Fun fact, Firefox used to be called… Netscape… Yeah… Let’s see how many miklenials are in here!
Comment on Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome
miffmaff@lemmy.world 1 year ago
So as far as i know, firefox is the only mayor browser not based on chromium. Also, firefox is dependent on google’s funding because of a search engine exclisivity deal. So my understanding is that, if google decides to kill firefox, they could easily do that. Well, what then? Is there any other browser left wich similar features that would be untouchable by google?
SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 1 year ago
EssentialCoffee@midwest.social 1 year ago
Sort of. Netscape released the program’s source code and Firefox used that as a base, but it wasn’t like they took Netscape and just changed the name to Firefox like your comment implies. They were competing browsers for a while.
SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Fair enough. My bad.
Fraeco@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’ve just browsed with Netscape. But did not know this fact.
SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’ve been corrected that it is a branch off of, not a direct evolution of, Netscape.
frododouchebaggins@lemmy.world 1 year ago
You totally forgot about webkit or is apple a non-starter? LMAO
This whole thing started with Apple blocking 3rd party tracking coockies in Safari in 2020.
Overshoot2648@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Honestly, I’ll give credit to Apple for pushing forward JXL on webkit and pushing back against Chromium team’s dominance and Mozilla team’s apathetic stance in the browser space. While I appreciate Mozilla’s stance on Manifest V3 and several other issues, I can’t help but hope for more development from the Servo project.
Mkengine@feddit.de 1 year ago
You have to decide for yourself if those browsers have the features you need, but just for your interest, other non-chromium browsers are Ladybird, NetSurf, Flow, Pale Moon, Basilisk and K-Meleon.
karma_nder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
This should be the top comment, and I’m going to come back to view the replies. I can’t personally think of any realistic alternatives. Someone further down posted a link to an article about the US investigating Google for a search engine monopoly, but I’m not sure how large a role that would factor into web browsers.
MajorHavoc@lemmy.world 1 year ago
We will have to maintain a Chromium fork with their trackers removed, if it comes to that.
Likely Google won’t do anything until or unless the bulk of the public moves off of Chrome over this.
AustralianSimon@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Like Vivaldi or Brave?
MajorHavoc@lemmy.world 1 year ago
awkward glances around
Yes…
blady_blah@lemmy.world 1 year ago
[deleted]sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Edge switched to chromium in 2020…
Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
They couldn’t kill Firefox without having the US government come down on them for monopoly. Which the government is already looking at www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/tech/…/index.html , so it’s not likely they’ll Google will risk it even further by shitting down funding to Firefox. Pretty sure they’ll point at Firefox to claim they’re not a monopoly.
ADTJ@feddit.uk 1 year ago
This is pretty much the same situation as when Apple faced bankruptcy a while back and Microsoft essentially bailed them out.
Having an effective monopoly is better than a literal one for legal reasons
IzzyJ@lemmy.world 1 year ago
We need to extend our laws to effective monopolies too, fuck this shit
karma_nder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
So the lawsuit appears to be looking at Google as a search engine monopoly, not web browser, right? And if I’m understanding this right, assuming this lawsuit goes anywhere, it would actually incentivize Google to pull funding from Firefox to no longer support that search engine exclusivity deal.