Live data from Hacker News

FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

apple.com

81–90 of 199 posts

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a sad reality of society, but it doesn't have to be. I guess one of my biggest issues with modern day slavery is that the companies that exploit these poorer nations often paint a deceptive picture that everything is above board. And whats worse is that these companies have the audacity to get behind social movements. Its predatory and just another scheme to improve their bottom line and lull their customers int…

The term 'Slave-labor offsets' comes to mind when reading your post. I agree that it is disgusting that the public unknowing funds human suffering.

> I agree that it is disgusting that the public unknowing funds human suffering.

The public knows, they simply do not care enough to pay the extra $x. We have known about sweatshops since I was a kid in the 90s, and it is even possible to but clothing made in the US. Yet the vast, vast majority comes from east and South Asia.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#82
post #49

It may seem an advantage to use the latest cutting edge features of a single platform, instead of using well established standards which are compatible with every browser. Sure, you are going to leave out some small minority of users, but you gain access to many new features. However, you are helping push the web become an increasingly centralized place, controlled by just a few entities, with interests which are ver…

This is Apple, the inventor of walled garden tech for consumers. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had some proprietary extensions in Safari that made it so Safari was the only browser that could do it.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#83
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E2E is on by default as in all P2P webrtc calls. What you can't do is use a SFU and still get E2E. Perhaps I'm just missing something but why would you want a SFU AND E2E? Why not just use TURN in those cases (if the problem the SFU is meant to fix is routing)?

An SFU lets your video/audio streams scale. If there were only ever two people, sure, you could use a TURN server if P2P failed, but if you invite 4 people on the call, an SFU will allow each person to upload their stream to the SFU which will then distribute it at various bitrates to the other people on the call.

Just to add some context for muggles such as myself who were unaware of what an SFU is, it stands for "Selective Forwarding Unit".

https://webrtcglossary.com/sfu/

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60013467/one-to-many-liv...

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#84
post #49

It may seem an advantage to use the latest cutting edge features of a single platform, instead of using well established standards which are compatible with every browser. Sure, you are going to leave out some small minority of users, but you gain access to many new features. However, you are helping push the web become an increasingly centralized place, controlled by just a few entities, with interests which are ver…

There simply isn't a way to implement this on Firefox as it is. It's lacking the necessary API for end-to-end encryption: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27432001

Yes, many pages support only Chrome for no good reason at all, but in this instance, the ball is 100% with Mozilla.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#85
post #64
post #49

It may seem an advantage to use the latest cutting edge features of a single platform, instead of using well established standards which are compatible with every browser. Sure, you are going to leave out some small minority of users, but you gain access to many new features. However, you are helping push the web become an increasingly centralized place, controlled by just a few entities, with interests which are ver…

> Next time that your manager asks you if you can have that sweet feature, instead of saying "sure, we just need to drop support for Firefox", please consider trying to explain what are the consequences in the long term. If the future of the web relies on developers groveling at the feet of a manager, then there's no fight or discussion to be had, because the web has already unequivocally lost. The only thing that's…

> If the future of the web relies on developers groveling at the feet of a manager,

I see a lot of this 'devs v suits' type language used on HN, with the implication being that the developers are principled stewards of technology suffering under the cosh of KPI-obsessed MBAs.

What causes this? The majority of product managers I've met have technical backgrounds, and they have also had to cut corners to keep their product roadmaps on track.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#86
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even Microsoft couldn’t do it, gave up, and just used Blink. I assume management just saw how much of each release was spent being bug compatible with Chrome and decided it wasn’t worth it.

Microsoft dropping EdgeHTML was the biggest blow to the open web in many years. I really hope that Mozilla can pull some magic to keep Google from maintaining basically full control of web standards.

I wish Microsoft would buy Mozilla, restart Send, and make FF great again.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#87
post #49

It may seem an advantage to use the latest cutting edge features of a single platform, instead of using well established standards which are compatible with every browser. Sure, you are going to leave out some small minority of users, but you gain access to many new features. However, you are helping push the web become an increasingly centralized place, controlled by just a few entities, with interests which are ver…

>> instead of using well established standards which are compatible with every browser

That's the problem. Firefox isn't keeping up with standards.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#88
post #3

What are (if any) the technical blockers for Firefox to be considered on the same level of support?

You cannot achieve true E2E encryption on Firefox as it doesn't support insertable streams, so I guess this is where the limitation is. EDIT: bug on bugzilla https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1631263

Then how come Zoom works in FF?

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#89
post #49

It may seem an advantage to use the latest cutting edge features of a single platform, instead of using well established standards which are compatible with every browser. Sure, you are going to leave out some small minority of users, but you gain access to many new features. However, you are helping push the web become an increasingly centralized place, controlled by just a few entities, with interests which are ver…

What a deeply ignorant perspective. Too infuriating to ignore. Firefox users constitute my webrtc-based video conference app doesn't currently support ff and never will unless compatibility with chrome's implementation comes around. My manager would have me committed if I tried to pull that shit, and I'm already notorious for refusing to do things on principle. Suggesting that we don't support firefox because I'm lazy? No, vendors force us to choose, and if the alternative is NO video? Here on earth, where we're trying to cultivate a competitive advantage and survive as a business venture, that's an incredibly easy choice.

edit: other commenters have made the point much more elegantly than I but I leave my words here as a testament to how infuriated I am at this condescending suggestion.

Re: FaceTime on the web requires Chrome or Edge, no mention of Firefox

#90
post #74
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get too excited, in France there's a tax on all storage devices (sd cards, usb sticks, hdds, laptops, phones etc) to help subsidise the record and film industry...

We have that in Italy too, but at least that means that ripping CDs or DVDs is entirely legal. It's actually called private copy contribution.

Yep it actually came from Germany, and was afterward adopted by a lot of european countries
Post reply on HN