7 ms·

Google just realizes it cannot pretend to be a nice guy when the world no longer spins around it. So much for "do no evil"...

ok_craig 14y ago
Funny how when Opera deprecates its engine in favor of WebKit we all make a big deal about how it's bad for everyone. But when Google spins off their own version, we vilify them too... For real?
- zobzu 14y ago
  I don't think it has much to do with anything. Opera used Webkit because they had no choice. It was that or dying. Google forks webkit because even thus they have a massive control over it, they don't have _enough_ control. There are still things other contributors refuse loud enough. Well, like Dart. Or the implementation of Webkit2. Or what not. Since Google has the major browser marketshare, they're like "wait a moment, we're the masters of the game here, why the fuck can't we just dictate the rules? it's our browser that's mainly running this." Well, now, there will be zero barrier to this. Not even disagreements. So.. it is a quite different thing indeed. The other intents Google have are good, but unfortunately, I'm near certain the REAL interest is the one I and others listed: CONTROL. FULL CONTROL. Things will inevitably go that way. Even if some devs working on Chromium are fooled right now. There is no way you don't get this without making Chromium an entity fully separated from Google, and that ain't happening.
  - pekk 14y ago
    How exactly did you determine that the (sole) purpose of the fork is "full control"? And how specifically is that going to happen?
    - zobzu 14y ago
      forking is by nature for taking control. not sure why I'm even replying. that like saying the fire burns. the difference is the leverage over people, programmers, website, and other companies google has by having this control - due to the marketshare of chrome.
  - fpgeek 14y ago
    With Google, Opera (and probably others) leaving, is WebKit going to be able to sustain itself as an entity separated from Apple?
moultano 14y ago
You seriously just registered to post that?
pjscott 14y ago
Forking things is evil now? It's not like they're making this closed-source, or changing it to be so Chrome-specific that other browsers won't be able to use it. ...Or was your post satirizing the generic "Google did a thing! They're evil now!" posts? I'm sometimes bad at detecting irony.
mtgx 14y ago
Your comment should've been downvoted into oblivion by now. I guess HN has changed a bit. You brought no argument to support your idea, just throwing mud. Sometimes forking is necessary, even in open source projects, some party feels the majority or the leaders of that open source project take it into a wrong direction. That's what happened to LibreOffice, too.

ok_craig 14y ago

Funny how when Opera deprecates its engine in favor of WebKit we all make a big deal about how it's bad for everyone. But when Google spins off their own version, we vilify them too... For real?

zobzu 14y ago
I don't think it has much to do with anything. Opera used Webkit because they had no choice. It was that or dying. Google forks webkit because even thus they have a massive control over it, they don't have _enough_ control. There are still things other contributors refuse loud enough. Well, like Dart. Or the implementation of Webkit2. Or what not. Since Google has the major browser marketshare, they're like "wait a moment, we're the masters of the game here, why the fuck can't we just dictate the rules? it's our browser that's mainly running this." Well, now, there will be zero barrier to this. Not even disagreements. So.. it is a quite different thing indeed. The other intents Google have are good, but unfortunately, I'm near certain the REAL interest is the one I and others listed: CONTROL. FULL CONTROL. Things will inevitably go that way. Even if some devs working on Chromium are fooled right now. There is no way you don't get this without making Chromium an entity fully separated from Google, and that ain't happening.
- pekk 14y ago
  How exactly did you determine that the (sole) purpose of the fork is "full control"? And how specifically is that going to happen?
  - zobzu 14y ago
    forking is by nature for taking control. not sure why I'm even replying. that like saying the fire burns. the difference is the leverage over people, programmers, website, and other companies google has by having this control - due to the marketshare of chrome.
- fpgeek 14y ago
  With Google, Opera (and probably others) leaving, is WebKit going to be able to sustain itself as an entity separated from Apple?

moultano 14y ago

You seriously just registered to post that?

pjscott 14y ago

Forking things is evil now? It's not like they're making this closed-source, or changing it to be so Chrome-specific that other browsers won't be able to use it. ...Or was your post satirizing the generic "Google did a thing! They're evil now!" posts? I'm sometimes bad at detecting irony.

mtgx 14y ago

Your comment should've been downvoted into oblivion by now. I guess HN has changed a bit. You brought no argument to support your idea, just throwing mud. Sometimes forking is necessary, even in open source projects, some party feels the majority or the leaders of that open source project take it into a wrong direction. That's what happened to LibreOffice, too.