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Alex Russell used to work on Chrome, and would write threads on Twitter about why it was best for Chrome to dominate the browser market and claim that “engine m

by jolux 4y ago

Alex Russell used to work on Chrome, and would write threads on Twitter about why it was best for Chrome to dominate the browser market and claim that “engine monoculture” wasn’t a problem for the web. Make of that what you will.

benatkin 4y ago
It doesn't help that the competition doesn't seem to be challenging this, though. Mozilla gets a ton of money from Google. Also their CEO is a lawyer who appears to not be very interested in Web Browsers. I suppose similar could be said about other CEOs though. It seems to just be a stuffy business thing.
- goodSteveramos 4y ago
  When browser and OS development is libre volunteer and user-funded it will be pro-user. As long as it is funded by advertising and online services it will be pro-advertiser and pro-online service companies. Mozilla is funded by advertising.
  - benatkin 4y ago
    If Mozilla can't get into Mobile and Desktop PWAs maybe someone else in the Linux GUI space will. I sure hope so. I'm excited by https://qutebrowser.org/ https://qutebrowser.org/ It seems very user-driven but it's niche users which doesn't quite include me.
kevingadd 4y ago
Two different things can be bad at the same time. If Apple hates a browser monoculture so much, they should have let Mozilla release Firefox (actual firefox) on iOS. There were ports ready to go multiple times but they love their walled garden lockdown too much. It was to their favor back when WebKit dominated the mobile web, but oops, they didn't invest enough in the platform! FWIW I think if Safari had been released as a first-tier Windows browser, they might have been able to hold on and fight off Chrome together with Firefox. But they didn't put the effort in.
rvz 4y ago
> Alex Russell used to work on Chrome, and would write threads on Twitter about why it was best for Chrome to dominate the browser market... Perhaps he is right. Even with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), Chrome will just end up be the dominant browser on iOS. At this point Google should just spin out the Chromium engine as a separate non-profit organization and allowing others to freely make their own browsers based on a standard browser engine like Brave, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi etc to use it but done freely without Google's complete control, just like what the Linux Kernel has done with 'distros' with the kernel as the central standard for anyone to freely make their own Linux distro. Firefox has its chance to do that, but were too lazy and begged for Google's money and have done little to nothing to competing against Chrome's dominance and are just complaining when they are just not competitive enough whilst the market didn't care and moved on.
- jsnell 4y ago
  How is Google currently preventing others from "freely making their own browsers based on a standard browser engine"? In no way, as far as I can tell. They are paying for the vast majority of the browser engine development, and all the companies you list are free to then build high quality browsers with minimal cost and little in the way of engineering competence.
deleted 4y ago
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by jolux 4y ago

benatkin 4y ago

It doesn't help that the competition doesn't seem to be challenging this, though. Mozilla gets a ton of money from Google. Also their CEO is a lawyer who appears to not be very interested in Web Browsers. I suppose similar could be said about other CEOs though. It seems to just be a stuffy business thing.

goodSteveramos 4y ago
When browser and OS development is libre volunteer and user-funded it will be pro-user. As long as it is funded by advertising and online services it will be pro-advertiser and pro-online service companies. Mozilla is funded by advertising.
- benatkin 4y ago
  If Mozilla can't get into Mobile and Desktop PWAs maybe someone else in the Linux GUI space will. I sure hope so. I'm excited by https://qutebrowser.org/ https://qutebrowser.org/ It seems very user-driven but it's niche users which doesn't quite include me.

kevingadd 4y ago

Two different things can be bad at the same time. If Apple hates a browser monoculture so much, they should have let Mozilla release Firefox (actual firefox) on iOS. There were ports ready to go multiple times but they love their walled garden lockdown too much. It was to their favor back when WebKit dominated the mobile web, but oops, they didn't invest enough in the platform! FWIW I think if Safari had been released as a first-tier Windows browser, they might have been able to hold on and fight off Chrome together with Firefox. But they didn't put the effort in.

rvz 4y ago

> Alex Russell used to work on Chrome, and would write threads on Twitter about why it was best for Chrome to dominate the browser market... Perhaps he is right. Even with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), Chrome will just end up be the dominant browser on iOS. At this point Google should just spin out the Chromium engine as a separate non-profit organization and allowing others to freely make their own browsers based on a standard browser engine like Brave, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi etc to use it but done freely without Google's complete control, just like what the Linux Kernel has done with 'distros' with the kernel as the central standard for anyone to freely make their own Linux distro. Firefox has its chance to do that, but were too lazy and begged for Google's money and have done little to nothing to competing against Chrome's dominance and are just complaining when they are just not competitive enough whilst the market didn't care and moved on.

jsnell 4y ago
How is Google currently preventing others from "freely making their own browsers based on a standard browser engine"? In no way, as far as I can tell. They are paying for the vast majority of the browser engine development, and all the companies you list are free to then build high quality browsers with minimal cost and little in the way of engineering competence.

deleted 4y ago

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