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Chrome is Not the Standard

chriskrycho.com

361–370 of 465 posts

Re: Chrome is Not the Standard

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides, it looks like the amount of cash that Mozilla got for stuff like Pocket or Mr Robot is tiny compared to their other sources of revenue. It doesn't seem something worth to taint their brandname and ethos for. If you rule out Firefox, there's hardly any viable option for a modern, feature-complete and freedom-respecting browser. Chromium is OK, but those suspicious blobs don't look very appealing. For me the m…

For the record, Mozilla didn't get any money for the Mr. Robot tie-in: it was supposed to be part of a mutual cross-promotion campaign. I don't think the original Pocket integration was paid, either, though my memory there is hazy. Either way Mozilla now owns Pocket anyway.

Mozilla never directly received money for the Pocket placement, however they did get a piece of any premium sign-ups made via the Firefox integration.

Re: Chrome is Not the Standard

#363
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that Qt officially only has one backend, QtWebEngine, which is QtWebKit's successor. However, it's more or less one guy (annulen) keeping QtWebKit alive as a hobby. So far that's worked surprisingly well, though.

That is incredibly notable, since qtwebengine is not supported -at-all- on my chosen platform (FreeBSD) OT: heard you were going to CCC, I'd appreciate it if you swung by the DarkScience Assembly if you get a chance. :D And great work on qutebrowser!

Is it? https://www.freshports.org/www/qt5-webengine/

I'll try, but as usual I'll probably have a lot of things I want to do :D I'm usually at the Swiss Chaos assembly FWIW, and there might be a qutebrowser meetup as self-organized session some day.

Thanks! :)

Re: Chrome is Not the Standard

#364

developers grouse about the other browser makers who are “holding the web back.” Indeed, perhaps "holding the web back" is a good thing if it means websites will be more accessible overall, to even less common browsers like NetSurf, Dillo, and all the other text-based ones. IMHO the "feature war/race" between the major browser vendors has had an overall negative effect, as if all sites somehow need to turn into ridic…

I think there may even be a chicken and egg situation going on - for some reason, media websites such as CNN are pushing giant rich media content objects at us like videos, which obviously are meaningless to a text browser. Even webdev blogs are being posted with big GIFs every paragraph or two. I'm not sure why content creators are feeling the need to go multi-media - perhaps it's getting harder and harder to tell w…

> I'm not sure why content creators are feeling the need to go multi-media

I was around for BBSes and the early public internet, and I do appreciate text interfaces... that said, I've always felt there was something quite magical about graphics and audio. The web allows the author quite a bit of freedom in this regard, so it ends up pretty chaotic and uneven.

I find that graphics help to get a point across quickly, even for folks who are very comfortable with tons of text (most people in the world really aren't, and the language you prefer is likely not their first anyway so it's quite a bit of work for them)

It can be misused just like anything else, and tastes can be subjective. It's nice, then, that web browsers being at their core agents for the user, you can also get a fair bit of control on what you want to block by default, or have animations be click-to-play, and so on, which override the author's design.

Re: Chrome is Not the Standard

#365
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozilla is fighting an uphill battle, but that doesn't give them a free pass. The Pocket, Cliqz, and Mr. Robot controversies undermine Mozilla's core message. Whether or not they are simply failures of marketing and branding doesn't change the fact that they hurt the company. That being said, a lot of people will never know about these issues so the damage is not catastrophic. I would also argue that "just being bett…

Am I the only one looking at this and thinking that the so-called controversies are absurdly tame in comparison with the outcry associated with them? They're missteps, not trust breakers. Quantum was a massive step in the right direction. The Mr. Robot Easter Egg was non-malicious poor execution. I don't think it's a free pass to just contextualize how small their missteps have been in the grand scheme of things.

I’m afraid that the current environment means outcry is always around the corner. I’m rooting for Mozilla but I’d like it if they could learn to avoid drawing negative attention.

Re: Chrome is Not the Standard

#366
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) iOS is not a monopoly. 2) Apple has legitimate technical reasons for not allowing other browser engines (well specifically the JS part). Intent matters.

I think this thread is full of people who want Apple be considered a monopoly more than care about whether they actually are.

Thinking what the law should be, doesn't change what it actually is.

Re: Chrome is Not the Standard

#367
post #360
post #207

I wish the author discussed the fact that Apple doesn't allow any other browsers to target the iOS platform. Chrome / Firefox are forced to be thin wrappers against the webkit engine instead of bringing their own technology. No other platform has policies like this and it greatly impacts the web platform and changes the dynamic of web standards in a way no other browser developer could.

>No other platform has policies like this MS has a similar restriction on their App Store. Browsers are only allowed to use the MS rendering engine. Also plenty of feature phones only allow use of the integrated browser. You might think that’s an unrelated issue, but it’s not. From a regulatory perspective, how do you differentiate between those, feature phones that allow a limited range of installable apps, games co…

Just like Google has on ChromeOS.

What do I change the browser being managed by ChromeOS?

Re: Chrome is Not the Standard

#368
post #207

I wish the author discussed the fact that Apple doesn't allow any other browsers to target the iOS platform. Chrome / Firefox are forced to be thin wrappers against the webkit engine instead of bringing their own technology. No other platform has policies like this and it greatly impacts the web platform and changes the dynamic of web standards in a way no other browser developer could.

Windows Store like many others already mentioned, and ChromeOS come to mind.

Re: Chrome is Not the Standard

#369
post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an important point, but it's ancillary to what I'm getting at here. (And, contrary to sibling comment, I'm well aware that "Chrome on iOS" is just a wrapper around the Webkit view.) There's an important role of competition, and I sometimes do wish that Apple allowed alternative implementations. On the other hand, alternative implementations are also alternative vectors for security holes, and one of Apple's p…

Two points: 1. Today we have 4 browser implementors. Only one of them doesn't also own an operating system (FF). We lost opera year or two ago. I would argue that a significant factor in this shrinking landscape is the fact that Apple has locked away ~10% of the market forever (and this 10% is not a random sampling - it includes many high value customers). Sure implementing a browser is technically challenging - my a…

I don't see it any different than what Google is doing with Chrome, specially with ChromeOS.

Re: Chrome is Not the Standard

#370

Standards are irrelevant to pragmatism. De facto standards are what is important. By virture of sheer popularity, Chrome is the de facto standard. And if they have provided anything that becomes useful or popular, then by virtue of popularity of that feature in what is already the post popular browser, makes that feature part of the de facto standard. The post is just pedantic whining about how something isn't accord…

Same could be said for IE, but then Microsoft isn't a HN darling so it gets bashed, while Google gets praised for doing exactly the same.
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