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There are always going to be people that use a particular browser for a particular reason and it's that competition that encourages the organization behind the

by ubercow 12y ago

There are always going to be people that use a particular browser for a particular reason and it's that competition that encourages the organization behind the browser to improve. Instead of using baseless FUD to try and win people over to your browser, work on making it the best from a usability and performance standpoint so people move over to it naturally. That's what Chrome did to me when it came out and what keeps me using it today.

dj-wonk 12y ago
Sure, competition is good, but Google vs. Mozilla isn't a fair fight. Google has more resources. As long as Google improves Chrome enough to keep users, they can simultaneously do things that are not good for the Web as a whole. They can, on average, get away with it if people don't complain or switch away due to the parts that are unsavory. The article does not lay out a watertight argument, but I see what it is trying to say: pay attention to more than just the obvious features of a browser -- also pay attention to its implications in the market. Smart people realize that it is not in your self-interest to simply buy the best (cheapest or fastest) product or service, if defined narrowly. If you care about reliability, longevity, and service, sometimes you pay more or accept some idiosyncrasies, because your goal is to support an organization that behaves in a way that you like. It is naive to think that "choosing the best browser" is simply a matter of the browser itself. There is a bigger story, and if you don't at least recognize this, it might be time to take the blinders off.
callahad 12y ago
I'm not sure it's baseless. Mozilla's hand was recently forced on H.264, and the Chrome team is strong-arming Web Components through while explicitly disregarding standards bodies. Not to mention their own promise to avoid unprefixed, non-standard platform features in Blink. "Chrome will be shipping Shadow DOM publicly (in conjunction with Moz) in the very near future. Whatever API gets shipped will be frozen almost immediately. If you want to suggest name changes, as we brainstormed a bit at the f2f, do so RIGHT NOW or forever hold your peace." http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2014Feb/0103.html http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2014Feb/0103.h... That's not the Web I want.

by ubercow 12y ago

dj-wonk 12y ago

Sure, competition is good, but Google vs. Mozilla isn't a fair fight. Google has more resources. As long as Google improves Chrome enough to keep users, they can simultaneously do things that are not good for the Web as a whole. They can, on average, get away with it if people don't complain or switch away due to the parts that are unsavory. The article does not lay out a watertight argument, but I see what it is trying to say: pay attention to more than just the obvious features of a browser -- also pay attention to its implications in the market. Smart people realize that it is not in your self-interest to simply buy the best (cheapest or fastest) product or service, if defined narrowly. If you care about reliability, longevity, and service, sometimes you pay more or accept some idiosyncrasies, because your goal is to support an organization that behaves in a way that you like. It is naive to think that "choosing the best browser" is simply a matter of the browser itself. There is a bigger story, and if you don't at least recognize this, it might be time to take the blinders off.

callahad 12y ago

I'm not sure it's baseless. Mozilla's hand was recently forced on H.264, and the Chrome team is strong-arming Web Components through while explicitly disregarding standards bodies. Not to mention their own promise to avoid unprefixed, non-standard platform features in Blink. "Chrome will be shipping Shadow DOM publicly (in conjunction with Moz) in the very near future. Whatever API gets shipped will be frozen almost immediately. If you want to suggest name changes, as we brainstormed a bit at the f2f, do so RIGHT NOW or forever hold your peace." http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2014Feb/0103.html http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2014Feb/0103.h... That's not the Web I want.