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We're closer than we have been in a long time to something like Google deciding to license Blink or Chromium. There are some good reasons that couldn't happen (

We're closer than we have been in a long time to something like Google deciding to license Blink or Chromium. There are some good reasons that couldn't happen (yet), but what a world that would be.

sebmellen 6y ago
I can't picture this happening due to the sheer size of the Electron ecosystem. Do you think there's any precedent for this?
- social_quotient 6y ago
  John Deere saying you can’t work on your own tractor? 50 years ago this would have been an insane proposition. I know it’s not the same but something feels similar to me.
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  Is there any reason Electron couldn’t switch to, say, Firefox?
  - sebmellen 6y ago
    Electron is really 100% Chromium. I can't see them switching from it (though it would be nice to have a Firefox-base version).
    - jw14 6y ago
      A Firefox based Electron was tried: Positron. It was scrapped for some reason or other (lack of traction?): https://github.com/mozilla/positron https://github.com/mozilla/positron
chrisco255 6y ago
They can't retract the open source license that already exists for Chromium. Maybe Google could start adding proprietary features to Chrome and close-source those bits, but the code that's out there is already out there.
- mkr-hn 6y ago
  This is basically what happened to Android as they moved an increasing number of essential features to Play Services.
  - nmfisher 6y ago
    To be fair, these are mostly integrations with other Google services. I wouldn't expect this to be an OS-level package.
    - zmmmmm 6y ago
      Ironically, this is an example of where it is crucially important Oracle-Google case swings Google's way. Currently, there are alternative implementations of Play Services that can be installed to replace Google's. However, if it is not fair use to use even the bare bones of an API definition without permission, then we can't even create a compatible implementation of such an API without the copyright holder's permission. In which case, we cannot replace Google Play services with anything else.
- ROARosen 6y ago
  Actually, Google already has closed source features in Chrome that are totally not related to Google accounts and/or sync. Take for example Android app support in ChromeOS. It is closed source even though both Chromium and Android are open-source.
dontblink 6y ago
Why would that matter to anyone but Microsoft? AFAIK Firefox still exists as does KHTML.
- mmsmatt 6y ago
  Firefox is down for the count with the recent layoffs. It’s Google’s web to lose in the near future. Some days it really feels like there is nothing new under the sun.

We're closer than we have been in a long time to something like Google deciding to license Blink or Chromium. There are some good reasons that couldn't happen (yet), but what a world that would be.

sebmellen 6y ago

I can't picture this happening due to the sheer size of the Electron ecosystem. Do you think there's any precedent for this?

social_quotient 6y ago
John Deere saying you can’t work on your own tractor? 50 years ago this would have been an insane proposition. I know it’s not the same but something feels similar to me.
colejohnson66 6y ago
Is there any reason Electron couldn’t switch to, say, Firefox?
- sebmellen 6y ago
  Electron is really 100% Chromium. I can't see them switching from it (though it would be nice to have a Firefox-base version).
  - jw14 6y ago
    A Firefox based Electron was tried: Positron. It was scrapped for some reason or other (lack of traction?): https://github.com/mozilla/positron https://github.com/mozilla/positron

chrisco255 6y ago

They can't retract the open source license that already exists for Chromium. Maybe Google could start adding proprietary features to Chrome and close-source those bits, but the code that's out there is already out there.

mkr-hn 6y ago
This is basically what happened to Android as they moved an increasing number of essential features to Play Services.
- nmfisher 6y ago
  To be fair, these are mostly integrations with other Google services. I wouldn't expect this to be an OS-level package.
  - zmmmmm 6y ago
    Ironically, this is an example of where it is crucially important Oracle-Google case swings Google's way. Currently, there are alternative implementations of Play Services that can be installed to replace Google's. However, if it is not fair use to use even the bare bones of an API definition without permission, then we can't even create a compatible implementation of such an API without the copyright holder's permission. In which case, we cannot replace Google Play services with anything else.
ROARosen 6y ago
Actually, Google already has closed source features in Chrome that are totally not related to Google accounts and/or sync. Take for example Android app support in ChromeOS. It is closed source even though both Chromium and Android are open-source.

dontblink 6y ago

Why would that matter to anyone but Microsoft? AFAIK Firefox still exists as does KHTML.

mmsmatt 6y ago
Firefox is down for the count with the recent layoffs. It’s Google’s web to lose in the near future. Some days it really feels like there is nothing new under the sun.