zlacker

>>reacto+(OP)
Whether you like it or not (and I certainly don't), you've gotta sort of admire the sheer vision of a fifteen-year project to build a browser so good it comes to monopolize the industry, all because you've had the foresight to realize that monopoly will be crucial to securing your position as the adtech hegemon. An underrated masterpiece of evil genius.

>>caesil+29
And tech people fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

It's completely and utterly irrelevant that Chromium is open source, because the web is a protocol, and having the source for an implementation of the protocol doesn't matter in the least when you don't control the protocol. You can't just fork Chromium and remove a feature, because websites expect the feature, and your browser won't work on them. You can't just fork Chromium and add a feature, because websites don't care about your tiny fork and won't use your feature. You can't fork Chromium, you have to fork the entire web.

>>kibwen+nh
> You can't just fork Chromium and add a feature

Of course you can. Microsoft's Edge and Brave already add proprietary features like AI and reader mode, tab groups, video calling, crypto wallet etc.

Brave could add a custom CSS or HTML feature. Hell that was the status quo we came from ten years ago when each vendor had their own feature flags and implementation for WebRTC and proprietary video codecs, etc.

Brave already explicitly removes ads and blocks all kinds of things websites expect to work on Chrome.

>>chrisc+6X
I think you missed the point of the comment you’re replying to. Without market share, the custom feature will never be respected by the web. At best if web developers don’t have to do any work for it you might get something that you can maintain for a while.

>>saagar+nl1
In fact, Edge is a perfect example of "nobody caring about your tiny fork": No matter what Microsoft tried, the internet no longer cared about Trident and IE/Edge. The only way Microsoft could regain some semblance of existing was to turn IE/Edge into Chrome and play the internet game as Google dictates.

Nowadays Edge has some superfluous features that differentiate it from Chrome, but they are still superfluous. Underneath it's still Chrome, because the internet demands Chrome.

>>Dalewy+On1
Still bummed they didn't go with gecko. (I know chromium is the superior engine, but Microsoft could've pushed gecko development to new highs for sure)