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Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

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Re: Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

#221

Post by Jaruzel »

There are 100,000s of resources on publicly accessible FTP servers and the removal of direct access to these files via one of the worlds most used browsers is major blow for information storage and retrieval on the internet.

It is obvious that the next FTP related headline we see from Google is when (not, if) they drop FTP links from all Google search results. There's no point them listing FTP urls in the results if their own browser can't connect to them.

(I don't understand why they can't just keep FTP support in, but with a security dialog that warns users the connection and data will be non-encrypted)

So much is going to be lost when this happens, it's really sad. All because Google want to recreate the internet as the Googlenet, with HTTPS URLs only, most of which link to their own walled garden servers (AMP etc.)

The internet started off as a wonderful limitless information sharing platform, now it's just a shopping mall controlled by corporates. The worse thing is... the general public just don't care.

Re: Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

#222

Post by UncleMeat »

userbinator wrote: post #68
paulryanrogers wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same could have been said of Gopher. FTP is typically insecure and painful to use with it's varying port maps. Transferring files over HTTP or more modern protocols is the future.

Transferring files over HTTP or more modern protocols is the future My direct and blunt rebuttal is "I don't care". The future is worthless without the present, and more importantly, the past. The continued effective destruction of history that these big tech companies are doing with their actions is a disturbing trend.

Why doesn't HN support http login then? It's part of the spec.

Re: Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

#223

Post by Jaruzel »

elcomet wrote: post #133
userbinator wrote: post #66

Considering that Google (search) still lists plenty of FTP results, many of which have been extremely useful to me, this seems like another move to bully the Internet into what Google wants it to be. Will it start removing those results, effectively censoring another huge chunk of the Internet? It's already hard enough to find older/more obscure information, and FTP sites are more likely to be in that category. Also,…

> everyone knows FTP is plaintext You mean no one knows that FTP is plaintext except a minority of users which happens to be on HN. Google is optimizing its browser for the majority, chrome is not a power-user browser. Maybe they'll add an option to enable ftp or something. > drivers, which I'd say are a significant part of FTP use I'm not sure how that's true. Every time I used FTP, it was not for drivers. All the d…

> Google is optimizing its browser for the majority, chrome is not a power-user browser.

Well, I think there is enough people like us, where a proper 'power-user' browser is worth maintaining. Any takers?

Re: Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

#225

Post by Jaruzel »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #182
jbverschoor wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary. It’s a data only with maybe a motd. plenty of space to put ads. Especially if you’re looking for a driver

This is an amusing thread. FTP in the browser typically looks something like this https://imgur.com/20ooI9f Plenty of space for ads. HTTP is basically FTP with ads. Funny thought. Imagine if, to this day, the internet consisted of pretty much that. You go to ftp://nytimes.com and it just has a directory structure that consists of yyyy/mm/dd and the file names where things like statement-from-chinese-ambassador-to-aus…

> Funny thought. Imagine if, to this day, the internet consisted of pretty much that.

That's pretty much Gopher. Another protocol that Chrome no longer supports.

Re: Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

#226

Post by UncleMeat »

tastroder wrote: post #89
morpheuskafka wrote: post #8

I'm personally fine with this. FTP is a different protocol, just like BitTorrent. It's not part of the modern web, so it's just another loose end to tie up. Even though it will be around for a while, it's not relevant to Chrome's user audience/usecase.

Chrome still displays bitmap images. (S)FTP is still used, there's a lot of legacy stuff on the internet, and Google does not dictate what technology people use. It's still a web browser after all, not an Instagram viewer. > It's not part of the modern web, so it's just another loose end to tie up. While I see that it is shared by many here, I do not get this sentiment. It's still out there and rarely used, yes. But…

Are you sure it wouldn't require much maintenance? "We have to support this other weird crap that nobody uses anymore" is like pain point #1 for nontrivial surgery.

Re: Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

#227

Post by waspleg »

Jaruzel wrote: post #221

There are 100,000s of resources on publicly accessible FTP servers and the removal of direct access to these files via one of the worlds most used browsers is major blow for information storage and retrieval on the internet. It is obvious that the next FTP related headline we see from Google is when (not, if) they drop FTP links from all Google search results. There's no point them listing FTP urls in the results if…

True. They're very much the new Microsoft and Chrome is the new IE. But the general public also doesn't know what it used to be like. I logged in just to up vote you. I wish we had functioning anti-trust laws.

Re: Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

#228

Post by giancarlostoro »

ENOTTY wrote: post #59
tim58 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not fine with this. I'm of the mindset that code written 20 years ago should run today. This is a breaking change on a critical piece of internet infrastructure. Google, by nature of operating the most popular web browser, has a moral obligation to the community to provide a stable environment. There are something like 10^9 webpages out there. How many of these will become less accessible because of this change?…

Frankly, I take the opposite view. Code that is not supported from a developer standpoint should be deprecated. If an organization doesn't want to spend the resources to support part of a code base, I support excising that part of the code base from the product. Especially in open source, others are free to fork.

Google Chrome is proprietary. Chromium is open source. You cant just directly fork Google Chrome itself. However, Chromiums development goals are hijacked by Google Chromes motives. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

Re: Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

#229

Post by UncleMeat »

mlyle wrote: post #43
kart23 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a 6th grader using filezilla to update his website the other day. 99% of people didnt know what ftp was 10 years ago, that hasn't changed. Every generation loves to trash the one below it, that certainly will never change.

I think it's a lot harder to become technically competent these days. Before, computers compelled you to have a certain level of technical competence to be a user. Now, the barrier to entry is a lot lower, but there aren't many of the very young learning their way around command lines, etc. The resources once you are on the track to doing technical stuff are far better, but you're less likely to end up on that track-…

Isn't this a good thing?

Understanding the inner workings of computers is not a fundamental good. Solving problems and achieving one's goals are the important thing. If people can use computers to solve problems better today but they don't understand how bootloaders work then I think that is a good trade off.

Re: Google Plans to Deprecate FTP URL Support in Chrome

#230

Post by feanaro »

t34543 wrote: post #219
userbinator wrote: post #66

Considering that Google (search) still lists plenty of FTP results, many of which have been extremely useful to me, this seems like another move to bully the Internet into what Google wants it to be. Will it start removing those results, effectively censoring another huge chunk of the Internet? It's already hard enough to find older/more obscure information, and FTP sites are more likely to be in that category. Also,…

I’m really unhappy with Chromes roadmap as of late. Particularly their effort to kill the URL. At one point Chrome was the gold standard and I think it’s gotten to their head.

I never considered Chrome the gold standard. They advanced the state of the art with their sandbox model and their performance advantage, but they are losing the advantage in the former and lost it in the latter. It was always painfully obvious (to me) that it's an extremely bad idea to trust an ad megacorporation with building a browser.
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