Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android

Post by nathanb » Tue, Feb 10, 2015, 6:36 PM UTC

gcb0 wrote: post #194

oblio wrote: post #102

This is a dangerous slope. And I'm sad seeing many of the arguments here - a wild guess is that they've been made by people who weren't here (or have forgotten) the Microsoft/IE story. Soon it will become: "Why would they invest resources? Firefox is a niche browser, the return on investment is not justified". After all, Firefox's market share is dwindling. I really hope we're not slowly being boiled like the proverb…

i disagree. i think what we all must do is tell everyone exactly that. "don't use Google play store, it's like ie6. use fdroid and be happy". and then we all drop support to it, just like we dropped support to ie6 and it's bullying tactics, even though we own ajax to it, there's so much abuse one can take. do your part for free software. but yeah, i know that building your startup on top of a free software stack mean…

Post by scholia » Tue, Feb 10, 2015, 7:11 PM UTC

kenbellows wrote: post #127

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weren't we all applauding some startup that had a douche-bagy "We dont support IE" message on their site and everyone here was so excited about it. Now that the bell is tolling for Firefox, its a different story, eh? There's been this largely ridiculous "revenge of the geeks" after the IE6 days. Now we've fed so much fuel into that fire, that casually telling people to use different browsers is the norm. I'm not sayi…

There is potentially a critical difference here. The "We don't support IE" mini-movement was a reaction to Microsoft's refusal to use the web standards that every other major browser supported. In this case, it appears to me (admittedly without research) that Google's motivations must be different, and two possibilities spring to mind: (1) Google doesn't like the competition from Firefox or (2) the Play store uses no…

Post by squiros » Tue, Feb 10, 2015, 7:20 PM UTC

Post by _ea1k » Tue, Feb 10, 2015, 7:30 PM UTC

gcp wrote: post #80

_ea1k wrote: post #75

On Android, clicking a link in the browser generally takes you to the default application for that type of url. If there is no default set, then it will give you the choice of what to use to go there (possibly including the browser in the case of a link like this). Firefox doesn't support that, and would instead take you to the play website, that really doesn't perform well on a lot of mobile devices. I'm guessing th…

that really doesn't perform well on a lot of mobile devices Maybe not on their default browsers, but you're trying to show the site in Firefox , which worked fine, until they intentionally blocked it. In fact, that's one excellent reason to use Firefox for Android in the first place.

Post by _ea1k » Tue, Feb 10, 2015, 7:32 PM UTC

fpgeek wrote: post #88

_ea1k wrote: post #75

On Android, clicking a link in the browser generally takes you to the default application for that type of url. If there is no default set, then it will give you the choice of what to use to go there (possibly including the browser in the case of a link like this). Firefox doesn't support that, and would instead take you to the play website, that really doesn't perform well on a lot of mobile devices. I'm guessing th…

This isn't true. As I mention in a comment below, Firefox gives you two nicer ways to switch from the web to an app: 1. The droid in the URL bar once the page has loaded. 2. The "Open in an app" alternative in a link's long-press menu, which often tells you which app when the destination is clear.