2 ms·

And this is (one of the reasons) why it's wildly important that we have a diverse browser ecosystem rather than all building minor forks of Chromium. And this

And this is (one of the reasons) why it's wildly important that we have a diverse browser ecosystem rather than all building minor forks of Chromium. And this is also why (disingenuous as they often are), some of the "web is too complicated" arguments can't be completely dismissed, because it is true that building a secure browser that's safe to use is a gargantuan task. And this is also why it stinks that the Servo team got gutted, because Servo was shaping up to be an interesting new low-level embedded engine in that space. Both sides are true. I understand completely why Mozilla went the route they did, and I agree with their decision to do so, and I also sympathize completely with the people who want to be able to live-hack on their browser in their browser. I want the ability to do that too. But I think the only way to solve that is to have more browser diversity... somehow. I also don't want Firefox to be unusable for nontechnical users. I need a secure, reasonably private browser that's not based on Chrome that I can recommend to nontechnical friends and family.

ChrisSD 6y ago
Trouble is not only the complexity of a web browser (and security thereof) but that Google's "living standard" is a constantly shifting target. Even a company like Microsoft couldn't keep up with it and gave up. So long as Google is in charge and has infinite* resources to throw at it, nobody else is ever going to be able to keep pace. Apple works around that by not really trying to keep up. It implements features in its own time (or else some third party contributes code to WebKit). But iOS gives Apple a captive audience which means it has much more freedom to be "slow" compared to Google. As much as I might philosophically dislike their policy of only allowing their own web engine on iOS, it is the only thing keeping WebKit alive as a major alternative.
- Santosh83 6y ago
  Apple and Microsoft both have resources to dedicate as much man/machine-power as Google does for their browsers if they wanted to. They just don't want to play the neck-and-neck game any more. MS has opted to simply use Chromium while Apple as you say goes at its own pace. But they do have the capacity to match Google if they choose to, given some ramp-up time.
GoblinSlayer 6y ago
>I also don't want Firefox to be unusable for nontechnical users. I need a secure, reasonably private browser that's not based on Chrome that I can recommend to nontechnical friends and family. My sister uses Firefox just fine, she doesn't know how to mess with addons.

ChrisSD 6y ago

Trouble is not only the complexity of a web browser (and security thereof) but that Google's "living standard" is a constantly shifting target. Even a company like Microsoft couldn't keep up with it and gave up. So long as Google is in charge and has infinite* resources to throw at it, nobody else is ever going to be able to keep pace. Apple works around that by not really trying to keep up. It implements features in its own time (or else some third party contributes code to WebKit). But iOS gives Apple a captive audience which means it has much more freedom to be "slow" compared to Google. As much as I might philosophically dislike their policy of only allowing their own web engine on iOS, it is the only thing keeping WebKit alive as a major alternative.

Santosh83 6y ago
Apple and Microsoft both have resources to dedicate as much man/machine-power as Google does for their browsers if they wanted to. They just don't want to play the neck-and-neck game any more. MS has opted to simply use Chromium while Apple as you say goes at its own pace. But they do have the capacity to match Google if they choose to, given some ramp-up time.

GoblinSlayer 6y ago

>I also don't want Firefox to be unusable for nontechnical users. I need a secure, reasonably private browser that's not based on Chrome that I can recommend to nontechnical friends and family. My sister uses Firefox just fine, she doesn't know how to mess with addons.