iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan

Post by 8note » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 7:41 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #47

rorylawless wrote: post #33

My hope for laws such as the ones Japan and the EU enacted was that companies would see the writing on the wall and change their practices worldwide, if only for cost reasons (it presumably being more expensive to maintain multiple sets of rules.) However, these companies are now so large that they can choose to absorb any inefficiencies on a country-by-country basis.

There are many things Apple does that have anticompetitive motivations, but the browser engine doesn't seem like one of them. It's genuinely about security and battery life and standardization. So if cost was never the reason in the first place, cost is not going to be the reason to change.

Post by bloppe » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 7:42 PM UTC

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #111

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the conspiratorial version. The more likely explanation is that when every app can bundle their own browser engine, we will not see a competition explosion. Instead, Electron apps will come to mobile, with every app shipping its own browser stack. You can’t tell me Gecko, which has already failed on desktop, will suddenly be popular on mobile. You can easily tell me every app shipping their own Chromium would…

Every app shipping its own Chromium isn't currently forbidden, as I understand it. They're just not allowed to use their own engines for webviews.

Post by meindnoch » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 7:45 PM UTC

drnick1 wrote: post #11

2026 should be the year when every tech-minded person dumps Apple (and Google) for good and either starting running either a free Android OS (Graphene, Lineage or a couple of other variants) or a Linux phone. At this point, Apple and Google devices are nothing more than instruments of coercion and mass surveillance.

Post by browningstreet » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 7:47 PM UTC

WD-42 wrote: post #113

steelbrain wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While its not Firefox, you can run uBlock origin with the Orion browser from the Kagi people.

That’s what I’m currently doing - it’s barely functional. I’m sure it’ll get there eventually but it misses a ton of stuff the desktop version blocks.

Post by greiskul » Thu, Jan 01, 2026, 7:48 PM UTC

otterley wrote: post #66

greiskul wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is literally done for strategic reasons to put a stranglehold on innovations on the web, so that there is no risk of web app technology developing to a point to threaten the dominance of native apps and the app store. Anybody that thinks otherwise is hopeless naive, Steve Jobs himself envisioned a web app future as the future of technology; before Apple found out the gold mine that the app store became.

> Anybody that thinks otherwise is hopeless naive This is inappropriate. People can reasonably disagree without being insulting to each other. If you have concrete evidence that Apple is deliberately withholding some essential advancement in Safari or its support for Web standards so that it can sell more apps, by all means, cite it.