3 ms·

I really love my iPad, but I wish Apple would let Firefox into the garden. Apple is getting away with it because Safari is a webkit browser and is staying "on t

I really love my iPad, but I wish Apple would let Firefox into the garden. Apple is getting away with it because Safari is a webkit browser and is staying "on the edge", but there is no difference between what Microsoft is doing here and what Apple is doing. For consumers, competition is very rarely a bad thing, and in this case, I can't imagine a case where it could be considered bad for users.

recoiledsnake 15y ago
>there is no difference between what Microsoft is doing here and what Apple is doing. There is a difference and the difference is that Windows RT will allow Firefox and Chrome and other browsers to run in Metro mode, just not in the desktop. Edit: I was wrong.
- contextfree 15y ago
  However, the restrictions on the sandbox for Metro style apps mean that alternate browsers would either have to be skins around the IE engine, or be very slow (because it's not possible to run dynamically compiled aka JITted code). That is why there is a special exemption for "Metro style enabled desktop browsers" (which appear to the user as Metro style apps but have all the capabilities of desktop apps) on Windows 8 (x86), which is what Metro style Firefox will use.
  - recoiledsnake 15y ago
    Interesting, I stand corrected in that case. I assumed that the x86 Metro app would work on the ARM version as well.
- wvenable 15y ago
  Microsoft isn't letting any non-MS applications run on the ARM desktop. The ARM classic desktop essentially just exists to run Office. It's quite likely that if they ever get around to building a Metro version of Office, the classic desktop will disappear from ARM entirely.
  - yuhong 15y ago
    Yea, it has been interesting to me too that MS isn't treating this port similarly to Windows NT for Alpha.
fpgeek 15y ago
Apple isn't entirely staying "on the edge" with mobile browsers, nor do I expect them to because of their interest in native apps and lock-in. They're already only the 3rd best mobile browser for HTML5 compliance (beaten by Firefox and Opera) and they'd be sixth (behind Chrome, Blackberry and Tizen) if you include development browsers as well. That's a pretty big step back from the iPhone's launch or even the recent past.

recoiledsnake 15y ago

>there is no difference between what Microsoft is doing here and what Apple is doing. There is a difference and the difference is that Windows RT will allow Firefox and Chrome and other browsers to run in Metro mode, just not in the desktop. Edit: I was wrong.

contextfree 15y ago
However, the restrictions on the sandbox for Metro style apps mean that alternate browsers would either have to be skins around the IE engine, or be very slow (because it's not possible to run dynamically compiled aka JITted code). That is why there is a special exemption for "Metro style enabled desktop browsers" (which appear to the user as Metro style apps but have all the capabilities of desktop apps) on Windows 8 (x86), which is what Metro style Firefox will use.
- recoiledsnake 15y ago
  Interesting, I stand corrected in that case. I assumed that the x86 Metro app would work on the ARM version as well.
wvenable 15y ago
Microsoft isn't letting any non-MS applications run on the ARM desktop. The ARM classic desktop essentially just exists to run Office. It's quite likely that if they ever get around to building a Metro version of Office, the classic desktop will disappear from ARM entirely.
- yuhong 15y ago
  Yea, it has been interesting to me too that MS isn't treating this port similarly to Windows NT for Alpha.

fpgeek 15y ago

Apple isn't entirely staying "on the edge" with mobile browsers, nor do I expect them to because of their interest in native apps and lock-in. They're already only the 3rd best mobile browser for HTML5 compliance (beaten by Firefox and Opera) and they'd be sixth (behind Chrome, Blackberry and Tizen) if you include development browsers as well. That's a pretty big step back from the iPhone's launch or even the recent past.