zlacker

For anyone making the "Apple is the last bastion against Chrome dominance"-argument: Apple is not in it for the web. Quite the opposite, more likely. They are all about control, not letting you choose a browser.

Also, I don't see how fighting a potential monoculture with an actual monoculture is a solution.

For further reading: https://infrequently.org/2022/06/apple-is-not-defending-brow...

>>rejhga+(OP)
Because it's not about what you can run in the iPhone that you may not even buy. By keeping Safari alive this way, web developers, including those at Google, are forced to code against "web browsers" instead of just Chrome.

The mass of iOS users "forced" to use the browser that comes with the device they buy gives you more chances that a given website will work on Firefox on your personal computer.

That link is a blog from a Chrome engineer and shows a chart of Chrome cornerning the browser market with the caption of "Destkop OSes have long created a vibrant market for browser choice, enabling competitors not tied to OS defaults to flourish over the years.", it's ridiculous.

>>rejhga+(OP)
I think most people making that argument know this. It's just a case of politics makes for strange bedfellows. What apple is doing here is wrong and obviously if google did the same thing on android, it would make the bad chrome situation even worse. But despite that not being what apple is trying to do, it's also acting as a buffer of chrome getting closer still to just having near-100% of the market share, which is sort of the doomsday scenario for interoperability, because at that point the standard people code against will just be "whatever works in chrome, proprietary or not".

I personally do not support apple not allowing other browser engines, just as I do not support them not allowing other ways of installing apps besides the app store, but I also think that them allowing other browser engines will ultimately make the web worse as a side effect.

>>rejhga+(OP)
I don't care what their reasoning is, I know it's not out of the goodness of their hearts. I just like that web developers have to be mindful about making sure their stuff works on a browser that isn't Chromium. Myself and Apple happen to want the same thing but for different reasons. As of now, the effect is still net good for the open web.

I assume they'll be forced to allow other browser engines on iOS at some point in the next few years, at which point the floodgates will be opened for Google to have free rein on web standards and further cement themselves as owners of the internet.

>>rejhga+(OP)
I respect Alex Russell a lot technically but it’s worth noting that as a long-time Google Chrome team member now working on Edge he’s hardly a neutral party. Even in the best good-faith effort, your views will be shaped by what you work on and how that team sees the world.

>>rejhga+(OP)
> Apple is not in it for the web. Quite the opposite, more likely.

As if the worlds largest web ad company is in it "for the web". They are in it as much for control as anyone else.

> Also, I don't see how fighting a potential monoculture with an actual monoculture is a solution.

We're already in a monoculture. And that monoculture is Chrome, not Safari which is a very distant second in comparison.

>>rejhga+(OP)
I don't get the argument as well because Apple already dominates by forcing Webkit to every browser on iOS, making everything effectively Safari.