zlacker

My comments in this thread are almost exclusively about the odd assertion in my parent that somehow 'anti-Apple' folks are the ones who have ignored history's lessons about monocultures. I'm not presenting this as an Apple <-> Google dichotomy; in fact nearly the opposite, both companies are fighting for monocultures that they control, just in slightly different domains. Apple wants to control the client platform, Google wants to control the web. Neither is good for users. It's very odd to me that someone would frame this discussion as 'anti-Apple' people missing the point. I won't speak for others, but I, as an anti-Apple person, am absolutely vehemently against this return to 'best viewed in IE', but I am also opposed to operating system developers and hardware vendors dictating what users are able to do with their own shit and insisting on putting their grubby paws on every dollar that passes through.

That is why I use Firefox, as the only remaining browser that hasn't shown a long-term pattern of curtailing user freedoms or rights when it suits them. I don't see Safari as a solution here; Apple is not pushing for an open web because it is righteous, they are pushing for a platform they control and to hurt their competitor. They are not to be trusted either. If they can, they will absolutely leverage that control against the user as they have shown time and time again that they are more than willing to do.

> Of course this is bullshit. Again. There's probably not a single site out there that is "best viewed in Safari". And there are numerous sites that are "best viewed in Chrome". Including, especially, the ones that Google themselves (#1 search, #1 mail, #1 video hosting, #1 web ad business in the world) creates.

When I say 'Apple', I mean 'Apple', not 'Safari'. Apple are the ones with a platform that will not run unblessed code. Apple are the ones that don't let developers or users choose how software is distributed. Apple are the ones that tell you which APIs you can and cannot use, and what your app can and cannot do. Apple are the ones that tell you what browser engine you can run, which is much stronger than a website saying 'yeah we tested this against IE, but go nuts', instead it is Apple saying 'if you want a browser engine, you can take Webkit or pound sand'. This is Apple's modus operandi, writ large. At least with Google's level of control you can still do what whatever you want with the website that runs in Chrome.