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Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

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Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#41

Post by goalieca »

leesalminen wrote: post #21
csomar wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll need an "approved" browser and potentially "approved" hardware to access the web. Since Cloudflare is on this too, most of the web will be locked for anyone who doesn't use mainstream hardware.

But why do they care so much about this? Is it only for DRM on media playback?

It’s far worse. If you go back to to the html and http protocols, they are extremely open and friendly. I would say extremely elegant and helped build the web we know today. But google has been iterating away from open and accessible standards in favour of controlling experiences (see amp, WEI, etc). I’m all in favour of secure boot chains with options for unlocking because of the security benefits. There’s absolutely no good user reason to apply this to web resources though.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#43

Post by serial_dev »

djaychela wrote: post #6
lemper wrote: post #3

this is where you should vote with your wallet and feet. and I think it's not really a stretch to ask Google's engineers who work on chrome/ium to get a job somewhere else.

I think it would be interesting to get their views on it. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot think this is a good idea. Not that I agree, but I think it's unlikely that everyone sees it the same way as those outside the organisation.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it".

I imagine it's hard to push back against it even internally. Not to be jaded, but one or two people raising a stink about it will only achieve them screwing up their career prospects within Google.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#44

Post by pluc »

This is a crisis of our own making. You don't want Google taking decisions for the web at large? Then don't let them own 85% of the browser market share. When that's the case they don't need W3C or anything to implement whatever they want, they effectively control the client-side internet.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#45

Post by elbybasolis »

foobarbecue wrote: post #25
c0l0 wrote: post #5

I feel like I have to repeat this, since so much is at stake here, where it is about the preservation of the web as we know it today, at the peril of having it turned into yet another walled garden: The only way around the dystopia this will lead to is to constantly and relentlessly shame and even harass all those involved in helping create it. The scolding in the issue tracker of that wretched "project" shall flow l…

Is https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/... the best place to shame?

Attempting to open an issue yields this message:

"An owner of this repository has limited the ability to comment to users that have contributed to this repository in the past."

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#46

Post by [deleted] »

foobarbecue wrote: post #25
c0l0 wrote: post #5

I feel like I have to repeat this, since so much is at stake here, where it is about the preservation of the web as we know it today, at the peril of having it turned into yet another walled garden: The only way around the dystopia this will lead to is to constantly and relentlessly shame and even harass all those involved in helping create it. The scolding in the issue tracker of that wretched "project" shall flow l…

Is https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/... the best place to shame?

[deleted]

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#48

Post by nullindividual »

duerra wrote: post #27
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #11

Is adding a feature-flag really the same as pushing the feature into the browser immediately? It can easily just be part of a SWE needing the flag in place in order to continue work without impacting anything else, even if that thing never ever launches. In general Google engineers don't tend to work on branches, especially long-running ones. Incremental small code reviews are the expectation. The general process wou…

Companies don't usually make a habit of having their employees work on something they don't intend to pursue.

I wish that were true in corporate America! Think of all of the waste that would eliminate.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#49

Post by jjoonathan »

foobarbecue wrote: post #25
c0l0 wrote: post #5

I feel like I have to repeat this, since so much is at stake here, where it is about the preservation of the web as we know it today, at the peril of having it turned into yet another walled garden: The only way around the dystopia this will lead to is to constantly and relentlessly shame and even harass all those involved in helping create it. The scolding in the issue tracker of that wretched "project" shall flow l…

Is https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/... the best place to shame?

Yoav Weiss is closing concern threads, calling them "spam."

Ben Wiser ( https://benwiser.com ) turned off comments altogether.

Re: Google is already pushing WEI into Chromium

#50

Post by ben_w »

wasmy wrote: post #15

Another tame article in The Register: https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/25/google_web_environmen... Despite the spec's half-baked state, the blowback last week was swift – in the form of a flood of largely critical comments posted to the WEI GitHub repository, and abuse directed at the authors of the proposal. The Google devs' response was to limit comment posting to those who had previously contributed to the repo…

Limiting posting and asking for civility is the only way for individuals to meaningfully engage with even a mere thousand others. Nothing about the human mind was meant for social internet at the scale of the internet, where there are more distinct voices than you have heartbeats in a lifetime.
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