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Incidentally, many of these "features" came about from Google trying to create moats or cut out competitors. Further, Chrome is a dog on Apple Macs, cuts batter

Incidentally, many of these "features" came about from Google trying to create moats or cut out competitors. Further, Chrome is a dog on Apple Macs, cuts battery life to a fraction, plus brings a host of invasive and compromising behaviors. In general Google has made no attempt for their browser to be competitive on feature dimensions that matter to many Apple hardware buyers; their share remains driven by residual tech influencer group-think still left over from the IE wars more than the value of, say, WebM over x265. (See also Duck Trumotion and Widevine for more of Google's motivation.) The profitability motive is false, see Steam charging the same 30% despite e.g. Gog or Microsoft store. This is inconvenient for those making the argument Apple's fee is out of line. > Chrome's market share destroys every Webkit-based browser combined. Clearly they need more help with this. Glad EU is looking out for them.

smoldesu 4y ago
Sounds like it sucks, then. If things are as bad as you say, then we have nothing to worry about because everyone will want to use Apple's browser. I'll let all the Linux guys know, and I'm certain they'll switch to WebKit right away. > The profitability motive is false, see Steam charging the same 30% despite e.g. Gog or Microsoft store. No, it's pretty substantial. The App Store made 80 billion USD last year, which was one of their only businesses that approached hardware profitability. Ensuring that nobody can eschew Apple's software control is completely their directive. If Apple did become more like Steam (eg. had other software stores to compete with) things would be pretty fair I'd argue. > Clearly they need more help with this. Glad EU is looking out for them. Apparently Chrome is borderline-unusable on Apple products anyways, so Apple has nothing to worry about.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  Normal users install the browser Google advertises at them constantly on all Google's websites, then complain that Apple sucks because their laptop's battery went from a reliably 12 hours of life to 7 hours and also the fans kick on all the time now, but they have no idea why that's happening unless they happen to bring this up with some computer nerd in their life and the nerd explains what's going on.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    If normal users install everything that's advertised to them, then they shouldn't be trusted with a computer full-stop. Unfortunately, operating a computer needs to be a conscious decision.
    - yamtaddle 4y ago
      > If normal users install everything that's advertised to them They 100% do. It's why software installation is as annoying as it is now. Did you do any tech support (even the unofficial kind) around the turn of the millennium, when computer ownership topped 50% (in the US) and Internet use was beginning to become widespread? It was a hellscape of unwanted shitware that users couldn't figure out how to get rid of, and viruses. More recently, I've seen normies install Chrome then wonder where their (Firefox, which they had because I'd installed it) bookmarks went and not know how to get them back (they didn't care at all whether they were using FF or Chrome, but ended up with Chrome anyway because "google said they needed it" on one of those ubiquitous "hey, this site works better in Chrome" ads they put everywhere whether it's true or not) and I've seen one end up paying for OneDrive, and have it totally fuck up their workflows, despite not knowing what OneDrive even does. > then they shouldn't be trusted with a computer full-stop. That is no longer an option and there's no chance at all we're going back to a time when it was. I wish we would! But we're not.

smoldesu 4y ago

Sounds like it sucks, then. If things are as bad as you say, then we have nothing to worry about because everyone will want to use Apple's browser. I'll let all the Linux guys know, and I'm certain they'll switch to WebKit right away. > The profitability motive is false, see Steam charging the same 30% despite e.g. Gog or Microsoft store. No, it's pretty substantial. The App Store made 80 billion USD last year, which was one of their only businesses that approached hardware profitability. Ensuring that nobody can eschew Apple's software control is completely their directive. If Apple did become more like Steam (eg. had other software stores to compete with) things would be pretty fair I'd argue. > Clearly they need more help with this. Glad EU is looking out for them. Apparently Chrome is borderline-unusable on Apple products anyways, so Apple has nothing to worry about.

yamtaddle 4y ago
Normal users install the browser Google advertises at them constantly on all Google's websites, then complain that Apple sucks because their laptop's battery went from a reliably 12 hours of life to 7 hours and also the fans kick on all the time now, but they have no idea why that's happening unless they happen to bring this up with some computer nerd in their life and the nerd explains what's going on.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  If normal users install everything that's advertised to them, then they shouldn't be trusted with a computer full-stop. Unfortunately, operating a computer needs to be a conscious decision.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    > If normal users install everything that's advertised to them They 100% do. It's why software installation is as annoying as it is now. Did you do any tech support (even the unofficial kind) around the turn of the millennium, when computer ownership topped 50% (in the US) and Internet use was beginning to become widespread? It was a hellscape of unwanted shitware that users couldn't figure out how to get rid of, and viruses. More recently, I've seen normies install Chrome then wonder where their (Firefox, which they had because I'd installed it) bookmarks went and not know how to get them back (they didn't care at all whether they were using FF or Chrome, but ended up with Chrome anyway because "google said they needed it" on one of those ubiquitous "hey, this site works better in Chrome" ads they put everywhere whether it's true or not) and I've seen one end up paying for OneDrive, and have it totally fuck up their workflows, despite not knowing what OneDrive even does. > then they shouldn't be trusted with a computer full-stop. That is no longer an option and there's no chance at all we're going back to a time when it was. I wish we would! But we're not.