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I still strongly believe Servo can be a real counterpoint to Chrome/Chromium's hegemony in the long haul. Not sure why Mozilla ditched it nor why The Linux Foun

I still strongly believe Servo can be a real counterpoint to Chrome/Chromium's hegemony in the long haul. Not sure why Mozilla ditched it nor why The Linux Foundation gives little to no support at all to it.

johnisgood 1y ago
Because Mozilla benefits from Google's donations (the majority comes from Google), and being a counterpoint to Google's Chrome is bad for Google, which means less or no donations to Mozilla. Google holds the key here. They have leverage over Mozilla.
- fhd2 1y ago
  They don't get donations from Google, but get paid to include Google as the default search engine, right? No important difference though. Mozilla tried to switch to Yahoo a few years back and backpedaled. In terms of what users expect, they don't have a lot of options. Google OTOH could do without the users Firefox has left. And I've personally observed Google strong arm "partners". Not sure I see a conspiracy here, but I'm pretty sure that if Google asks for concessions, Mozilla will see what they can do.
  - johnisgood 1y ago
    You are right, it is not a "donation", more like a business arrangement or something. I am not sure it is limited to "be the default search engine" though.
    - LtdJorge 1y ago
      It is
f311a 1y ago
WebKit is a nice competitor, too. Look at Orion browser, it's a pretty decent competitor. Although they only target macOS, WebKit can be used on Windows and Linux, too.
- bobajeff 1y ago
  Webkit on Linux is in terrible shape. Maybe in theory it could be a complete and useable engine but there clearly isn't enough interest to make it that way.
- johnisgood 1y ago
  Orion does not target macOS only, well primarily yes, for now, but check out this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44708445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44708445. Someone said "It’s coming on Linux (scheduled for March 2026). See https://kagi.com/changelog#6479 https://kagi.com/changelog#6479".
ac29 1y ago
> nor why The Linux Foundation gives little to no support at all to it The Linux Foundation is mostly a dumping ground for dead and dying projects. Particularly they seem to specialize in abandoned commercial open source projects. I dont think the Foundation provides much, if any, developer funding for these projects. They list $193M in "project support" expenses but host over 1000 projects.
- bitwize 1y ago
  I thought that was the Apache Foundation?
  - k__ 1y ago
    Many Apache projects are still well maintained.

johnisgood 1y ago

Because Mozilla benefits from Google's donations (the majority comes from Google), and being a counterpoint to Google's Chrome is bad for Google, which means less or no donations to Mozilla. Google holds the key here. They have leverage over Mozilla.

fhd2 1y ago
They don't get donations from Google, but get paid to include Google as the default search engine, right? No important difference though. Mozilla tried to switch to Yahoo a few years back and backpedaled. In terms of what users expect, they don't have a lot of options. Google OTOH could do without the users Firefox has left. And I've personally observed Google strong arm "partners". Not sure I see a conspiracy here, but I'm pretty sure that if Google asks for concessions, Mozilla will see what they can do.
- johnisgood 1y ago
  You are right, it is not a "donation", more like a business arrangement or something. I am not sure it is limited to "be the default search engine" though.
  - LtdJorge 1y ago
    It is

f311a 1y ago

WebKit is a nice competitor, too. Look at Orion browser, it's a pretty decent competitor. Although they only target macOS, WebKit can be used on Windows and Linux, too.

bobajeff 1y ago
Webkit on Linux is in terrible shape. Maybe in theory it could be a complete and useable engine but there clearly isn't enough interest to make it that way.
johnisgood 1y ago
Orion does not target macOS only, well primarily yes, for now, but check out this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44708445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44708445. Someone said "It’s coming on Linux (scheduled for March 2026). See https://kagi.com/changelog#6479 https://kagi.com/changelog#6479".

ac29 1y ago

> nor why The Linux Foundation gives little to no support at all to it The Linux Foundation is mostly a dumping ground for dead and dying projects. Particularly they seem to specialize in abandoned commercial open source projects. I dont think the Foundation provides much, if any, developer funding for these projects. They list $193M in "project support" expenses but host over 1000 projects.

bitwize 1y ago
I thought that was the Apache Foundation?
- k__ 1y ago
  Many Apache projects are still well maintained.