4 ms·

I understand not supporting other browsers, but why would you actively block them?

gukov 2y ago
Apple doesn’t want to be associated with something that looks broken. Having said that, what other beta products Apple had released in the past? I don’t recall too many.
- echoangle 2y ago
  There’s a iOS and macOS beta every year, if you count that.
- willseth 2y ago
  The original Apple Maps app!
- mattl 2y ago
  I think they had a beta for Apple Music on the web too.
  - danudey 2y ago
    Yep: https://beta.music.apple.com/ https://beta.music.apple.com/ At least that one works in Firefox though.
crazygringo 2y ago
Because they're probably not undergoing a formal QA process yet and Apple doesn't want to deal with bug reports and bad press about how its beta is janky/buggy/sucky in other browsers. This is pretty standard stuff for webapps doing a phased rollout of browsers -- it's not anything unique to Apple. Just because people in this thread have found workarounds to get it to launch in Firefox doesn't mean there aren't still a bunch of bugs there, that Apple is aware of but doesn't want marring the user experience yet.
DaiPlusPlus 2y ago
> but why would you actively block them? From first-hand experience, I've seen it happen in SaaS orgs with (diplomatically speaking) "unsophisticated-but-confident" userbases seeking to reduce support-costs. The kind of SaaS where the paying customer is a business - and where the users' eyes glaze-over any warning banner or message but eagerly call the SaaS support number for entirely unrelated issues with Outlook; so outright blocking unsupported browsers/clients reduces the support burden. (I'm not defending this practice; I'm strongly opposed to it) ---- Another (also, unfortunately, from first-hand experience) reason is a (very) non-technical project leader will write up a (semi-reasonable) brief Jira ticket like "Our SaaS product doesn't work in Firefox; until we invest in supporting Firefox we'll just direct users to use a supported browser" - but the ticket gets assigned to a particular kind of remote contractor SWE who never challenges higher-ups or says "this is a bad idea" - who'll interpret the part about "we'll direct users to use a supported browser" as "block unsupported browsers".

Apple doesn’t want to be associated with something that looks broken. Having said that, what other beta products Apple had released in the past? I don’t recall too many.

echoangle 2y ago
There’s a iOS and macOS beta every year, if you count that.
willseth 2y ago
The original Apple Maps app!
mattl 2y ago
I think they had a beta for Apple Music on the web too.
- danudey 2y ago
  Yep: https://beta.music.apple.com/ https://beta.music.apple.com/ At least that one works in Firefox though.

crazygringo 2y ago

Because they're probably not undergoing a formal QA process yet and Apple doesn't want to deal with bug reports and bad press about how its beta is janky/buggy/sucky in other browsers. This is pretty standard stuff for webapps doing a phased rollout of browsers -- it's not anything unique to Apple. Just because people in this thread have found workarounds to get it to launch in Firefox doesn't mean there aren't still a bunch of bugs there, that Apple is aware of but doesn't want marring the user experience yet.

DaiPlusPlus 2y ago

> but why would you actively block them? From first-hand experience, I've seen it happen in SaaS orgs with (diplomatically speaking) "unsophisticated-but-confident" userbases seeking to reduce support-costs. The kind of SaaS where the paying customer is a business - and where the users' eyes glaze-over any warning banner or message but eagerly call the SaaS support number for entirely unrelated issues with Outlook; so outright blocking unsupported browsers/clients reduces the support burden. (I'm not defending this practice; I'm strongly opposed to it) ---- Another (also, unfortunately, from first-hand experience) reason is a (very) non-technical project leader will write up a (semi-reasonable) brief Jira ticket like "Our SaaS product doesn't work in Firefox; until we invest in supporting Firefox we'll just direct users to use a supported browser" - but the ticket gets assigned to a particular kind of remote contractor SWE who never challenges higher-ups or says "this is a bad idea" - who'll interpret the part about "we'll direct users to use a supported browser" as "block unsupported browsers".