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Webkit does still exist :) Also, Firefox being free software, we can expect forks to appear the very day Mozilla falls. I even wonder if having a swarm of smal

Webkit does still exist :) Also, Firefox being free software, we can expect forks to appear the very day Mozilla falls. I even wonder if having a swarm of small implementers wouldn't be better for the standards than having three big ones who discuss among themselves, then decide what the standards should be. Maybe browsers would stop getting more complicated than OSes and go back to essential, that way. I would really love seeing web engines getting simple again so that third party developers can contribute to them - and that's certainly a direction many small implementations would push toward. Of course, this is only speculation. At least, it's not guaranteed doom.

orra 6y ago
> we can expect forks to appear the very day Mozilla falls Eh, forks can legally appear, because it's free software. But maintaining them? Improving the product security, let alone adding new features? That's hella expensive. Hobbyists aren't going to write a competitive a web browser. So, it's important to have a strong Mozilla with a good revenue stream.
- oriesdan 6y ago
  Yep, that's in line with what I was saying, except for the conclusion. Yes, I don't see either small teams keeping up with the amount of features we currently have (and security is a direct factor of the amount of features), but I would rather see them scaling down browsers than making sure we can keep adding to them. Also, beware to not discard "hobbyists" too easily. Hobbyists did create GNU (and still are maintaining it) and early linux. And Blink comes from Webkit, which comes from khtml, made by hobbyists.
  - hvis 6y ago
    Hobbyists can't as participate in the web standards organizations, and lobby for the changes most beneficial to the user (and not big corp).
    - d3sandoval 6y ago
      That's not true! You can get involved as an individual contributor and become a part of the web standards community. There's even a contribution guide: https://wpc.guide/ https://wpc.guide/
      - hvis 6y ago
        How are you, as an individual, going to protest the inclusion of "next DRM" in the HTML6?
  - dblohm7 6y ago
    That might be how those projects started, but it’s sure as hell not how they’re run now. There’s no way they could revert to hobbyist projects and survive. Either they would die off or the money would fork them.

orra 6y ago

> we can expect forks to appear the very day Mozilla falls Eh, forks can legally appear, because it's free software. But maintaining them? Improving the product security, let alone adding new features? That's hella expensive. Hobbyists aren't going to write a competitive a web browser. So, it's important to have a strong Mozilla with a good revenue stream.

oriesdan 6y ago
Yep, that's in line with what I was saying, except for the conclusion. Yes, I don't see either small teams keeping up with the amount of features we currently have (and security is a direct factor of the amount of features), but I would rather see them scaling down browsers than making sure we can keep adding to them. Also, beware to not discard "hobbyists" too easily. Hobbyists did create GNU (and still are maintaining it) and early linux. And Blink comes from Webkit, which comes from khtml, made by hobbyists.
- hvis 6y ago
  Hobbyists can't as participate in the web standards organizations, and lobby for the changes most beneficial to the user (and not big corp).
  - d3sandoval 6y ago
    That's not true! You can get involved as an individual contributor and become a part of the web standards community. There's even a contribution guide: https://wpc.guide/ https://wpc.guide/
    - hvis 6y ago
      How are you, as an individual, going to protest the inclusion of "next DRM" in the HTML6?
- dblohm7 6y ago
  That might be how those projects started, but it’s sure as hell not how they’re run now. There’s no way they could revert to hobbyist projects and survive. Either they would die off or the money would fork them.