y ago

As much as you and I may care about that, for many (most?) people the browser chrome is the most important part. Syncing bookmarks, UI, tab handling etc tend to be bigger pain points for individuals, as opposed to the more dev-focused aspects such as supporting a certain API in Javascript.

izacus 6y ago
> As much as you and I may care about that, for many (most?) people the browser chrome is the most important part. Except that for many/most people it's equally important to have a market choice which drives product improvements by competition. Not being able to choose a fully opensource browser engine (not even Firefox!) on iOS is a severe blow to opensource as a whole and browser engine competition in general. It's way worse than it ever was in times of IE6 - you never needed Microsoft's private signing keys to switch to Firefox or Chrome.
bad_user 6y ago
If you're technologically illiterate, this might be true. Witness however Firefox for Android (vs iOS), the most important differences for me being: - Extensions support, so uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, the best ad-blocking combination that far surpasses Safari's content blockers, which are pretty shitty; and extensions are useful for more than ad-blocking — e.g. I have another one on my tablet that turns all web pages to dark mode, whether they support it or not - Web push notifications - (Up until very recently) webp format support On Android I wouldn't even install many apps, like Facebook, or Twitter, or Fastmail, I'd simply use them as PWAs (web apps), in Firefox with ads blocking on, because I could. I still use Firefox on iOS for the history / bookmarks syncing, but it's a shadow of actual Firefox.

californical 6y ago

Yeah it's not ideal, but it lets me sync with Firefox at least. I really only ever use my phone browser for a few things, anyways. Neither situation is perfect, but the browser's rendering engine is surpassed by other priorities when choosing a phone. I do look forward to the day I can use something like Pine as a daily phone though

bad_user 6y ago

This is true and regrettable, but that skin is still important. I get to use Firefox, it comes with nice tracker blocking out of the box, it keeps my history in sync with my other devices and I find the UI to be a little nicer (personal taste). Of course I'd like the Firefox that's available on Android, with extensions capabilities and web push support. But having the ability to open links from Mail in iOS Firefox would still be nice and I can't wait for it.