This reminds me of the microsoft rep that installed chrome mid demo because edge wasnt working properly lol (article was posted on HN a few weeks ago)
https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2017/10/30/microsoft-engine...
Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
11–20 of 28 posts
Re: Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
#12Companies will build websites for whatever gets them the most money. If supporting FF costs more than the additional revenues from only-FF users, they will build Chrome-only sites. Really surprises me how easily people forget that companies are out there to make money.
Seems silly, that often its 40% of the market that companies are willing to leave to competitors for relatively tiny development costs.
Re: Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
#13This isn't really my area of expertise so if this already exists feel free to educate me. Would it be possible to have a generic browser that isnt controlled by any vendor, but perhaps contributed to by all of them, which could be used as a dev standard? It doesn't even have to be available to users, just devs. Vendors could still develop their browsers any way they want, but when output diverges from this kit, they…
I think that would in effect become just another browser developers need to test with.
Vendor browsers will miss features compared to it, and have extra features, and do some things a bit different. Developers wouldn't consider it "the dev standard" since it wouldn't be used by many people, and what matters is that your users can use what you meant them to use.
Re: Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
#14This isn't really my area of expertise so if this already exists feel free to educate me. Would it be possible to have a generic browser that isnt controlled by any vendor, but perhaps contributed to by all of them, which could be used as a dev standard? It doesn't even have to be available to users, just devs. Vendors could still develop their browsers any way they want, but when output diverges from this kit, they…
> Would it be possible to have a generic browser that isnt controlled by any vendor, but perhaps contributed to by all of them, which could be used as a dev standard?
It's possible, but there's no financial incentive for them to do so, so it's incredibly unlikely. Open source browsers already exist, but because a company wouldn't earn money from contributing, they won't do it.
It's also unlikely that businesses will start building websites for different browsers. Chrome is currently the industry standard, and to maximize viewers while minimizing development cost, developing for Chrome will capture most of the market share.
Re: Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
#15This isn't really my area of expertise so if this already exists feel free to educate me. Would it be possible to have a generic browser that isnt controlled by any vendor, but perhaps contributed to by all of them, which could be used as a dev standard? It doesn't even have to be available to users, just devs. Vendors could still develop their browsers any way they want, but when output diverges from this kit, they…
I'm not sure how this differs meanibgfully from web standards as published by the w3c.
Re: Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
#16I sympathize with both sides of this argument. The author is correct: If you're providing a service on the web, especially a widely used one, you should make it usable for all web users to the fullest extent possible, regardless of browser.
But on the other hand... boy am I glad I switched from web dev to primarily back-end work. Building and maintaining complex software that works reliably in one environment is enough of a challenge as it is... without all the extra variables of an ever-changing landscape of browsers and devices, with varying levels of feature support, all of which you have zero control over.
IMO being a front-end dev is borderline masochistic :)
Re: Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
#17Companies will build websites for whatever gets them the most money. If supporting FF costs more than the additional revenues from only-FF users, they will build Chrome-only sites. Really surprises me how easily people forget that companies are out there to make money.
Seems silly, that often its 40% of the market that companies are willing to leave to competitors for relatively tiny development costs.
Then another company will capture that 40% of the market and disrupt the first company for tiny development costs. Still can't see the problem.
Re: Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
#18I sympathize with both sides of this argument. The author is correct: If you're providing a service on the web, especially a widely used one, you should make it usable for all web users to the fullest extent possible, regardless of browser. But on the other hand... boy am I glad I switched from web dev to primarily back-end work. Building and maintaining complex software that works reliably in one environment is enou…
>> IMO being a front-end dev is borderline masochistic :)
Some of us just like the challenge.
Re: Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
#19This reminds me of the microsoft rep that installed chrome mid demo because edge wasnt working properly lol (article was posted on HN a few weeks ago) https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2017/10/30/microsoft-engine...
Yet again another example of one good use for MS browsers, installing a different browser.
Re: Please build websites for the web, not just Google Chrome
#20Reminds me of the time of websites only using -webkit vendor prefixes in the CSS even though the same properties were available to other browsers. Available either as other vendor prefixes or just the standard property. It got so bad that other browsers started supporting the webkit prefixes, which defeated the purpose. Not that vendor prefixes were a good idea to begin with.