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I fear this scenario in a few years: 1- non hacker users too starting to realize corporate friendly browsers like Chrome and many derivatives can't be used any
by squarefoot 3y ago
I fear this scenario in a few years:
1- non hacker users too starting to realize corporate friendly browsers like Chrome and many derivatives can't be used anymore for painless surfing, then flocking to Firefox.
2- corporations and advertising companies pushing for a new closed HTTP standard that requires their browser, or an old browser using a closed extension that doesn't allow adblockers when using a given service or page.
Open browsers work because they still connect to open web servers, and the industry already ruined the mobile environment by forcing users to run apps instead of navigating web pages (that is, installing a hundred application for a hundred services instead of just one that speaks a standard protocol); I have no doubt they'll attempt the same in the desktop world too. We have to fight to keep protocols open.
- Accujack 3y agoI'll take option 3: a new browser using better technology (better design, protocols, etc) than chrome gets written by hundreds of open source advocates working together. The new browser becomes the standard for the Internet because it is not under the control of corporate interests and because of its superiority to decade old browsers. Corporations and services are once again forced to standardize on open standards for web access or lose customers because the public (and techies specifically) will not support a proprietary software model for the public internet. It's a cycle - corporations become big and successful, try to establish proprietary control, then lose massive market share to newly created competitors. Once successful corporations get large, they tend to forget that eventually the frog getting boiled does jump out of the pot, and is usually angry when that happens.