Google set those standards by being the first to actively invest in web applications. Originally Apple intended to do this with the iPhone which was supposed to be largely web based but mobile networks didnt have enough speed at the time so that was dropped. Google instead began investing in creating a suite of applications all based in the web browser.
No, they did it first which doesnt equal better. Microsoft and Adobe have also been moving their applications to being web based (and they work very well) Along with a number of companies doing the same these days.
The thing with web applications now is that Google largely controls the standards used for it. The reason for this is they became the first large company to really do it and by not only providing this for “free” but also they created Chrome as a custom solution for delivering their Google suite which didnt have a good solution back in 2010. The Internet landscape was drastically different back then vs today. We’re talking Youtube was only 3 yrs old or so at this time. The combination of “free” suite of Google web applications, Googles dominance in the search space and becoming synonymous with “the internet” for the general population and then creating a custom browser solution for delivering those applications ensured Googles dominance and control of the space.
They got influential by being first in many cases, while Google has done good work to think its just because theyre the only ones doing it well isnt correct. The problem with trying to look at an compare Quantum/Gecko vs blink is that large portions of the web now are specifically designed with chromium/blink in mind. You simply have to target blink as a web designer or as a business not to mention you need to incorporate Google for search,analytics,etc. as they completely control that space. Firefox has to implement a lot of hacks for when things target blink specifically and dont have support for firefox to prevent breakage in those cases. Ill bring this example again as one easy one being Steam Chat. Valve targets chrome/chromium with their site/software and Firefox has to trick it into thinking its on chrome but also has to fix functionality/rendering breakage because they flat out dont support firefox otherwise.
Edge was an absolutely fantastic browser, the issue was that the tried to keep is as usable for corprorate clients in place of Internet Explorer. The funny thing with Corporate networks is that many of them still rely entirely on Internet Explorer and MS tried to appease them and make it modern with Edge. The original edge browser really only needed some minor functionality updates for it to really compete. It was fast to use and I found it to be my favorite browser on windows personally. Safari is just the defacto webkit browser these days, You really cant say too much on it besides that you run into issues at times similar to Firefox where sites require hacks because they target Blink and not webkit. Some sites refuse to work at all if they think the browser might be Safari which is something you can run into with Gnome Web as its also webkit based and webkit browsers seem to be less inclined to use hacks to get sites functioning vs Firefox which will.
TLDR and i cant stress this enough, first to the space doesnt mean youre the best in it. If we wanted to use market dominance as a measure of who does it better then we should all agree that Windows is a far better OS than Linux right?? They control the majority of desktops/laptop systems but i dont think anyone here would agree they do it best they just capitalized on the market in the early 90s and became what people believe a computer to be. Windows is the Google of personal computers with things written for, designed, and targeting it which means when running those on non windows systems you incur performance penalties and run into incompatibility.
Just some quick answers on your TLDR (maybe more later, not enough time now, sorry)
I absolutly agree! It also fits the topic because Google entered the browser market much later than Mozilla.
This, ofc, depends on the point of view. For the majority of users out there, yes, Windows is indeed the “better” OS. But that’s not the best analogy for the browsers, simply because there’s not one “Linux” and not 4 or 5 versions as there is for Chromium based browsers, but literally hundreds of distros which are very different.
But when I talk about doing “a better job” then I mean from the companies perspective. Chrome is much more successfull than FF, so yeah, Google did a better Job here 'cause they saw the potential of Chromium/Blink and used those to make the most successful browser in history yet!
And no, that doesn’t mean that I think what Google did with Chrome is a good thing! But from their perspective of course it is the right thing. They are not a altruistic company, they work for profit. And if so many ppl out there are happily willing to use this piece of tracking-ridden Spyware, Google would be dumb to not do what they are doing.
Google was the first to the modern web as they are the ones who defined it. Firefox was a very different beast as was the web it was originally designed for. The internet is a VERY different place these days.
You can easily define web Eras be pre/post certain browsers. First was Netscape which drastically changed the web, then internet explorer defined the web til chrome.
I would appreciate a quick answer: does Chromium call back home to Google as much as as Chrome does? If positive, is Ungoogled Chromium a viable substitute?
Its pretty easy to disable on Firefox. If you like ungoogled chromium and want to use it that’s fine. I’m decidedly against Google and cant in good conscience use their products if I can avoid them. I’d have a linux phone if the pine phone didn’t kinda suck for daily use.
My daily drive is Firefox.
I set it up with different profiles and hardened to some degrees like using arkenfox’s user.js plus some content blockers.
I just kind of like how you could easily set up some websites as PWAs. That’s the only reason I use Ungoogled Chromium. However installing and updating extensions is a pain.
Me too, really.
I was using a Galaxy S8 with /e/ for quite a while before they dropped support for it. Now it is just laying around. I moved to a Pixel 4a (yeah Google’s ) and had /e/ on it until last night. I installed CalyxOS on it.
Right. I just use it for rather trivial things. I need to take some time and to go through where I have used this account to sign up for something so I could move them to another mail account or just delete them altogether.
That’s nice!
I do like Gnome “Epiphany” Web. I should give it some more time and love.
I do wish for it to become a viable alternative in the future. Hopefully they will get the addons working soon. That would be great pro for using it.
Looks like while he tested a lot of browsers he didn’t include Chromium itself.
But Ungoogled Chromium, according to him, doesn’t send any data at all and is the most privacy friendly browser he tested.
For non sensitive things I still use Google Translate.
Brave has built in translations for websites now also, but I usually just read english and german sites anyway, so there’s rarely a need for this. Maybe for japanese or chinese sites, but those usually are also the ones where translation tools are not doing very well.
But I guess they all work well when it comes to german>english.
) and had /e/ on it until last night. I installed CalyxOS on it.
