5 ms·

This doesn’t bode well for Brave’s self professed mission [0]. Maintaining a Chrome fork is already difficult enough on its own, especially with the number of

This doesn’t bode well for Brave’s self professed mission [0]. Maintaining a Chrome fork is already difficult enough on its own, especially with the number of directions where Brave wants to diverge. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36893654 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36893654

icegreentea2 3y ago
No, it doesn't bode well =(. To be honest, I wonder if the webbrowser 'market' has been fundamentally broken ever since the Netscape days. Effectively ever since IE broke Netscape's back, every single major web browser has been funded either off the back of other business units (IE, Chrome, Safari), or funded by search engine deals. No customer has actually had to really contemplate 'what is the value of a browser' in like 25 years. No one actually has a sense of how valuable a browser actually is (except through the perverse metric of how many ads can you serve to the user via default search...). I think it's telling that all of Brave's new revenue streams aren't actually -from- their self-professed mission.
- atdrummond 3y ago
  Opera did have a business model that worked monetizing the browser itself through sales - until smartphones fully supplanted feature phones.
  - Timon3 3y ago
    That's not quite the full story. Since 2000 Opera showed ads if you didn't pay for it, and they removed those in 2005, a good bit before smartphones really started. In a way they were ahead of the curve, considering how popular ad-based models with optional removal purchases are these days.
    - inemesitaffia 3y ago
      The ads were still there as of last year in mini.
- agumonkey 3y ago
  Interesting, it would be fun to give an estimate based on firefox browser team size and other contributors
GnarfGnarf 3y ago
I wish Brave/YouTube weren't such a dismal experience on Chromebook. You can't click on the red bar to jump ahead. You can't pause/restart by pressing the space bar. The navigation is awkward and crippled. Same for Firefox. I guess they're all using the same engine. The only decent browser is Chrome, and the ad blockers don't work anymore.
- paulryanrogers 3y ago
  Does Chrome OS allow 3P browsers now? I thought the point was it was all just Chrome? (Unless one bypasses the default restrictions.)
  - vorticalbox 3y ago
    On later chromebooks you can run Linux apps and android apps. If you need to test in a lot of browsers it's not a terrible idea as you can run both desktop and module browsers.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    ChromeOS lets you run Android apps which integrate nicely enough (eg opening links in the app), and also there's the virtual Debian (by default) part that doesn't integrate as well but is more flexible. So yes, you can run other browsers although last I checked it was a little bumpy.
    - izacus 3y ago
      Last I checked Brave had no support for large screens (tablets, foldables, chromebooks) on Android at all - it was horrible from usability perspective.
tomjen3 3y ago
If it doesn't, whats the best suggestion for another browser that is based on Webkit and which takes privacy seriously?
- alisonatwork 3y ago
  Cromite: https://github.com/uazo/cromite https://github.com/uazo/cromite

icegreentea2 3y ago

No, it doesn't bode well =(. To be honest, I wonder if the webbrowser 'market' has been fundamentally broken ever since the Netscape days. Effectively ever since IE broke Netscape's back, every single major web browser has been funded either off the back of other business units (IE, Chrome, Safari), or funded by search engine deals. No customer has actually had to really contemplate 'what is the value of a browser' in like 25 years. No one actually has a sense of how valuable a browser actually is (except through the perverse metric of how many ads can you serve to the user via default search...). I think it's telling that all of Brave's new revenue streams aren't actually -from- their self-professed mission.

atdrummond 3y ago
Opera did have a business model that worked monetizing the browser itself through sales - until smartphones fully supplanted feature phones.
- Timon3 3y ago
  That's not quite the full story. Since 2000 Opera showed ads if you didn't pay for it, and they removed those in 2005, a good bit before smartphones really started. In a way they were ahead of the curve, considering how popular ad-based models with optional removal purchases are these days.
  - inemesitaffia 3y ago
    The ads were still there as of last year in mini.
agumonkey 3y ago
Interesting, it would be fun to give an estimate based on firefox browser team size and other contributors

GnarfGnarf 3y ago

I wish Brave/YouTube weren't such a dismal experience on Chromebook. You can't click on the red bar to jump ahead. You can't pause/restart by pressing the space bar. The navigation is awkward and crippled. Same for Firefox. I guess they're all using the same engine. The only decent browser is Chrome, and the ad blockers don't work anymore.

paulryanrogers 3y ago
Does Chrome OS allow 3P browsers now? I thought the point was it was all just Chrome? (Unless one bypasses the default restrictions.)
- vorticalbox 3y ago
  On later chromebooks you can run Linux apps and android apps. If you need to test in a lot of browsers it's not a terrible idea as you can run both desktop and module browsers.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  ChromeOS lets you run Android apps which integrate nicely enough (eg opening links in the app), and also there's the virtual Debian (by default) part that doesn't integrate as well but is more flexible. So yes, you can run other browsers although last I checked it was a little bumpy.
  - izacus 3y ago
    Last I checked Brave had no support for large screens (tablets, foldables, chromebooks) on Android at all - it was horrible from usability perspective.

tomjen3 3y ago

If it doesn't, whats the best suggestion for another browser that is based on Webkit and which takes privacy seriously?

alisonatwork 3y ago
Cromite: https://github.com/uazo/cromite https://github.com/uazo/cromite