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Discussion on: Chromium and the browser monoculture problem

 
kenbellows profile image
Ken Bellows

You're making my argument for Google being a double edged sword for the web.

Indeed, that was my point! I totally agree with your concerns about a Google-controlled web.

What happens to all the work they've done with Firefox Quantum, Servo, Rust and so on?

Yeah, unfortunately the majority would hit the floor, no question. That's an enormous bummer, no question. But I'd hope that at least some of the principles used to build Quantum could be applied to improve parts of the future browser engine, just like what the Edge team is doing with their improvements to Chromium's scrolling and touch support.

Are we sure we're really choosing? Far from invoking theories of being in a simulation or issues of true freedom but... well, the tech we choose is (for the most part) the result of the environment we have around...

Hey listen, I'm no metaphysical libertarian. You wanna talk determinism, compatibilism, or any other philosophy of mind, jump in my DMs, I'm all about that 😎

I see, your argument is about making the most out of unstoppable situation. I honestly don't think Firefox will ever switch...

Yeah... probably not. I don't what to do with that. To be honest, as some others have said in the comments, I'd much rather see Firefox become the basis of a shared browser engine anyway; the only reason I posed this in terms of Chromium is because it's currently winning the war by, like, a lot. I honestly don't know if Mozilla would ever go for it.

I agree about the discussion worth, my argument was mainly about the fact that it might not actually matter, because it wouldn't probably be binding.

That's certainly true. A big outstanding flaw of my proposed future is that as long as Google continues to have majority influence over the engine, they can basically take it where they want. And if control were to be ceded to an independent foundation (which is already an enormous assumption), Google could still at any point get frustrated that their PRs and merge requests aren't being accepted and fork Chrome back off again. And I don't know what to do about that.

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rhymes profile image
rhymes

And if control were to be ceded to an independent foundation (which is already an enormous assumption), Google could still at any point get frustrated that their PRs and merge requests aren't being accepted and fork Chrome back off again.

Yep

And I don't know what to do about that.

There would be nothing to do about that, except change browser but at that point there would be fewer options and we would be back at square one essentially ahhaa.

BTW another aspect is that even if tomorrow all browser would choose a single engine we'd have to support the existing ones for years :(