7 ms·

“This tool works best on Google Chrome and mobile.”

83 points by anonymfus 6y ago

easton 6y ago
That’s odd. Are there standards in iOS Safari that macOS Safari doesn’t support, or that Firefox doesn’t support? It seems that if you have iOS in your user base, you couldn’t do Chrome only stuff anyway.
- karatinversion 6y ago
  I read it as “We only test on Chrome and mobile”.
  - edoceo 6y ago
    I read: we don't test and our dev team only use Chrome
    - tomger 6y ago
      I read: this is a personal project of one of our devs who doesn’t use Firefox.
    - shadowgovt 6y ago
      Every team has a development environment. Some also have the luxury of a production environment that is separate from that environment.
  - AlchemistCamp 6y ago
    I read it as "We hate the open web".
- smnrchrds 6y ago
  For the longest time, government websites in Iran required using Internet Explorer to access. A few years ago, it started to change. Now most of them refuse to work with anything but Chrome. At least in this sense, Chrome is really the new IE. And no, it's not because there is a standard Firefox does not support. I have installed a user agent switcher add-on on Firefox and that has been sufficient to let me use them. Like back in the days of IE, web developers do not care about users of non-dominant browsers to bother testing on them, and prefer to block them from access instead of risking receiving the occasional bug report or complaint from someone on Firefox or Safari.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- klodolph 6y ago
  Nobody writes to the standard, because no browser is strict about only accepting standards-compliant code. Personal experience—there are a raft of minor differences between Chrome and Firefox, just to pick two. For example, they parse SVG paths differently. The exact behavior of <audio> tags when starting and stopping them used to be different (don’t know if it’s fixed). There are a bunch of other minor things. I have many times discovered that my app doesn’t work in Firefox if I’ve been developing in Chrome, or vice versa. If you write a lot of weird code, you can easily end up with broken features or a blank app and stack trace after switching browsers. Of course, 95% of the time it will work fine.
  - shadowgovt 6y ago
    And to turn the question on its head: if a team has finite resources and can only get their site matching intended behavior 100% in one browser, obviously the right choice is one with dominant market-share, not sub-10% market-share, if the goal is to maximize number of people who can see the site.
- Kiro 6y ago
  My app is unusable in Firefox due to this: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=925025 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=925025 On Safari I get extremely low FPS in general when drawing on layered canvases and sound is not working at all.
not2b 6y ago
I tried it on Firefox and Chrome, it appeared to look and work exactly the same with both browsers, at least for the limited use I made of it. I think karatinversion has it right, they just mean they didn't test other browsers.
- BHSPitMonkey 6y ago
  "Works best on Chrome" rolls off the tongue more easily than "I've only tested this in Chrome; It probably works fine in other browsers too, but your mileage may vary and I don't really have time to help you if it doesn't"!
_Microft 6y ago
Pah, amateurs! ;) It is known that you have to state the recommended screen resolution and the browser version number as well.
- function_seven 6y ago
  Also missing is a 90x30 pixel button I can click to get Chrome Now: https://userpages.monmouth.com/~mcha/now_anim_button.gif https://userpages.monmouth.com/~mcha/now_anim_button.gif
stakkur 6y ago
Chrome is the new Internet Explorer: companies and developers lazily optimize for it, and users (and developers) suffer the consequences.
- intrasight 6y ago
  Is always issue of "lazy". If you have limited resources, it makes sense to develop for only one platform.
  - unknown2374 6y ago
    The platform is the web, not the browsers themselves. The web is an open platform, while some browser push for proprietary features. This is not like Windows vs Linux where each of those OSes are separate platforms, and supporting both can be difficult.
    - mgkimsal 6y ago
      supporting multiple browsers can be difficult. if you push out some purist code that is "supposed" to work to some spec, but it doesn't work... you have to start making decisions about which path forward to take. outside pure code, you still have to deal with testing/verifying/confirming, then committing to that for each version of the browser on multiple platforms. Providing actual strong positive and ongoing support for your system on specific browsers and platforms is generally better than "well... we wrote to the published spec, the problem is every browser vendor sucks and they need to conform to my understanding of specs". That ain't gonna happen. To be clear, I don't think most companies actually put a lot of effort behind their 'support' of just one browser (years ago when it was IE, now when it's chrome).
    - shadowgovt 6y ago
      If the platform is the web, but a standards-compliant site can work in Chrome but not Firefox, the issue isn't standards compliance. And it's up to the individual site author whether retaining that last chunk of Firefox-only (or Edge-only, or Safari-only) users is worth the cash outlay to test on those platforms. I've done multi-browser development; it adds significant friction to the process, especially if one's testing infrastructure is rocky (and most are, and it costs resources to do better than rocky).
ezequiel-garzon 6y ago
Off topic, I'm surprised they can offer data analysis services as Mathematica without a challenge from Wolfram. I for one assumed a connection.
- my123 6y ago
  > Since 1968, Mathematica has been at the leading edge of using data to make a difference in people’s lives at https://www.mathematica.org/about-mathematica/overview/history/50th-anniversary https://www.mathematica.org/about-mathematica/overview/histo... Wolfram Research itself was created in 1987.
  - ezequiel-garzon 6y ago
    Thanks, I didn't see that. Now I wonder whether Wolfram had to ask for permission :)
rezeroed 6y ago
This user works best on Firefox. Your chrome software won't get used.
- intrasight 6y ago
  Works if you have options. Sometimes you don't.
- Kiro 6y ago
  There are real issues with Firefox that makes certain things unusable. My app is broken on Firefox due to this: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=925025 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=925025
  - Kiro 6y ago
    I really want my app to function in Firefox. I've done everything in my power to circumvent it but it's impossible before they fix it. What else can I do? Apparently it's not enough considering the downvotes.
    - xodice 6y ago
      I think because while not clean and not "properly fixed" a very simple workaround was provided? I don't know why else. You said your app was just slower under Firefox? So it at least "works", no?
- AlchemistCamp 6y ago
  As Taleb says, an intransigent minority is a powerful thing. https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15#.z5ry4bucq https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...
ZacharyPitts 6y ago
School kids learning remotely are being forced to use Chrome as well. This morning, my child had to switch from Safari to Chrome to use very commonly used site https://web.seesaw.me/ https://web.seesaw.me/
- tsherr 6y ago
  I'm concerned about this. Google is eating up the education market. Not sure if there are alternatives, but my local school board has gone Google for remote learning. So Google is now spying on children and knows how well they do in school.
superasn 6y ago
There are some legitimate reasons to do this btw. Webspeechapi being one of them. I've been waiting for so long for FF to support text-to-speech (it does but the quality of voices isn't comparable) and speech-to-text and mdn has some really great documentation about it too but maybe due to lack of GPU or training data they can't add that feature while even Edge has gotten that feature now.
new_here 6y ago
The Skype web app doesn't even let you use it with Firefox or Safari. https://imgur.com/a/cqb6Dpg https://imgur.com/a/cqb6Dpg https://imgur.com/a/9xSlKsk https://imgur.com/a/9xSlKsk
- aitchnyu 6y ago
  MS teams forced me to spoof Chromium as Chrome.

83 points by anonymfus 6y ago

That’s odd. Are there standards in iOS Safari that macOS Safari doesn’t support, or that Firefox doesn’t support? It seems that if you have iOS in your user base, you couldn’t do Chrome only stuff anyway.

karatinversion 6y ago
I read it as “We only test on Chrome and mobile”.
- edoceo 6y ago
  I read: we don't test and our dev team only use Chrome
  - tomger 6y ago
    I read: this is a personal project of one of our devs who doesn’t use Firefox.
  - shadowgovt 6y ago
    Every team has a development environment. Some also have the luxury of a production environment that is separate from that environment.
- AlchemistCamp 6y ago
  I read it as "We hate the open web".
smnrchrds 6y ago
For the longest time, government websites in Iran required using Internet Explorer to access. A few years ago, it started to change. Now most of them refuse to work with anything but Chrome. At least in this sense, Chrome is really the new IE. And no, it's not because there is a standard Firefox does not support. I have installed a user agent switcher add-on on Firefox and that has been sufficient to let me use them. Like back in the days of IE, web developers do not care about users of non-dominant browsers to bother testing on them, and prefer to block them from access instead of risking receiving the occasional bug report or complaint from someone on Firefox or Safari.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
klodolph 6y ago
Nobody writes to the standard, because no browser is strict about only accepting standards-compliant code. Personal experience—there are a raft of minor differences between Chrome and Firefox, just to pick two. For example, they parse SVG paths differently. The exact behavior of <audio> tags when starting and stopping them used to be different (don’t know if it’s fixed). There are a bunch of other minor things. I have many times discovered that my app doesn’t work in Firefox if I’ve been developing in Chrome, or vice versa. If you write a lot of weird code, you can easily end up with broken features or a blank app and stack trace after switching browsers. Of course, 95% of the time it will work fine.
- shadowgovt 6y ago
  And to turn the question on its head: if a team has finite resources and can only get their site matching intended behavior 100% in one browser, obviously the right choice is one with dominant market-share, not sub-10% market-share, if the goal is to maximize number of people who can see the site.
Kiro 6y ago
My app is unusable in Firefox due to this: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=925025 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=925025 On Safari I get extremely low FPS in general when drawing on layered canvases and sound is not working at all.

not2b 6y ago

I tried it on Firefox and Chrome, it appeared to look and work exactly the same with both browsers, at least for the limited use I made of it. I think karatinversion has it right, they just mean they didn't test other browsers.

BHSPitMonkey 6y ago
"Works best on Chrome" rolls off the tongue more easily than "I've only tested this in Chrome; It probably works fine in other browsers too, but your mileage may vary and I don't really have time to help you if it doesn't"!

_Microft 6y ago

Pah, amateurs! ;) It is known that you have to state the recommended screen resolution and the browser version number as well.

function_seven 6y ago
Also missing is a 90x30 pixel button I can click to get Chrome Now: https://userpages.monmouth.com/~mcha/now_anim_button.gif https://userpages.monmouth.com/~mcha/now_anim_button.gif

stakkur 6y ago

Chrome is the new Internet Explorer: companies and developers lazily optimize for it, and users (and developers) suffer the consequences.

intrasight 6y ago
Is always issue of "lazy". If you have limited resources, it makes sense to develop for only one platform.
- unknown2374 6y ago
  The platform is the web, not the browsers themselves. The web is an open platform, while some browser push for proprietary features. This is not like Windows vs Linux where each of those OSes are separate platforms, and supporting both can be difficult.
  - mgkimsal 6y ago
    supporting multiple browsers can be difficult. if you push out some purist code that is "supposed" to work to some spec, but it doesn't work... you have to start making decisions about which path forward to take. outside pure code, you still have to deal with testing/verifying/confirming, then committing to that for each version of the browser on multiple platforms. Providing actual strong positive and ongoing support for your system on specific browsers and platforms is generally better than "well... we wrote to the published spec, the problem is every browser vendor sucks and they need to conform to my understanding of specs". That ain't gonna happen. To be clear, I don't think most companies actually put a lot of effort behind their 'support' of just one browser (years ago when it was IE, now when it's chrome).
  - shadowgovt 6y ago
    If the platform is the web, but a standards-compliant site can work in Chrome but not Firefox, the issue isn't standards compliance. And it's up to the individual site author whether retaining that last chunk of Firefox-only (or Edge-only, or Safari-only) users is worth the cash outlay to test on those platforms. I've done multi-browser development; it adds significant friction to the process, especially if one's testing infrastructure is rocky (and most are, and it costs resources to do better than rocky).

ezequiel-garzon 6y ago

Off topic, I'm surprised they can offer data analysis services as Mathematica without a challenge from Wolfram. I for one assumed a connection.

my123 6y ago
> Since 1968, Mathematica has been at the leading edge of using data to make a difference in people’s lives at https://www.mathematica.org/about-mathematica/overview/history/50th-anniversary https://www.mathematica.org/about-mathematica/overview/histo... Wolfram Research itself was created in 1987.
- ezequiel-garzon 6y ago
  Thanks, I didn't see that. Now I wonder whether Wolfram had to ask for permission :)

rezeroed 6y ago

This user works best on Firefox. Your chrome software won't get used.

intrasight 6y ago
Works if you have options. Sometimes you don't.
Kiro 6y ago
There are real issues with Firefox that makes certain things unusable. My app is broken on Firefox due to this: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=925025 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=925025
- Kiro 6y ago
  I really want my app to function in Firefox. I've done everything in my power to circumvent it but it's impossible before they fix it. What else can I do? Apparently it's not enough considering the downvotes.
  - xodice 6y ago
    I think because while not clean and not "properly fixed" a very simple workaround was provided? I don't know why else. You said your app was just slower under Firefox? So it at least "works", no?
AlchemistCamp 6y ago
As Taleb says, an intransigent minority is a powerful thing. https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15#.z5ry4bucq https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...

ZacharyPitts 6y ago

School kids learning remotely are being forced to use Chrome as well. This morning, my child had to switch from Safari to Chrome to use very commonly used site https://web.seesaw.me/ https://web.seesaw.me/

tsherr 6y ago
I'm concerned about this. Google is eating up the education market. Not sure if there are alternatives, but my local school board has gone Google for remote learning. So Google is now spying on children and knows how well they do in school.

superasn 6y ago

There are some legitimate reasons to do this btw. Webspeechapi being one of them. I've been waiting for so long for FF to support text-to-speech (it does but the quality of voices isn't comparable) and speech-to-text and mdn has some really great documentation about it too but maybe due to lack of GPU or training data they can't add that feature while even Edge has gotten that feature now.

new_here 6y ago

The Skype web app doesn't even let you use it with Firefox or Safari. https://imgur.com/a/cqb6Dpg https://imgur.com/a/cqb6Dpg https://imgur.com/a/9xSlKsk https://imgur.com/a/9xSlKsk

aitchnyu 6y ago
MS teams forced me to spoof Chromium as Chrome.